Sidi Ali Reis essays

Sidi Ali Reis essays Kanuni Sultan Sleyman had reigned for forty-six years (1520-1566) and this was the most successful period of the Ottoman Empire. It reached a pitch of grandeur and prosperity which was never afterwards surpassed, and from which it soon began to decline. (www.osmanli700.gen.tr) However Padishahs magnificence was not the only reason that makes this period so important and influential. There were lots of influential men such as Sokullu Mehmet Pasha in administration and in naval forces: Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, Turgut Reis, Piri Reis and Seydi Ali Reis. This essay is about the Turkish Admiral Seydi Ali Reis who is famous whit his adventurous Indian Voyage and his book called Mirat ul Memalik (the Mirror of Countries) that is about his adventures and the places he had seen. Seydi Ali Reis was born in Sinop at the beginning of the 16th century. He moved to Galata after the conquest of Istanbul. He had a sailor family and like his grandfather he worked at the dockyards. My father and grandfather, since the conquest of Istanbul, had had charge of the arsenal at Galata; they had both been eminent in their profession, and their skill had come down to me as an heirloom. (Mirat ul Memalik, 212) Besides, he was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer and a poet (known as Katibi). In the meantime, Western Europe underwent an unprecedented overseas expansion, which changed the patterns of economic growth and society. This period is known as the Age of Discovery and the European states started to exploit the places which they had conquest. Thus, colonism started. The Age of Discovery influenced the Ottoman Empire in many ways. Portuguese Vasco de Gama had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa) and reached to India. After a while Portuguese fleet took this region under their control so Baharat Yolu, which was extremely significant for the Ott...