Seyahatname-i Bahr-i Muhit, Ümid Burnu tarikiyle Istanbul - Basra seyahati

Kostantiniyye [Constantinople]: Mekteb-i Bahriye-i Sahane Matbaasi, 1868. First edition. Text in Ottoman Turkish. In publisher's half leather. The panels are decorated with floral ornamentation. Spine rubbed with small damage to the tail and the head. Covers slightly worn, panels bumped at corners. Early twentieth-century inscription on the front flyleaf in black ink. Light foxing here and there. Overall in very good condition.. First edition. Text in Ottoman Turkish. In publisher's half leather. The panels are decorated with floral ornamentation. (1), (1)-62, (1), (63)-81, (1) p.

Extremely scarce, first edition of Mühendis Faik's memoir about his adventurous travel from Constantinople to Basrah through Brazil, Africa, and India, the first American expedition of Turkish marines. (Özalp, 2006.)

Two Ottoman warships, called Bursa and İzmir departed Constantinople in September 1865, with the assignment to get to Basrah. Due to a storm, the ships lost their way and thus only reached their destination in the Persian Gulf after visiting various coasts from Africa to Brazil, then India to the Arabic Gulf. The present book contains a detailed report on the journey, written by Mühendis Faik, the marine engineer of the ship, Bursa.

Besides his travels on sea, Faik gives a detailed account of the cities and countries he visited describing their culture, trade, industry and politics. Such places are Algeria and Cape Verde, the Canary Islands, Brazil, Mauritius, Mumbai, Muscat, Bushehr and Basrah.

The most significant parts of the book report about Faik's almost fictitious experiences in Brazil, where he spent two months. These parts are paramount important as Faik's ship, Bursa was the first Ottoman vessel to dock in the Latin American country. (Asiltürk, 2009) In his writing, Faik mentions that Brazilians had never seen an Osman man before, thus a large crowd, including people travelling from a great distance, has gathered around their ship each day to see them. (Faik, 2006. p. 45.) Following a general introduction of Brazil, Faik dedicates chapters to the port of Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian navy, as well as the participation of Brazil in the Paraguayan War, the deadliest inter-state war in Latin American history. Faik also writes about the different ethnicities of the country, including the Muslim black slaves of African origins. In his last chapter about the country, Faik tells of the ship imam, Abdurrahman Efendi who escaped the ship in order to join and serve the local Islamic community. However the imam was found a few days later, he convinced the captain to allow him to stay in Brazil where he spent several years before returning to Istanbul. Efendi published his memoirs about Brazil in Arabic in 1871.

A particularly important document of Turkish maritime history, including the first American expedition of Turkish marines. (Özalp, 2006.)

Extremely scarce, we could only trace copies in the National Library of Turkey.


Bibl.: Asiltürk, Baki: Edebiyatin kaynagi olarak seyahatnameler. [Travel Books in Turkish Literature.] In: Turkish Studies. International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic. Volume 4 / 1-I. Winter 2009. pp. 911-995. Bethell, Leslie: The Paraguayan War (1864-1870). London: Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London, 1996. p. 1.; Özalp, N. Ahmet: Sunuş [Preface]. In: Faik, Mühendis: Türk Denizcilerin İlk Amerika Seferi (Seyahatname-i Bahri Muhit). Istanbul: Kitabevi, 2006. p. 13.

Ref.: ÖZEGE 17908

.