ABSTRACT
Sixteenth-century ottoman historian Kemal Paşazade’s vivid description of the ottoman fleet and the Mediterranean on the eve of the conquest of Rhodes is exemplary of the Ottoman perceptions of the Mediterranean. This sea, which surrounded the ottoman domains, carried unquestionable importance for the ottoman imperial claims. For the sixteenth century ottoman court, the Mediterranean was an object of territorial expansion and constant political and economic attention. It was also a valuable canvas onto which the ottoman intellectuals and policymakers painted the magnificence and universal sovereignty of their sultans and their empire. In this enterprise, almost as important as the efforts of the activities of the ottoman fleet, were the cartographical accounts on the Mediterranean, prepared for and commissioned by the ottoman court.
