1849 Meyer Map of Egypt, Arabia, Nubia and Syria

Die Laender des Pascha von Egypten Aeypten Nubien, Arabien, Darfur, Candia, Cordofan, Syrien nebst den District Adana.
  1849 (dated)    11 x 9 in (27.94 x 22.86 cm)     1 : 15000000

This is an attractive 1849 map of Egypt and Arabia by Joseph Meyer. It covers from Greece and the Aegean Islands south as far as modern day Ethiopia and east as far as the Quatar. The map is color coded to show Egyptian, Turkish, Persian, Greek and independent territories. Numerous cities, towns, roads, deserts, mountains and other topographical features are noted throughout.

This time in history marks the decline of the Ottoman empire and its hegemony over this region. After the conquest of Palestine by Muhammad Ali's Egypt in 1832, British intervention returned control of Palestine to Ottoman rulers in 1840. In Egypt, following the expulsion of the Napoleonic forces by the Ottoman Mamluk Turks, Muhammad Ali, the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, established the Mamluk dynasty that would rule Egypt until the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Between 1820 and 1833, Ali annexed northern Sudan, Syria and parts of Arabia into the Mamluk Empire. In 1848 Abbas I, his grandson, was ruler of Egypt and Sudan. Abbas I, who spent most of his time in seclusion on the insistence of the British government, was responsible for the construction of the historic railway from Alexandria to Cairo.

This map was issued as plate no. 14 in Meyer's Zeitung Atlas. Although all the maps in this atlas are not individually dated, the title page and maps were often updated while the imprint with the date was not, causing confusion to the exact date for some of the maps. Moreover some maps in the atlas were taped in at a later date as an update to the atlas. We have dated the maps in this collection to the best of our ability.

Meyer, J., Meyer's Zeitung Atlas, 1852.     Meyer's Zeitung Atlas, formally titled Neuster Zeitungs-Atlas Fuer Alte und Neue Erdkunde was a popular German hand-atlas published in Heidelberg by Joseph Meyer between, roughly, 1848 and 1859. The atlas is well engraved in the German style with exceptionally dense detail and minimal decoration. Meyer's Atlas, and its constituent maps, are typically very difficult to date as later editions often contain earlier maps and earlier editions later paste-in updates. That said, the atlas' frequent updates and publication run during a turbulent decade provide a noteworthy cartographic record of the period.

Very good. Minor overall toning and some spotting. Large dampstain upper left quadrant.