(South Africa) (Atlas of the World)

Dimensions are sheet size. "49 full page hand-drawn maps in black ink, coloured with colour pencils, recto, and 21 flags verso, one page with manuscript in Ottoman and French in black and blue ink, other sheets blank, original brown cloth binding with gilt name of the author on the cover, hand-patterned endpapers (at least 3 maps cut out, repairs to cracks in the butters of endpapers, otherwise in a good condition). One of the earliest known atlases, made by an Ottoman and Islamic female mapmaker, designed in a wonderful minimalistic early art deco style This stunning WWI manuscript atlas of the world in art deco forms was made in 1916 by a female Ottoman student and it is an early, if not the first known atlas by a female mapmaker in the Islamic world. The author is signed as Şukufe Mukbil and the atlas was made as a school project. Each map is signed by a teacher, as “controlled”. The two inscriptions on the last page, made by the author and possibly a teacher (please see below), confirm this. The maps represent various continents, countries and parts of the world, some of them with railway systems. The maps are represented in unique minimalistic forms and coloured with attractive colours in outline. First Classes in Geography for Women in the Ottoman Empire - İnas Darülfünun The atlas was made in the time of a major feminist movement in the Ottoman Empire, when women demanded same rights as men, and could be possibly connected with the first Ottoman female university for women İnas Darülfünun, which was established in 1912 as a part of growing female emaciation in the Ottoman Empire and as a reply on similar foreign schools for girls. Geography and ethnography were obligatory subjects in the first year (Ali Arslan - Özlem Akpınar, İnas , Darülfünunu (1914- 1921) Osmanlı Bilimi Araştırmaları VI/2, 2005, p. 227). The classes, which started in October of 1914, were free and were in the first year attended by 22 girls, of which 20 graduated three years later. All together 53 female students received the diploma until 1919, when the university joined with the regular Istanbul university Darülfünun, which was until then only reserved for men. The initiative to joint with the male university was made in 1918 by a female student, a later famous author and feminist Şükûfe Nihal Başar (1896-1973), who in a few years became the first Ottoman female to finish the regular Ottoman university and the first official Ottoman mapmaker. She could be identical with Şükûfe Mukbil, who made our atlas. Date and Author The book is dated under the hand-written dedication at the end with a year, which first seems like 1322 AH or 1906 AD, but the borders of the countries on the maps suggest, that the atlas was made after the Balkan Wars, that is why the hand written date should be rather read as 1333 AH (please note the almost identical Arabic digits 2 and 3, when written per hand) or 1916 of the Christian calendar. The year 1916 also supports the image of the territory of Silistra, which was at the year juggled between Romania and Bulgaria. The author is signed on the cover as Şukufe Mukbil, a female Ottoman student. The atlas bears inscriptions by two hands on the verso of the last map. The first one says, that this is an extraordinary work by a female student, signed by Mehmed, probably a teacher. The dedication below in Ottoman and French was made by the author herself. She quotes, that she is giving this book to her female teacher as a present on November 1st 1333 (1916). Today no records are known yet about Şukufe Mukbil, which is not surprising, as most of the early data of Ottoman women were traditionally not recorded. She could be possibly identical with the first Ottoman female mapmaker Şükûfe Nihal (1896-1973), who entered İnas Darülfünun, the first Ottoman university for women in 1916, the same year that our atlas was made. She was 20 years old at the time, married for 4 years and mother of a small son. Previously schooled by foreign tutors and speaking several languages, she could only enter the university with the permission of her husband. Şükûfe would become the first Ottoman woman to finish the university along with the male students and the first women in the empire, who earned a degree in mapmaking. Şükûfe, who later filed for a divorce and married her fellow student, the geographer Ahmet Hamdi Başar (1897-1971), later became one of the most famous female poets of the early Turkish Republic and a fierce fighter for female rights. No researches so far have been made on her early work as a mapmaker. At the moment the question, if Şukufe Mukbil is identical to Şükûfe Nihal, who lived and was schooled in the same milieu at the same time, remains open. Until the surname law in Turkey in 1934, which was a part of the reformations of the old system under Atatürk, the family names were not fixed and they changed depending on the status, profession and place of living of the individual. The females were usually only referred to by their first name, followed by “Hanım”, meaning a woman. The name Mukbil means fortunate, fortune or fortuna, and could be adopted only for short period of time by the author. It is also possible, that this highly talented mapmaker never created any other recorded maps and decided to traditionally dedicate herself to a family life after finishing her education. In any case this exceptional, visually highly progressive atlas remains one of the earlier examples of mapmaking by a female author in the Ottoman Empire and in the Islamic World. We could not find any similar examples." (Alexander Johnson, 2021)