Or 1141

This volume contains a treatise of geography compiled from European works by Mahmud Raif Efendi, with a preface not signed by the author.

The author of the preface, who was likely Yakovalı, says that his patron, Reis ül-Kuttab Mahmud Raif Efendi, had contemplated the compilation of a geographical treatise to supercede the antiquated Cihannuma. As Mahmud Raif Efendi was too much engrossed by the affairs of state, he had committed to 'his faithful and incompetent servant', the writer, the execution of this scheme. It should be noted, therefore, that a later editor or copyist had subsequently transferred the authorship of the present work from Yakovaki to his patron, Mahmud Raif Efendi.

In the preface to Add MS 7897, after some remarks on the importance of geography, Vasıf says that a new impulse had been given to the long-neglected science by the reigning Sultan, Selim III. Early works, such as Kitab-i ricar by Şerif Edrisi, and the Cihannuma, being out of date, necessitated the curent Reis ül-Kuttab, Mahmud Raif Efendi, who had previously been posted to England as Secretary to Ambassador of the Porte, to apply himself to the study of geography. He thus compiled in one volume all of the essential principles of this science. He had proposed to translate it into Ottoman Turkish, but finding himself prevented from doing so by his official duties, he entrusted that task to a proficient linguist, Yakovaki, who had previously filled the post of Chargé d'affaires in Vienna or elsewhere in a German-speaking country.

The translation was presented to the Sultan, who ordered its printing as an accompaniement to some previously printed maps. The Reis ül-Kuttab and the writer of the preface were directed to revise the text for press and to add to it some necessary explanations. The present copy has been transcribed from this revised edition.

The work is divided into fifteen chapters or fusul. The first ten are devoted to preliminary notions of geography and astronomy. The last five, which form the main part of the volume, contain the detailed accounts of countries as follows: (XI) Europe, beginning with England, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, etc. and ending with Ottoman possession on the European continent; (XII) Asia, beginning with Ottoman lands on the continent and ending with Sri Lanka and the Maldives; (XIII) Africa; (XIV) the Americas; and (XV) lands of the North and South Poles, as well as islands newly contacted by Europeans.

A tabulated index of contents, in the same hand as the main text, occupies the first six pages of the volume.

The manuscript was likely copied in the early part of the 19th century.