[ACCOUNT OF THE OTTOMAN-VENETIAN NAVAL WAR] Tuhfetu'l-kibâr fî esfâri'l-bihâr. [i.e. The gift to the great ones on naval campaigns]

KATIP ÇELEBI [HACI KHALFA], (1609-1657)., Matbaa-i Bahriye [i.e. The Printing House of the Naval Forces]., Istanbul, [AH 1329] = 1913.

Full leather new bdg. Original illustrated cover saved inside. Roy. 8vo. (24 x 17 cm). In Ottoman script (Old Turkish with Arabic letters). [12], 166, [2] p., b/w and color plates of Ottoman warships and scenes from naval wars, seven maps of the earliest examples of Ottoman cartography.

Very rare second edition of this book on the history of Ottoman naval wars against Venetians began with the Crete campaign (War of Candia) in 1645 and lasted for years until 1656. The book was published first in 1729 in Müteferrika Printing House which was the first printing house in the Islamic world as the third printed book. This is the second edition including five maps of almost the same size (two paged) titled world map, The Mediterranean, The Archipelago (Aegean), The Adriatic Sea, and the compass-like in its first edition as well as two maps and twenty-six plates (some of them are color) and small illustrations of Ottoman ships as head of some carriage returns. Additional maps depict the city of Venice (from Kitab-i Bahriye [i.e. Book of Navigation) and the travels of Ottoman Admiral Sidi Ali Reis through the Sea of Oman.

The Cretan War or the Fifth Ottoman-Venetian War, was a conflict between the Republic of Venice and her allies (chief among them the Knights of Malta, the Papal States, and France) against the Ottoman Empire and the Barbary States because it was largely fought over the island of Crete, Venice's largest and richest overseas possession.

This account of Ottoman maritime warfare in Turkish, written in Safer 1067/November 1656. This date places the book in a moment of utmost danger for the Ottoman capital following the defeat of the Ottoman navy at the hands of the Venetians at the Dardanelles (4 Ramadan 1066/26 June 1656) and the subsequent loss of the islands of Lemnos and Tenedos. It is also written shortly after the appointment of Köprülü Mehmed Pasha as grand vizier (25 Dhulqada 1066/14 September 1656). Thus it is suggested to read it as a program of reform of the navy intended for a person whom Hadji Khalfa might have seen as the "man of the sword" who might revert the fate of the Empire. Of the four ulemâ [i.e. scholars] who wrote endorsements for the book, two are closely related to the Köprülü family.

The first part is a history of Ottoman maritime campaigns from the beginning to 1067/1656, while the second is a systematic description of naval affairs, from administration and offices to shipbuilding, culminating in a list of 40 suggestions for the organization and strategy of the Ottoman navy, including the use of recent scientific and technological innovations. Thus the juxtaposition with history provides an argument for reform. Suggestions are largely centered around the traditional qanun-i qadim; there is no reference to high-board ships. The final pages include an important discussion of historical causality, explaining how divine omnipotence creates the consequence of historical causes, in reward for the righteous rule, or punishment of injustice. (Source: Ottomanhistorians).

Özege 21273.