[ONE OF THE MOST ATTRACTIVE SEPARATE OTTOMAN MAPS OF THE BOSPHORUS AND CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE OTTOMAN CARTOGRAPHY] Istanbul & Dersaadet civâri Bogaziçi haritasi [i.e. Istanbul - The Bosphorus map].

MEHMED ESREF (Süvari mülâzimlarindan [i.e. Cavalry connoisseur], Turkish military cartographer), (1846-1912). 

Karacaoglu Matbaasi., Istanbul (Constantinople), [AH 1324] = 1908.

Original color lithograph huge map on cloth. Folded originally with mounted original front and back wrappers including title, printing details and map maker, a lithographed globe, and compasses. On the back, a short user manual. 89x66,5 cm. In Ottoman script (Turkish with Arabic letters). An early cartographic material in the 20th century and very attractive, extremely rare huge map of Constantinople and the Bosphorus. Scale: 1/ 60.000. This gigantic Bosphorus map, prepared by Mehmed Esref when he was a cavalryman, was charted and published four years before his death, in the same year as the Second Constitutional Monarchy. It's one of the most beautiful and important maps of the Bosphorus ever which has very detailed toponyms of Constantinople. At its maximum extent, it shows the Black Sea, The Bosphorus, The Golden Horn, shores of Anatolian side, Marmara Sea, and Islands (Prinkipo, Halki, Antigoni, and Proti). On the down left corner, a small separate view of general Istanbul. Mehmed Esref (1846-1912) was a Turkish / Ottoman military cartographer and educator in the Ottoman military school [Mekteb-i Harbiye] active in the first part of the 20th century, and he prepared and published many separate maps and atlases more besides this one. Hegira 1324 = Gregorian 1908. Extremely rare.