ABSTRACT
Piri Reis entered Selim’s tent in Cairo. The Ottoman sultan was sitting on his throne, flanked by servants on both sides. The tent’s interior was sumptuously decorated to resemble the sultan’s court at the Topkapı Palace in Constantinople.1 Colorful carpets lined the floor and walls. Inside it was perfectly quiet and still. Piri Reis had never met the sultan before, who was called “Selim the Inexorable” in Constantinople, earning his name with an indomitable will and legendary temper. Piri Reis had heard stories about the sultan cutting off the heads of his rivals and those of crocodiles with the same coldness.
