Ottoman writers proposed a Suez canal a century before it was built

Evidence

In a book written in about 1580, describing the European voyages of discovery and the New World, an Ottoman geographical writer warns the Sultan of the dangers to the Islamic lands and the disturbance to Islamic trade resulting from the discoveries, and suggests: “Let a channel be cut from the Mediterranean to Suez, and let a great fleet be prepared in the port of Suez; then, with the capture of the ports of India and Sind, it will be easy to chase away the infidels and bring the precious wares of those places to our capital… .” The same or similar ideas may also be found in other Ottoman writers of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 597

Categorization

• XREF: Fascinating foreshadowing of the actual Suez Canal (1869); connects to A History of the Ottoman Empire and to nautical/canal history broadly.
• SHARE: Nerdy tidbit for anyone interested in canal history or Ottoman maritime strategy.