The Yolcılıḳ Kitābı (Travel Book), written by the Ottoman physician, statesman and historian Hayrullah Efendi (1818–1866) after a trip to Europe, makes it difficult for the reader to reconstruct the exact course of the author’s travels. As the work shows, this is due to the fact that it is an attempt to transfer the genre of the route-based modern travel guide – known primarily from the Murray, Baedeker and Joanne series – to Ottoman literature. The text can therefore be described as the first Ottoman travel guide. Hayrullah orientates himself strongly on French models, but also incorporates Ottoman pre-texts and elements of the travelogue. Thus, he