Peter Martyr's mission to Egypt
In 1501–1502,
Martyr was instructed by the
The mission was an overall success.[2] Martyr wrote about the events in his Legatio Babylonica, one of the earliest Western European accounts of Egypt, in which he also recorded his sightseeing in the country.[3]
Background
Peter Martyr, generally believed to have been born in 1457 in the town of
By the time Martyr arrived in Spain, in 1487, the country was involved in the
Spanish and Nasrid diplomacy in the eastern Mediterranean
Throughout the Reconquista, rulers of
Ferdinand's fears were further aggravated by reports of an alliance between his generally well-armed Mudéjar subjects and the Ottoman Turks, allegedly being formed to assist the Granadans. In 1486–87, another wave of Nasrid embassies was sent to Cairo and Constantinople.
Prelude to the embassy
Qaitbay's death in 1496 was followed by a violent interregnum. This coincided with other developments in the region and beyond, including the discovery of gold in the New World, and Portugal's
One of the Moorish appeals that may have eventually led to the Spanish counter-embassy came in the form of a long and emotional qasida by an anonymous Granadan poet that made it to the Egyptian court in 1501,[n 6] describing different forms of persecution in Spain targeting Muslims of all ages.[28] Isabella and Ferdinand, for unknown reasons, chose Martyr as their envoy to Egypt.[1] His mission was to deter the Sultan from possible retaliation,[25] so the Catholic Monarchs instructed him to deny the forced conversions should the Sultan bring up the subject and to further explain that "no [conversion] was done by force and never will be, because our holy faith desires this not be done to anyone."[29] Martyr was also tasked with delivering a message to the Doge of Venice on his way to Egypt.[1]
Voyage to Alexandria
In late August 1501, a month after the issuing of an edict banning Islam in Granada, Martyr left Spain.[30] He traveled through France, passing by Narbonne and Avignon, and reached Venice on October 1, days after the death of its Doge, Agostino Barbarigo, with no elected successor as of yet.[n 7] He delivered his message to the Senate on October 6, and on October 10 he reported back to the Catholic Monarchs in the first of three letters that would make up his Legatio Babylonica. In it, Martyr described how he was impressed by his stay in the Venetian Lagoon, and gave account of the republic's shipbuilding industry and its governing system. He also visited Venice's churches, palaces and libraries.[32]
From looking at its ruins, I would say that Alexandria once had 100,000 houses or more. Now it barely has 4,000. Instead of being inhabited by people they are nests for doves and pigeons.[n 8]
Martyr, in a letter to his friend, Pedro Fajardo.[34]
Martyr left the lagoon for the port city of Pula, from which he embarked for his intended destination aboard a three-masted galeazza, part of a larger Venetian merchant fleet that regularly traveled to the Levant and Egypt. He reached Alexandria on December 23, after a voyage marred by stormy weather and a near collision with rocky formations off the city's coast, which Martyr believed to have constituted the foundation of the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria. There, he stayed at the residence of the city's Catalan-born French consul, Felipe de Paredes.[n 9] Awaiting permission to visit the Sultan and safe passage for his trip to the capital, he toured Alexandria. While he admired its port, Martyr also expressed disappointment in the city's current state of affairs, as compared to its period of success as the capital of the ancient Ptolemaic Kingdom.[34]
His trip to Cairo, which he called "Babylon", was delayed by the Sultan's refusal to meet with him. Martyr blamed this on what he perceived to be the influence of Jews who were expelled from Spain.[36] He finished his second letter on January 24.[37] Martyr told the Spanish monarchs in his Legatio that they had a reputation in Egypt of being "violent and perjuring tyrants" because of the effect "Jewish and Moorish heretics" had on the Sultan.[38] He dispatched two Franciscan friars to Cairo, with a message to the Sultan in which Jews were referred to as "enemies of peace and goodwill between sovereigns."[n 10] He was eventually allowed an audience with the Sultan.[40]
In Cairo
On January 26, 1502, he left from
Accompanied by a Mamluk escort, they journeyed through Cairo the following morning, on February 6.[42] Crossing a hostile crowd, they arrived at the city's Citadel complex. In its interior palace, Martyr passed by two courts and a formation of eunuchs guarding the harem, eventually reaching the patio where the Sultan lounged over a heavily decorated marble dais, with a headpiece from which horns were projecting. Once the greeting ceremonial was over, he was invited to sit near the Sultan, irritating North African envoys who were present. Martyr interpreted al-Ghuri's friendly reception of him as awareness by the Sultan of "how powerful you are", referring to Isabella when he later reported back to her. They both agreed to have a second meeting, with nothing substantial coming out the first one apart from assurances by al-Ghuri of his willingness to talk. The North African envoys, however, responded negatively to the Sultan's openness to a Christian ambassador by sowing discontent among the masses, reminding them of the forced conversions of fellow Muslims in Granada. They publicly denounced the prospect of reaching any agreement with Spain. Al-Ghuri eventually succumbed to the pressure of a Mamluk military council that was determined to dismiss Martyr, and ordered Tangriberdy to sneak him out of the capital by night.[43]
Martyr, however, refused to leave and sent Tangriberdy back with a message to the Sultan, reminding the latter that he represented the Spanish Empire, whose territorial possessions in Italy made it close to Egypt in terms of proximity and power projection. They convened in a secret meeting before dawn,[n 11] during which the Sultan brought up the reports of forced conversions in Spain. Martyr denied this and argued that Granadan Moors had themselves offered to convert from Islam in the wake of a failed rebellion, adding that his Christian faith "openly demands that nobody dare use violence or threats to incite people to change religion." He told the Sultan that his mission was "on behalf of the inhabitants of Jerusalem" and, in an apparently concealed threat, mentioned that Valencia and Aragon housed thousands of Muslims who had "no less freedom" than their Christian counterparts in the Spanish realm. This was likely meant to serve as a reminder to the Sultan, should any attempt be made at persecuting Christians in the Holy Land.[45]
The mere news of our friendship, indeed, could be useful to you, given our power on land and at sea.
Martyr to the Sultan.[46]
Trying to find common ground with the Sultan, Martyr blamed the state of mistrust on the influence of Jews,[3] whom he described to the Mamluk ruler as "a poisonous pest."[47] He also informed him that Spanish fleets and troops based in southern Italy could be quickly dispatched to assist the Sultan militarily, should a war break out with the expansionist Ottoman Empire, their common foe, or in case the Mamluk state is faced with a serious internal rebellion. Al-Ghuri appeared to be convinced by Martyr's arguments.[46] He agreed in principle to a treaty that was drafted by the ambassador with the assistance of monks from Jerusalem. The terms of the agreement granted Christians the right to rebuild or renovate churches and monasteries in the Holy Land, guaranteed their personal safety, and lowered the fine paid by pilgrims.[48] In addition to Jerusalem, other Arab Christian communities, including those of Beirut, Bethlehem and Ramallah, were placed under Spanish protection.[49] Al-Ghuri convinced senior military officials in his court that maintaining friendly ties with Spain would be beneficial to the Mamluk state, and discussed with them the means of keeping in check any resulting popular discontent. But, other than possible guarantees by Martyr that Mudéjar privileges will be preserved, it remains unclear whether or not the Sultan received any tangible concessions in return for agreeing to the ambassador's terms, given that no commercial affairs were discussed in the Legatio.[48]
Touring the land and departure
In a separate development, while the document was being drafted, Martyr was given the Sultan's permission to visit the pyramids of Giza, whose silhouettes he could see from Cairo. He left early before dawn on February 7, as part of an expedition of nobles led by an Egyptian guide who was commissioned by al-Ghuri. Martyr evaluated the design and measured the perimeter of the two largest pyramids, the
The following day, Martyr made a pilgrimage to
Aftermath and legacy
The Legatio Babylonica compiles the three letters that he wrote during this voyage, and was first published in 1511 as part of his larger Decades of the New World series, with some modifications. It is among the earliest and most extensive Western European accounts of Egypt from that period.[59]
Notes
- ^ Martyr's desire to take part in the war against the Granadan Moors may have significantly contributed to his decision to relocate to Spain.[6]
- ^ His descriptions of the sieges and battles of this campaign was published in a collection of his letters known as the Opus epistolarum.[7]
- ^ In L'Espagne musulmane au temps des Nasrides, Rachel Arié opines that the Nasrid diplomatic initiative was launched in 1487, while Mark D. Meyerson, in The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel, believes that there is a possibility that it took place earlier, in 1486. Both years correspond with the year 892 AH in the Islamic calendar. If the embassy to the Ottoman court arrived in 1486 and if the Ottoman and Mamluk missions were related, both of which are likely, then it was probably el-Zagal who dispatched the embassies in 1486, not his nephew Boabdil who took over the Granadan throne in April 1487.[17]
- ^ Distracted by the war with the Mamluks and unwilling to antagonize Christian Europe so openly at the time, Bayezid was initially hesitant to assist Granada. It was an embassy by the Hafsids of Tunis to Bayezid's court that eventually convinced the latter to send Kemal Reis to the western Mediterranean.[18]
- Coptic places of worship were harassed.[21]
- ^ It was a shorter version of another qasida that was later sent to the Ottoman court, probably due to insufficient action by the Mamluks, according to scholar Leonard Patrick Harvey.[27]
- ^ Marino Sanuto the Younger, a contemporary Venetian chronicler, mentioned Martyr's arrival in the city in his Diarii.[31]
- ^ Possibly as a result of an epidemic that had recently affected Alexandria, severely decimating its population.[33]
- ^ Spanish affairs in the region were handled at the time by France, one of the two European powers protecting Christian trade interests in the Levant. The other protector was Venice.[35]
- ^ Francis Augustus MacNutt, who translated Martyr's work in 1912, wrote that the Mamluk ruler, while generally tolerant, was "fettered by the fanaticism of his courtiers and the Mussulman clergy." He also explained that Martyr's Christian embassy in a Muslim country came at a bad time, as not only were the reports of persecution in Spain widespread in the Islamic world, but the recent Portuguese threat to Egyptian shipping in the Indian Ocean further complicated the matter.[39]
- ^ It is unclear which particular argument managed to convince al-Ghuri to reverse his decision.[44]
- ^ Martyr was intrigued by local folk stories surrounding the interior of the pyramids. One of them in particular, as told by a noble from the expedition, concerned a Maghrebi traveler who had ventured into the Great Pyramid through an entrance in the southeastern side of the structure and never reappeared.[51]
References
- ^ a b c d Wagner 1947, p. 243.
- ^ Maynard 1931, p. 438.
- ^ a b Wagner 1947, p. 244.
- ^ Wagner 1947, p. 240.
- ^ Cravioto 2003, p. 81; Wagner 1947, p. 241
- ^ a b c Wagner 1947, p. 242.
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 16.
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, pp. 15–17; Cravioto 2003, p. 81
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 18.
- ^ Anan 2001, pp. 217−218.
- ^ Anan 2001, pp. 161−162.
- ^ Anan 2001, p. 218.
- ^ Meyerson 1991, p. 66; Harvey 2005, pp. 81–82
- ^ Fernández 1980, p. 508; Fernández 1980, p. 511
- ^ Harvey 1992, pp. 204–205; Anan 2001, pp. 218–219
- ^ Meyerson 1991, p. 64–65.
- ^ Meyerson 1991, p. 290.
- ^ Har-El 1995, pp. 205–206.
- ^ Meyerson 1991, pp. 66–67; Anan 2001, pp. 219–220
- ^ Harvey 2005, p. 84; Harvey 1992, p. 205
- ^ Harvey 2005, p. 84.
- ^ Meyerson 1991, pp. 97–98.
- ^ Fernández 1980, p. 515.
- ^ Fernández 1980, p. 517–518.
- ^ a b d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 24.
- ^ Harvey 1992, p. 205; Fernández 1980, pp. 517–518
- ^ Koningsveld & Wiegers 1996, p. 138.
- ^ Tremlett 2017, p. 465; Carr 2009, p. 79
- ^ Tremlett 2017, p. 464.
- ^ Wagner 1947, p. 243; Burke 1895, p. 210
- ^ Sanuto 1880, p. 146; d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 25
- ^ Wagner 1947, p. 243; Wagner 1947, p. 280; d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 25
- ^ Cravioto 2003, p. 83.
- ^ a b d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, pp. 25–26; Tremlett 2017, pp. 464–465
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 25.
- ^ Tremlett 2017, p. 465.
- ^ Wagner 1947, p. 280.
- ^ Carr 2009, p. 78.
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 26.
- ^ a b Tremlett 2017, p. 466.
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, pp. 26–27.
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 27; Cravioto 2003, p. 83
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, pp. 27–28; Tremlett 2017, pp. 466–467
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 28.
- ^ Tremlett 2017, pp. 467–468.
- ^ a b Tremlett 2017, p. 469.
- ^ Tremlett 2017, p. 468.
- ^ a b d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 29; Wagner 1947, p. 244
- ^ Fernández 1980, pp. 518–519; Tremlett 2017, pp. 469–470
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, pp. 29–30; Cravioto 2003, p. 84
- ^ Cravioto 2003, p. 84.
- ^ Cravioto 2003, pp. 84–85.
- ^ Cravioto 2003, p. 85.
- ^ Cravioto 2003, pp. 83–84.
- ^ a b Cravioto 2003, p. 86.
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 30; Maynard 1931, p. 438
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 30.
- ^ d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 30; Tremlett 2017, p. 470
- ^ a b d'Anghiera (MacNutt) 1912, p. 30; Wagner 1947, p. 244; Wagner 1947, p. 280
Sources
- Anan, Mohamed Abdallah (2001). دولة الإسلام في الأندلس، الجزء السابع: نهاية الأندلس و تاريخ العرب المتنصرين [Nation of Islam in al-Andalus, Volume 7: End of al-Andalus and history of the Moriscos]. General Egyptian Book Organization. ISBN 9770186651.
- d'Anghiera, Peter Martyr; MacNutt, Francis A. (1912). De Orbe Novo: The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera, Volume 1 [Translated from the Latin with Notes and Introduction]. G.P. Putnam's Sons.
- Burke, Ulick R. (1895). A History of Spain from the Earliest Times to the Death of Ferdinand the Catholic. Longmans, Green.
- Carr, Matthew (2009). Blood and Faith: The Purging of Muslim Spain, 1492-1614. Hurst Publishers. ISBN 9781849040273.
- Cravioto, Enrique Gozálbez (2003). "La visita a las pirámides de Egipto de un erudito renacentista: Mártir de Anglería". Boletín de la Asociación Española de Orientalistas. 39: 79–87.
- Fernández, L. Suárez (1980). "Las relaciones de los Reyes Católicos con Egipto". En la España Medieval. 1: 507–519.
- Galán, José M. (2000). "Unamón". Cuatro viajes en la literatura del Antiguo Egipto. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 9788400078805.
- Har-El, Shai (1995). Struggle for Domination in the Middle East: The Ottoman-Mamluk War, 1485-91. Brill. ISBN 9789004101807.
- Harvey, Leonard P. (1992). "The Political, Social and Cultural History of the Moriscos". In Jayyusi, Salma K.; Marín, Manuela (eds.). The Legacy of Muslim Spain. Brill. ISBN 9789004095991.
- Harvey, Leonard P. (2005). Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226319636.
- Koningsveld, P. S.; Wiegers, G. A. (1996). "Islam in Spain During the Early Sixteenth Century: The Views of the Four Chief Judges in Cairo". In de Moor, Ed; Zwartjes, Otto; van Gelder, G. J. H.; de Moor, Eduardus Cornelius Maria (eds.). Poetry, Politics and Polemics: Cultural Transfer Between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. Rodopi. ISBN 9789042001053.
- Maynard, Theodore (1931). "Peter Martyr D'Anghiera: Humanist and Historian". The Catholic Historical Review. 16 (4): 435–448. JSTOR 25012806.
- Meyerson, Mark D. (1991). The Muslims of Valencia in the Age of Fernando and Isabel: Between Coexistence and Crusade. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520068889.
- Sanuto, Marino (1880). I diarii di Marino Sanuto: (MCCCCXCVI-MDXXXIII) dall' autografo Marciano ital. cl. VII codd. CDXIX-CDLXXVII, Volume 4. F. Visentini.
- Tremlett, Giles (2017). Isabella of Castile: Europe's First Great Queen. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781408853962.
- Wagner, Henry R. (1947). "Peter Martyr and his works". Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. 56 (2): 239.
Further reading
- de Lama de la Cruz, Victor (2013). Relatos de viajes por Egipto en la época de los Reyes Católicos. Miraguano. ISBN 9788478134083.
- López Grande, María José (2004). "El viaje a Egipto. Primeros viajeros españoles y primeras miradas de la investigación española hacia las tierras del Nilo". Cuadernos de prehistoria y arqueología. 30 (2004): 225–239. hdl:10486/793.