Dogancay

Students of cartography, Mideastern history and religion will find a wide range of interesting and erudite facts in this handsome survey of maps charting that turbulent region. From the earliest extant map of the territorythat of the Greek scientist Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria (A.D. 150 )to a copper plate engraving of a map by Colonel Pierre Joactin (1799) that was used for Napoleon's campaign in Egypt and Syria, the 60 maps presented hereexquisitely detailed, most in full-color and representative of the artistic and cartographic styles of the periodoffer a biblical/historical survey of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Many of the maps were created by and for the followers of the three religions, who over the course of the two millennia made pilgrimages to religious sites and waged battle in the name of God. Often the Holy Land dominates the center of these maps; a medieval depiction of the area, executed in 1285, is an example of one of the many distortions of geographical sciencethe Terra Sancta occupies one-sixth of the world's surface when, in actuality, the territory constitutes less than one percent. BOMC selection. (October 30)