Türkiye’s Islamic History Atlas is bringing nearly 1,300 years of Islamic history together with geography through an interactive digital platform, allowing users to explore dynasties, rulers, scholars, cities and historical events through maps and timelines.
The atlas covers the Islamic world between the years 632 and 1924 and combines data compiled from different historical sources on an interactive map.
Users can explore the development of the Islamic world through a timeline and different layers, examining dynasties, rulers, scholars and historical centers according to their periods and geographical locations.
The latest version includes information on 186 Islamic dynasties and 830 rulers, along with 13,940 biographical records from Zirikli’s biographical dictionary, 8,528 scholar biographies from the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation’s Encyclopedia of Islam and 12,954 geographical records from Yaqut al-Hamawi’s geographical dictionary.
The atlas also contains records of 3,458 mints, 2,049 settlements documented by 10th-century geographer al-Muqaddasi, 317 stops from Ibn Battuta’s travels, 5,444 stops from Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi and 801 structures.
Hüseyin Gökalp, a faculty member in the Department of Islamic History at Selçuk University’s Faculty of Theology, explained that the atlas was initially based on British historian Clifford Edmund Bosworth’s "The New Islamic Dynasties," which examines 186 dynasties that ruled across the Islamic world.
“We transferred this book into a digital format to show the dynasties between 632 and 1924 comprehensively on a map,” he said.
The platform was initially designed as an atlas of Muslim dynasties but later expanded to include travel accounts, cities, wars and other datasets.
“By comparing how much these sources overlap and differ from one another, we revealed the connections between them. Thus, the atlas has evolved beyond being simply a map into a digital humanities project that makes a network of relationships visible,” Gökalp said.
He explained that the platform can show relationships between scholars, rulers and commanders, including teacher-student, predecessor-successor and family connections.
Gökalp said the team continuously updates the platform based on feedback from researchers and academics and plans to develop it into a mobile application.
The project also uses digital humanities methods to examine historical processes beyond existing data.
Gökalp said the team is working on an international project called “Frontiers,” which examines activity and administrative structures in frontier regions between Islamic territories and the borders of the early Byzantine Empire.
The project brings together researchers from Germany, the U.S., the U.K. and Türkiye.
He also said the team studies how historical events might have developed under different circumstances, including how the outcome of a battle could change if it had taken place in a different location or season.
Another area of research focuses on the history of Islamic thought. The team aims to use digital methods to identify intellectual connections between Islamic thinkers and thinkers from different periods.
Ali Çetinkaya, a faculty member in Selçuk University’s Department of Computer Engineering, said the atlas has attracted more interest than expected.
He said work is continuing on a broader second version, which will focus particularly on accurately matching historical names and locations.
Çetinkaya said the team converts plain text from books into structured data that can be used across different programming languages and platforms.
He emphasized that the atlas is developed as an open-source project, allowing researchers to download and use its datasets for academic studies.
The platform can also serve as educational material in schools, high schools and universities, particularly for history education, he said.
Available in Turkish, Arabic and English, the atlas is attracting users from different countries and offers a digital way to explore the connections between Islamic history, geography and historical sources.
