A Story To Tell: Seeing Through the Minds of Two Admirals

Kitab-i Bahriye provides most of the information about Reis’s life, since he created this book based upon his experiences while he was traveling with his uncle. This book includes information about the shores of the Mediterranean Sea: the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, and ports of Italy, France, Spain, and Tunisia³.  McIntosh explains that “throughout his naval career, Piri Reis collected charts, made notes, and sketched maps of the island and coastlines he visited [and] in 1521, he assembled these notes and charts” into his book (p. 6). On one hand Reis created a guide book for sailors, but on the other hand he generated the most important cartography technique called portolan which is the name given to early charts showing how to navigate through seas.⁴ Also, this is one of the most important works both of his time and for today because of the fact that this is one of the oldest and most detailed navigation books of all times.