Map Comparison

The European map and the empire map are two completely different styles of maps. The European map was drawn by Europeans when they had much less knowledge of the world. Because they lived in Europe, and that was the center of the world for them, Europe is drawn as the center of the map with much attention to small cities and the natural shape of the land. However, beyond Europe, these small cities are left out in favor of the land's general shape, and the incompleteness of the Americas illustrates how little knowledge Europe had across the sea. On the other hand, the second map is a factual map that serves the sole purpose of showing the approximate reach of four major Islamic empires. As a modern map, it is able to provide a picture of how the world used to be without presenting any sort of bias. The European map is just an interpretation of how Europeans viewed the world at the time.

Similar to the European map, I think a map drawn from the Chinese's perspective would have similar flaws. It would include a highly detailed representation of China, with that level of detail continuing throughout much of Asia. I think that Europe for the Chinese would be about as accurate as the Europeans' view of China. The Ottoman empire map would cover the Ottoman empire, but chances are it would not be able to accurately depict the Safavid empire. Due to their religious conflicts, they would not know as much about the area of the Safavid empire and may be compelled to falsely represent them due to their bitter conflict. At the time these maps would have been drawn, no single empire could possibly have enough knowledge about the rest of the world to create a map that wouldn't be influenced by bias or limitation of knowledge.