1909 Ottoman Turkish Mehmet Eşref Map of Uskudar

This is a 1909 Turkish plan of Üsküdar, produced by the Turkish educator and publisher Mehmet Eşref. It is one of the earliest, if not the only early Turkish printed plan of this part of Istanbul available to the collector. All titles and descriptive text are in Ottoman Turkish. The plan encompasses the neighborhoods of Harem, Doğancılar, Nakkaştepe and İcadiye, and indicates significant green space beyond these limits. Depth soundings are noted in the Bosphorus, and the famous 'Maiden's Tower,' or Kiz Kulesi, is marked just off the shore. Chromolithograph.

Publication History and Census

Turkish atlas maps are rare on the market. This one was published in Eşref’s Umum-i vilayat-ı Şahaneyi havi küçük atlas/( اطالس كوچك حاوى يى شهان ى والياة عموم), of which OCLC lists only a single copy at the Bogazici University Library in Istanbul.