It appeared on the proper maps for the first time in the 1514-1528 map Tabula Hungariae by the cartographer . Historian Kome chronicled the fall of Zemun to the Turks in 1521 and mentioned the island as the location where all of the imprisoned defenders of the city were interred, including their wives and children. In 1521, when Belgrade was under siege by Turkish forces, the majority of their attacks on Belgrade fortress were launched from the island. Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi visited the region in the 1660s and mentioned the island. He wrote about the mosque on the island, named after a certain Ahmet Babalık. One of the earlier names for the island, Babalık Island, came from the name of the mosque. First written record on the island from someone who visited it is from 1699, when an English travelling doctor described it as the "large, forested island".