Piri Reis was an Ottoman corsair who began raiding Mediterranean shipping in the 1480s alongside his uncle, the corsair captain Kemal Reis, before turning to naval cartography after Kemal’s death around 1510. He later served in the Ottoman navy under admirals including Hayreddin Barbarossa and eventually commanded Ottoman fleets in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, rising to grand admiral in 1547. He is best known for a 1513 world map drawn on gazelle skin, part of which survives in Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace and which drew on a since-lost chart by Christopher Columbus. After a failed 1552 campaign against Hormuz, Ottoman authorities accused him of misconduct and had him executed in Cairo in 1553.
Piri Reis
