دانشگاه شهید بهشتی مجله تاریخ ایران 2008-7357 18 2 2025 09 23 From Emergence to Oblivion: The Fate of the Name "Chalderan" in European Cartography of Safavid Iran از پدیداری تا فراموشی: سرگذشت نام «چالدران» در نقشه‌نگاری اروپاییان از ایران عصر صفوی 261 290 106154 10.48308/irhj.2025.240708.1437 FA یاسر ملازئی دانشجوی دکتری، گروه تاریخ، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران فاطمه فریدی‌مجید استادیار، گروه جغرافیای ایران، بنیاد ایران‌شناسی، تهران، ایران. Journal Article 2025 07 16 “Chalderan", whose name in the history of Iran is associated with the renowned battle between the Safavids and the Ottomans in this region in 920 AH/1514 CE, was considered part of the province of Azerbaijan during the Safavid era and administratively subordinate to Coy. Before the Battle of Chalderan, this region was not at the center of historical developments; however, with the occurrence of the aforementioned battle, its name came into prominence. The present article seeks, through a historical–comparative approach, to analyze the frequency of this region’s name in the maps drawn by European cartographers. Contemplated the geographical image of Iran during the Safavid Era. Based on European maps, this name appeared for a specific period of time - namely, from the mid-10th/16th century to the mid-11th/17th century - in European depictions of Iran, and after a while it disappeared from the maps. Therefore, the specific research question of the article is: due to which factors did the name “Chalderan” emerge during the aforementioned period and subsequently disappear? The findings of the research indicate that the representation and omission of “Chalderan” in European cartography reflected the contingent geopolitical significance of historical events rather than the natural realities of the region in question. More specifically, the renown of the Battle of Chalderan was the primary factor behind the appearance of this toponym on maps, and with the gradual stabilization of Safavid–Ottoman relations and the decline of military tensions, the name was progressively forgotten in cartographic records. This process reveals the profound gap between local realities and external representations in European cartography. Introduction With the emergence of the Safavid dynasty, a new chapter was opened in Iran’s geopolitical interactions and international relations. In this context, Iran’s relations with the Ottoman Empire, as its most powerful western neighbor, attracted particular attention from European powers for strategic reasons. The persistent rivalry and conflict between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, coupled with diplomatic efforts to establish an alliance with Iran, provided the principal motivation for Europeans to collect precise geographical data—particularly concerning the border regions of western Iran and eastern Anatolia. European cartographers primarily focused on recording the western regions of Iran with greater accuracy on two grounds: first, the existence of significant overland routes in the western part of the country, which connected the southern maritime routes—the principal thoroughfare for travelers, merchants, and diplomatic envoys—to Iran. These travelers, who played a key role in transmitting geographical information to European cartographers, primarily provided more precise descriptions and depictions of these regions through direct observation. Second, given the Ottomans’ recurrent military engagements on their western fronts with European states, European cartographers closely monitored the developments along Iran’s western borders and the Safavid–Ottoman military-political conflicts, continuously reflecting the resulting changes in their maps. Accordingly, the maps of Iran produced by European cartographers—particularly those depicting its western regions—became a fundamental source for understanding how political, military, and geographical developments in Iran and the Ottoman Empire were monitored from a European perspective. Within this context, the region of “Chalderan,” as the site of one of the most significant military confrontations between the Safavid and Ottoman polities, attained a prominent position in European cartography. An examination of European maps from the Safavid period reveals that the name of this region emerged within a specific timeframe—from the mid-10th/16th century to the mid-11th/17th century—before gradually disappearing from cartographic records. In this regard, the focus of the article is to investigate the factors behind the rise and subsequent disappearance of the name “Chalderan” in European cartography. The central question of the study is: due to which factors did the name “Chalderan” first appear and then gradually vanish from European maps? Materials And Methods This study employs a historical-comparative research method. According to this approach, in the first step, the authors selectively chose seven European maps in which the emergence and subsequent disappearance of the name “Chalderan” is particularly prominent. They then provided, in the chronological order of the maps’ publication, a description of Chaldiran’s spatial relationship with its surrounding regions. Concurrently with this chronological description, direct and indirect historical events related to the Chaldiran region were extracted from contemporary Safavid historiographical sources. As a result, the primary factors behind the emergence, persistence, and subsequent disappearance of the name “Chalderan” in European cartography were identified. To elucidate this issue, the authors, at the beginning of the article, present preliminary discussions on the current geographical position of Chaldiran based on modern maps and geographical information, followed by an examination of its historical geography during the period under study—that is, the Safavid era—drawing on historical, geographical, and administrative writings. This provides the necessary context for addressing the place of Chaldiran in European cartography. The final section is divided into two related headings: the first addresses the emergence of the name “Chalderan” on maps, and the second examines its decline and disappearance from cartography. In each section, data extracted from the maps are analyzed in relation to historical events. The data collection method of the study is library-based, relying on maps as well as historiographical and geographical writings. Result and Discussion The study of European maps of Iran during the Safavid period, from 16 to the 18th century, reveals that the name “Chalderan” first appeared in European cartography in the second half of the 16th century, and before that, there had been no direct reference to this region. An examination of the maps by Gastaldi (1548) and Ruscelli (1561) demonstrates that, although various regions such as Tabriz, Khoy, and Lake Van were marked in northwestern Iran, the name “Chalderan” was absent. The name “Chalderan” appeared for the first time in Abraham Ortelius’s map of Iran (1570), where it was placed in northwestern Iran, adjacent to the Ottoman borders. Two notable features accompanied this designation: the addition of the suffix “Campus” and its visual emphasis relative to the surrounding areas. These elements reflect the military significance of the region and its role as the battlefield between the Safavids and the Ottomans in the perception of European cartographers. The process of recording and emphasizing the name “Chalderan” continued in subsequent maps, such as John Speed’s map (1626) and even Nicolaes Visscher’s world map (1652). However, after the mid-seventeenth century, this name ceased to appear in European cartography. The emergence of “Chaldiran” in maps was directly linked to the renowned Battle of Chaldiran (1514), and its role as the site of confrontation between the Safavids and the Ottomans compelled cartographers to record it. Other military and political developments between the Safavids and the Ottomans—such as the Ottoman invasions of Tabriz and the treaties of Amasya and Zahab—were significant, yet they did not reproduce the same level of importance for the Chaldiran region. Instead, this area primarily functioned as a passageway for Safavid and Ottoman political and military forces. After the mid-seventeenth century, shifts in political relations, the consolidation of borders, and the reduction of military conflicts led to a decline in the military and political significance of Chalderan, resulting in its omission from European maps. Examples such as the maps of Adam Olearius (1656) and Guillaume Delisle (1724) illustrate the disappearance of the name “Chalderan,” although surrounding areas such as Khoy—of which Chalderan was a district—continued to appear. This disappearance was not due to cartographers’ lack of knowledge, but rather to changing centers of geopolitical attention and the temporal distance from the prominent historical event associated with the region, namely the Battle of Chaldiran. An analysis of this process reveals that the inclusion or omission of geographical names in European maps was often closely tied to political and military developments, with the significance of places in collective memory and cartography being shaped by major historical events. The name “Chalderan” is a striking example of toponyms associated with military events, which gradually disappeared from maps once the significance of the event declined. Likewise, certain natural and military occurrences—such as the severe cold in the vicinity of Chalderan in 1604 and the defeat of Ottoman forces—though they temporarily enhanced the geographical importance of the region, failed to secure its lasting presence in European cartography. Thus, the case study of “Chalderan” demonstrates that European cartography was shaped by the complex interplay of politics, collective memory, and spatial significance, with changes in the cartographic status of a place reflecting shifts in its political and military importance. This process offers a generalizable example of how geopolitical transformations in a given region influenced European mapmaking and gradually redirected historical-geographical attention to other locations. It also reveals that places acquire or lose identity and significance not only based on natural realities, but equally through historical and military events, which determine whether they are remembered or forgotten. Conclusions The Battle of Chalderan between the Safavids and the Ottomans marked a turning point in Iran’s political and military history, solidifying the name “Chalderan” in the memory of Iranian historians and geographers, while also paving the way for its inclusion in European cartography. Although this designation appeared in European maps more than five decades after the battle, it clearly reflected the strategic and military significance of the region. The name “Chalderan” continued to appear in maps specifically of Iran, as well as in some Asian and world maps, until the mid-seventeenth century, after which it gradually disappeared. This trend indicates that the appearance and disappearance of a name on European maps did not necessarily correspond to its actual significance within the country; in the case of “Chalderan,” reduced European contact with the region and shifting geopolitical priorities—including key routes and communication pathways—led to its omission from maps. This example illustrates the disjunction between local realities and their external representation in historical cartography, highlighting the influence of political, economic, and communication factors on the depiction of geography. Examining this process not only enriches the local history of Iran but also contributes to understanding the mechanisms of geographical knowledge production and the role of power within the field of the history of science in the West. It is recommended that future studies focus on systematically comparing European maps with Iranian indigenous sources to critically reassess how historical events were reflected in cartography and how this influenced political geography, thereby revealing the hidden layers of this process more fully. «چالدران» که نام آن در تاریخ ایران با جنگ مشهور صفویان و عثمانی در این ناحیه به سال 920ق/1514م. پیوند خورده است، در تقسیمات جغرافیایی و اداری قلمرو ایران عصر صفوی، جزو ایالت آذربایجان و از توابع خوی به شمار می‌رفت. این ناحیه تا پیش از این رویداد نظامی، عمدتاً در حاشیۀ تحولات تاریخی قرار داشت، اما این نبرد نام آن را به کانون توجهات تاریخی کشاند. مقالۀ پیش‌ رو بر آن است تا با روش تاریخی-تطبیقی، بسامد نام این منطقه را در نقشه‌های ترسیمی اروپاییانی که فرسنگ‌ها دورتر از ایران و در شهرهای اروپایی دربارۀ چهرۀ جغرافیایی ایران عصر صفوی می‌اندیشیدند، تجزیه و تحلیل کند. براساس نقشه‌های اروپایی، این نام برای یک مقطع زمانی خاص، یعنی از نیمۀ سدۀ 10ق/16م. تا نیمۀ سدۀ 11ق/17م، در نقشه‌های اروپایی از ایران پدیدار گردید و بعد از مدتی در نقشه‌ها فراموش شد. بنابراین سؤال مشخص مقاله آن است که در نتیجۀ چه عواملی نام چالدران در مقطع زمانی یادشده پدیدار و سپس به فراموشی سپرده شد؟ یافته‌های مقاله نشان می‌دهد که برآمدن و برافتادن نام چالدران در نقشه‌نگاری اروپایی، بازتابی از اهمیت ژئوپلیتیک مقطعی رویدادهای تاریخی بوده و نه صرفاً واقعیت‌های طبیعی ناحیۀ مورد نظر. به عبارت دقیق‌تر، شهرت نبرد چالدران عامل اصلی پدیداری این نام در نقشه‌ها بود و با تثبیت تدریجی روابط صفوی-عثمانی و فروکش‌ کردن منحنی تنش‌های نظامی دو طرف، این نام به‌تدریج از نقشه‌ها فراموش شد. این فرایند، شکاف بین واقعیت‌های بومی و بازنمایی‌های برون‌مرزی در نقشه‌نگاری اروپا را آشکار می‌سازد.

https://irhj.sbu.ac.ir/article_106154_7030065aeb1b25f9dca4ca75ce155f7c.pdf