ABSTRACT
Between the conquest of Ceuta in 1415 and the circumnavigation of the globe in 1522, Iberian states began the construction of maritime empires that would encompass the world. In the same period Ottoman sultans, entering upon a century of major expansion, created an Islamic seaborne empire. This chapter examines the motives that encouraged Muslims to take to the sea as privateers. The use of large cannons, numerous men, and unstable galleys for summer naval operations to take land objectives for an army whose main economic support came from agricultural holdings would hardly encourage the type of oceanic naval technology developed by small European commercial states. In 1517, Piri Reis presented his famous map of the New World to the Sultan, giving the Ottomans, an accurate description of the American discoveries as well as details about the circumnavigation of Africa.
