Image of the "Turk" in Italy: A history of the "other" in early modern Europe, 1453-1683 (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen)

Mustafa Soykut . Image of the "Turk" in Italy

ISLAMKUNDLICHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN . BAND 236

begründet von

Klaus Schwarz

herausgegeben von

Gerd Winkelhane

KLAUS SCHWARZ VERLAG

·

BERLIN

ISLAMKUNDLlCHE UNTERSUCHUNGEN . BAND 236

Mustafa Soykut Image of the "Turk" in Italy History of �he "Other" in Early Modern Europe: 1453 -1683

A

KLAUS SCHWARZ VERLAG

•

BERLIN

•

2001

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Soykut, Mustafa: Image of the "Turk" in Italy : a history of the "other" in early modern Europe;

1453-1683/ Mustafa Soykut. - Berlin : Schwarz, 2001 (Islamkundliche Untersuchungen; Bd. 236) Zugl.: Hamburg, Univ., Diss., 2000 ISBN 3-87997-289-3

Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Ohne ausdrückliche Genehmigung des Verlages ist es nicht gestattet, das Werk oder einzelne Teile daraus nachzudrucken oder zu vervielfältigen. © Gerd Winkeihane, Berlin 2001.

Klaus Schwarz Verlag GmbH, Postfach 410240, 0-12112 Berlin ISBN 3-87997-289-3 Druck: Offsetdruckerei Gerhard Weinert GmbH, 0-12099 Berlin

ISSN 0939-1940 ISBN 3-87997-289-3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst for the scholarship that it provided for the present research. A special thank goes to Ingeborg Sonsuz from the Gennan Embassy in Ankara for all the encouragement throughout my studies. Likewise, I would like to thank also Ahmet Evin for providing the necessary contacts with the Gennan academia. I am most grateful to all the members Mioni family in Padua for all the hospitality that they have offered to me during my research in Italy. I would like to thank especially my friend Anna and her father Alberto Mioni, not only as a host, but also as an effervescent inspirer in academic matters. Without Professor Mioni's circle of Veneto academics, the present book would not have come to existence. In this respect, it has been a most felicitous event having met Paolo Preto from Padua University, whose contribution to the present work has been immense. I am also grateful to the most pleasant character of Gaetano Platania and his guidance into the Vatican libraries. The present book would have not existed, if it were not for the most full­ hearted assistance and encouragement of the two women who have been my supervisors: namely Petra Kappert from Hamburg University and Nur Bilge Criss from Bilkent University in Ankara. I would like to thank them both immensely. It is impossible to do justice to all the people as one says in Turkish "who added some salt into the soup". Lastly, I thank my family for always having supported me in my projects. -

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE

Xl

CHAPTER I The "Turk" as the Antithesis of the European

1

The Turk as representative of the "other"

3

CHAPTER 11 Italian Images of Islam and the Turks as its Banner-Holders: 1453 to the Eighteenth Century

15

CHAPTER III Apostolic Dreams of European Unity and the Turks

46

The Fifteenth Century Ousader Idea

48

An Account of the Ottoman Incursion in Friuli

56

From the First Siege of Vienna (1529) to the Mtennath of Lepanto (1571)

62

CHAPTER IV The Seventeenth Century Until the Final War in 1683

67

Marcello Marchesi: A bellicose oration to Pope Paul V

69

Commentary on Marchesi's manuscript

80

Congregazione di Propaganda Fide

83

Angelo Petricca da Sonnino

84

Treatise on the easy wry ifdefeating the Turk

87

Commentary on Petricca's Manuscript

99

The "Turkish Question" and European Unity

107

CHAPTER V A New Vision from Venice: Della Letteratura de' Turchi

112

CONCLUSION

148

APPENDIX I Monsignor Marcello Marchesi, "The war against the Turk": AI/a Santici di nostro Signore Papa Pa% Quinto Beatissimo Padre 154

APPENDIX 11 Angelo Petricca da Sonnino, Trattato del modo facile d'espugnare il Turco, e discacciarlo dalli molti Regni che possiede in Europa. Composto dal padre Maestro Angelo Petricca da Sonnino Min: Conven: gia Vicario Patriarcale di Constantinopoli, Commissario gnle in Oriente, e Prefetto de Missionarij di Valacchia, et Moldavia 164

BIBLIOGRAPHY

174

APPENDIX III List of manuscripts and of original source frontispieces

192

INDEX

208

PREFACE

T

he present book came into existence as a result of the research that the author made in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia and Biblioteca Marciana of Venice and Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana of the Vatican City in Spring-Summer 1998. The idea behind the present study was to bring together a comprehensive work on the Turkish image in Italy in the Early Modem Age, studying its origins, development and historical meaning that it represented for Italy between 1453 and 1683, that is, the conquest of Constantinople and the second siege of Vienna by the Ottomans. The word "Turk" is used in the book, to denote the Ottomans, and the two words have been used interchangeably, although remaining conscious of the fact that "Ottoman" denotes a far larger multi-ethnic entity than the Turks, who were only one of the ethnicities - the most dominant one - in the Ottoman Empire. In this respect, the word Turk is used more like the European historians have been using it, rather than the Turkish ones. The pioneer work of excellent documentation of Prof. Paolo Preto of Padua UniversitY, published twenty five years ago, as well as Prof. Preto's personal guidance constituted a milestone for the pursuit of the present study on the Venetian component of the book However, nothing quite like the comprehensive work of Preto has been produced on the Turkish image in Venice since twenty five years. Therefore, the study of this theme which fell into oblivion for some decades was taken up by the present author, incorporating also the role of the Papacy in creation of the Turkish image in Italy. The valuable guidance of Prof. Gaetano Platania2 from the University of Viterbo, enabled the study of the Vatican archives, and the book unifying data from the Venetian and Roman libraries came into existence. The aim of the book has been to leave the reader as often as possible with the testimony of the original sources, backing up the theoretical part with the vaned and rich secondary sources in Italian, English, German and I

PaoIo Preta, Vmzza e I Turrhi, (Firenze: G. C Sansoni Editore, 1975.)

2

See the works of Gaetano PIatania in the bibliography. Xl

Prefaa!

Turkish. In this way, the reader would have been introduced into the theme with the secondary sources, left with appreciation of the first-hand material, followed with the final comments and intetpretation of the author. The use of secondary sources in Turkish acted as a good element of counter-balance on a subject like the Turkish image in Europe, which has been material for a good deal of misperception as well as cultural antagonism. CDnsidering the lack of a comprehensive work on the Turkish image in Italy, the present work hopes to have filled the gap, in the absence of much scholarly work on the development, description, as well as political and cultural functions of the Turkish image created in Italy between 1453 and 1683. That is, the period which coincides with the apex of power of the Ottoman Empire and its interaction with Europe in general and with Italy in particular, on the political, military and cultural plains. The hereto existing works have made valuable contributions to specific aspects of the Turkish image created as a result of these intricate and multiple-sided relations, without which, the present book could not have come into existence. However, what the present work claims is to have had, is an all-encompassing approach towards the plurality and intricacies of the Turkish image in Italy from mainly the military and political- and finally cultural points of view, which is the by-product of the former two. .As further explained in the following chapter, sources of popular nature, such as popular literature, songs, poetry and the like (although are a source of immense richness and variet)J have been excluded from the present study on grounds that their popular, and most importantly, uninformed nature often based on popular myths and legends, would have deviated from the course and general structure of the work It is believed that such research is more appropriate for scholars of literature, and therefore thought to have been outside the scope of the present study. Another novelty that the present study claims to have accomplished is a balanced approach towards the theme of the Turkish image in Italy through original sources from Venice and Rome together. Testimonies of sources from these two cities representing very diverse, and often opposing and clashing ideologies, give the reader a more complete idea of the creation of the Turkish image and the vision of the "Turk" in Italy, rather than a work which would have studied only one of the sources claiming to represent the Italian point of view in the subject period.

X11

Preface Last but not the least, the present study stands to have realised the important task of having translated a considerable amount of first-hand sources and having made it public for the use of the anglophone scholar, in an area that remained material for Italian academicians, with few non-Italian scholars. Furthennore, the present author is the first Turkish scholar to have made a comprehensive research of this kind with rich original sources, on a theme that the Turkish academia hereto largely ignored, partly due to linguistic difficulties. TIlls highlights the relevance of the present work when the importance of the Italian sources are considered, especially thinking of the later fifteenth century and the sixteenth century, when the Veneto­ Ottoman relations were at their peak. Q)nsidering the rich source of works of Venetian origin on the Ottoman Empire, where one has a shortage of infonnation of the Ottoman sources themselves on the social and cultural aspects of the Ottoman society, due to the official character of the Ottoman archives, the Italian sources become even more important. The reader will appreciate that the comprehension and the translation of material written in a period of history where no standard Italian existed, often with convoluted language, has been a philological and a linguistic undertaking of its own. The testimony of the Vatican sources becomes clear in the book, in the fourth chapter on the seventeenth century crusader idea, which is an aspect of European history that remained relatively neglected. The first chapter presents an overview of the Turkish image with its general characteristics within the historical context of its development. It starts out with the clash of two cultural and religious spheres of civilisation, namely those of the Christian and Islamic ones from the birth and expansion of Islam, a religion with claim of universality. It follows with the beginnings of the shift of power in Islamic civilisation from the Arabs to the Turks in the eleventh century, and the final identification of the Islamic civilisation with the Turks from the later thirteenth century onwards. The image of the Turk representing the "other" as opposed to "Europeanness" is presented in the light of first-hand testimony of literature pertaining to the prominent figures of Italian statesmen and clergymen. The following chapter on the image of Islam created in Italy, has been based on the classical studies of scholars like D'Ancona, Malvezzi and Curcio and Lewis.3 In addition to these classical commentaries, it sheds light to the 3 Alessandro D 'Ancona, "La leggenda di Maometto in Occidente" , in Giomale Starico deIJa Letteratura ltaliam, (Torino: XIII, 1889); Aldobrandino Malvezzi, L 'Islarrisrrv e la Odtura

Xli

Preface image that Islam and the Turks as its prime agents enjoyed, in the eye of the Italians with testimony of less-known manuscripts of Marchesi\ da Lagni5, Petricca\ and the works known to the scholars of the present theme, namely those of Bessarion7 and Soranzo8• The third chapter is both an introduction to the following chapter and an introduction to the role of military confrontation between the Italian states and the Ottomans in creating the Turkish image in Italy between the two fateful dates of the fall of Constantinople and the second siege of Vienna by the Ottomans. This chapter sheds light not only on the dynamics of the idea of crusade against the Turks, but also brings a new interpretation to the function of the Turkish image as a uniting factor for Europe in general, and for Catholic Europe under the auspices of the Roman Church against Protestant Europe in particular. The fourth chapter concentrates on the period from the aftermath of the battle of Lepanto in 1571 until the second siege of Vienna in 1683. This chapter sheds light on the less-researched aspects of the Papal policy in the seventeenth century towards the Ottoman Empire and the function of the Turkish image in European politics in the same century. The subject is studied through the testimony of two unpublished manuscripts of the seventeenth century, namely those of Marcello Marchesi (his first letter to

E uropea, (Firenze: Sansoni Editore, 1956); Carlo G.u-cio, E urupa. Storia di tmldea, (Firenze: Valleccru Editore, 1958); Bemard Lewis, Islam and the W13t, (New York-Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.) 4

Monsignor Marcello Marchesi, op. cit.

5 Fra Paolo Da Lagni, Mermriale di jra Pado da Lagpi cappua:ino a1 pontefoe I nna:errz o XI nel quale si dinn;tra la neassita de' Principi Cristiarri di pmeni:re if Turro cd dUhiarargli la g;terra, 1679, (Gtta del Vaticano: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana: Vat. Iat. 6926.) 6

Angelo Petricca da Sonnino, op. cit.

7 Scipione Ammirato, Qazioni del Signar Sdpione A mmirato a diW'Si principi irTtomD ai preparirrmti cbe s'ambbono a farsi wntra la poterrza del Turm. Aggiuntioni nel fire le lettere & orazioni di Monsignar B13sarione Gtrdinal Niamo scritte a Principi d'Italia, (Fiorenza: Per Filippo Giunti, 1598.)

8

Lazaro Soranzo, L 'Ohorrnnno, (Ferrara: Vittorio BaIdini-Stampatore CameraIe, 1598.) XlV

Preface Pope Paul V) and Angelo Petricca da Sonnino9, whose original transcriptions are presented to the reader in the appendix section. The Turkish image which is thematically presented until the fifth chapter, is recapitulated in the form of an epitome in the last chapter, whose article version has been published separately.lO The chapter is built around the very important work of the Venetian ambassador Giambattista Dona, DelIa Letteratura de' TurdJill, an almost forgotten book, which appeared in a publication in detail for the first time in the author's mentioned article as a separate theme, and for the first time ever in the English language. The work of Dona, however, is not the only important less-known work among the original sources. This final chapter covers a wide range of original and secondary sources written on the theme of the Turkish image, and describes its development and transfonnation well into the age of Enlightenment, where the subject-period of the dissertation ends. Finally, the present study claims to have filled a gap in the study of the theme "Image of the 'Turk' in Italy' in Early Modem Europe. It is hoped that it succeeded in bringing together hereto existing material on the subject which remained separate, and to have organised it in an organic unity, having added additional less-studied and/or undiscovered material. This study hopes also to shed light on many current debates in Turkish-European relations, which contemporary Turkish and European scholars of political science and international relations try to answer with a history-free approach. Although beyond the aims of the present dissertation, it is hoped that the present work may also help a re-evaluation of the Turkish-European relations, its drawbacks as well as its positive points. The present work does not claim to have said the final word on current Turkish-European relations, rather it may be considered a pioneer in future academic debates on the subject. In this respect, the present study may deepen the understanding of a current and

9

ibid.

10

Mustafa Soykut, "The Development of the Image 'Turk' in Italy through Delta de' Turrhi of Giambattista Dona", (Malta), Journal if Mediterranean Studies, Volume 9, Number 2, (1999). Letteratura 11

Giovanni Battista Donado, Delta Letteratura de' Turrhi, (Venetia: Per Andrea Poletti, 1688.) xv

Prefaa?

popular issue, through the methodology of classical historical research, which remained neglected for a long time.

XVI

CHAPTER I The "Turk" as the Antithesis of the "European"

I

slam represented for Italy and for Emope, a threat of military natme as well as that of a cultmal one in terms of representing the "other", vis-a.-vis Emope. Emope defined itself along the lines of Clui.stendom, especially beginning with the conquests of Spain and Sicily by the Arabs in the eighth and the ninth centmies. As a result of the rapid Ottoman conquests in Eastern Emope, from the midst of fifteenth centmy onwards, when thinking of Islam, what was in the E mopean mind were the Ottoman Tmks. While the image of Islam as well as that of the "Tmk" served to define "Emopeanness" as opposed to the "other", this image gradually started to change towards the end of the seventeenth centmy with Ottoman decline. From the fall of Constantinople; the Italians as well as the general Emopean public opinion identified the Tmks as the anti-thesis of Europe, and everything that the European civilisation represented. The identification of Islam as the ant i-thesis of Clui.stendom and E mopean civilisation was already present by 1453 - the fall of Constantinople - thanks to the rapid expansion of the Muslims within a century of the birth of the last heavenly religion. The Arabs had conquered by the eighth centmy, Spain, North Africa and the Middle East, which were Clui.stian lands until a centmy before. Coincidentally, in 1071 when the Seljukides were opening the gates of Anatolia to the Turks by winning the battle of Manzikert; the following year, the Nonnans had conquered Palermo from the Arabs, the last bastion of Muslim Sicily. Although it took a few centmies more for Clui.stendom in 1492, to completely cast away the Muslim Arab presence in Emope with the roconquista in Spain, with the final passage of the Muslim banners from the hands of the Arabs to the Tmks in 1453 - the fall of the last Clui.stian bastion in the Levant and the fall of the millennium-old Eastern Roman Empire - the Muslim presence in Emope was to remain until the present day, as an inseparable part of European reality.

1

Imt� ifthe "Turk" in Italy It is within this historical perspective that the crucial role of the Ottoman Turks, as a continuation of their Seljukide brethren should be seen. The Italian sources, perhaps better than most of its contemporaries reflect the worries and fears caused by this new alien presence in Europe. The Ottomans, who managed to conquer almost the entirety of the Balkans by mid-fifteenth century, not only were threatening and diminishing the Venetian commercial presence in Eastern Mediterranean, but were also posing a threat to the Italian peninsula with naval incursions of pirates under the Ottoman flag, and furthermore with the incursions of the Turkish troops well into the Venetian terra fenru, in Friuli in 1473, and the conquest of Otranto in southern Italy, off the coast of Albania in Puglia, in 1480. It is not surprising that there is an abundance of literature of official, as well as popular nature on the Turks, starting with the second half of the fifteenth century, only to increase to vast quantities by the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries with the increasing might of the Ottomans reaching their apex under Siileyman the Magnificent (1520-1566). Although the Ottomans did not make significant additional conquests in the seventeenth century in Europe, their consolidated military presence was sufficient to perpetuate the Turkish terror to make plans of crusades projected by Italians under the encouragement of the Catholic Church well into the mid­ seventeenth century, not so far away from the Ottoman failure in the second siege of Vienna in 1683. The genealogy of image creation about Islam in Europe had three elements. The first one was the military one: namely, the conquests undertaken by the Arabs first, in the Middle East, North Mrica, Spain and Sicily between the seventh and the ninth centuries, in these lands which were considered to be the natural territories of Christendom. Due to these conquests, with the shrinking of Christendom to Europe, came the conquests of the Ottoman Turks in Eastern Europe starting in the late fourteenth century. The second element was the theological problems arising with the arrival of Islam, the last religion of the Judeo-Christian line, which claimed to revise and replace Christianity as a universal religion. The third one was the general lack of political unity in Christendom - which was now Europe - that coincided with the apex of Muslim Arab expansion as well as that of the Ottoman one. As Bernard Lewis points out the oddity of talking about "Europe and Islam" - one of which is a ff!CYi!faphiad entity, and the other a religjous one - states that Europe came to represent the antithesis of Islam. 2

A ntithesis

ifthe "E urvpean"

This was a result of the concept of Europe transfonned into a post-medieval secular re-definition of what was once called Christendom.! Under these circumstances Islam, and later, the Turks provided the general European mind with the perfect example of the other. Thus the image that the Turks enjoyed in Europe, hence Italy, is strictly connected with the general image that Islam enjoyed in Europe. The victory at the battle of Malazgirt (Manzikert) in i071 won by the Seljukide Turks against the Byzantines, represents the milestone for opening the gates of the Eastern Roman Empire to the Muslim Turks. The same years mark the Nonnan conquest of Palenno in 1072, the last bastion of Muslim presence in Sicily. The gradual passage of the banners of Islam from Arab hands to those of the Turks, marked the irrevocable passage of Christian Byzantine Anatolia into Muslim Turkish hands, which was Christendom par excellena? from the time of Constantine the Great. This was a task left incomplete by the Arabs. However, its real importance sterns from the fact that the Seljukide Turkish conquest of Anatolia in the eleventh century paved the way for Islam in the coming centuries, to become an indelible part of Eastern Europe, unlike its destiny in the Iberian peninsula and Sicily.

The Turk as representative of the "other" One of the most curious facts that exists on the sources that gave infonnation on the Turks to the general Italian public is, that as it was the custom of those days, many of the books on the Turks were copied from one another without citing their sources of infonnation. The curiosity about the Turks was so high in this period, that preoccupation with fame as well as with money produced an immense quantity of books, manuscripts, pamphlets and travel accounts on the Turks. The relazioni of the Venetian ambassadors or of legates of other Italian states must be considered separately from the aforementioned works. The latter were written for political, espionage or simply for pragmatic infonnation pwposes, to bolster political or commercial aims. The fonner were read merely for satisfying the curiosity of the intellectuals of the time. A third category of sources on the Turkish image, are the literary and folk literature works, which will not be examined in the present work, as it was mentioned earlier in the introduction. A good example of books written for the intellectuals of the time, is Castumi et mxIi I

Bernard Lewis, L 'E uropa e !'Islam, (Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1999), pp.5-6.

3

,I

ImtfJ? ifthe "Turk" in Italy particdan delIa

Uta de' Turrhi of Luigi Bassan02 published in Rome in 1545. Almost an identical text of this book, with some additions, was published a hundred years later in Venice in 1654, edited by the Count Maiolino Bisaccioni under the title, Historia umW'Saie dell'angjne, guerre et irrperio de Turrhi as a re-edition of another sixteenth century Venetian writer, Francesco Sansovino.3 This indicates the demand on information on the Turks, since a century after almost an identical book was published. It also indicates to the fact that information about the Turks that circulated in the intellectual milieu, was not always updated, and usually definitely not first-hand. This was certainly not the case for the Venetian ambassadorial dispatches that came at least once a month from the Ottoman capital, coupled with the relazione of each b:tilo upon his return to Venice. Although the ambassadorial reports that the Papacy enjoyed were of different interest, usually concerned with the missions, and usually had as their sources the missionaries, Rome was also not badly infonned about the state of affairs in the Ottoman Empire. As the "most favoured nation" among the Italian states, there is good reason to presume that Venetians occasionally provided also the other Italian states with information, as the considerable quantity of Venetian relazioni found in the Vatican library, and the indelible presence of the Venetian legates in Rome suggest. As Lucette Valensi says about the political career of the Venetian patricians, "Embassies - ordinary as well as extraordinary - were part of the atYSUS honomrn, among which the position of b:tilo in Istanbul was the most prestigious and most important that a patrician could hope for" and adds: "Copies of these [relazioni] circulated in the city [Venice] and were acquired by collectors both in Venice and in other cities as far away as Rome and Oxford".4 This is one of the reasons why the relazioni, not only of the

2

M. Luigi da Zara Bassano, I Casturri et i Mali Partia:lari de la Vita de' Turrhi, Roma: 1545, ristampato da Franz Babinger, (Monaco di Baviera: Casa Editrice Max Hueber, 1963.) J

Francesco Sansovino, Histmia uni'lmaledell'ori[jne, g;terreet irrperiode Turrhi, (Venetia: n.p., 1654.) On Sansovino see also Giovanni Sforza, "Francesco Sansovino e le sue opere storiche", in Menvrie della Reaie A ccadernia delle Scierrze di Torino, ser. II, t.xLVII, ('forino: n.p., 1897). 4

Lucette Valensi, "The Making of a Political Paradigm: The Ottoman State and Oriental Despotism" in The Transmision if Odture in Emiy MaIem Europe, eds. Anthony Grafton and Ann Blair, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990), pp.l76177. 4

A ntithesis

ifthe "E urvpean"

Venetian ambassadors, but also those reports of Italians written in the relazione style, had considerable influence from 1550 to the beginning of 1700, in fonning the Turkish image in Europe outside of Italy as well. In the 1500s, there were the famous works of people like Augerius BusbequiusS and his Turkish Letters, however, concerning the quantity and the richness of infonnation that they had, the sheer number and regularity of the reiazioni made them far more influential in their times. Due to the number and accuracy of the reiazioni, but also thanks to the influx of Byzantine expatriates and the literature they produced, Venice served as the opinion creator of Europe on the Turks between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries.6 For centuries, from the very beginnings of interactions between the Muslims and Christians, Turks represented for the European the "other" par excellena/ To the Protestant, it represented the evilness of the Catholic; to the Catholic, the heresy of the Protestant; the man of the Renaissance identified the Turk with the Persians as enemies of the Greek civilisation, and of the European civilisation per se; to the Church in Rome, they were the arch­ enemies of Christendom to wage war at all costs; and to Venice, an indelible "infidel" commercial partner, with whom amicable relations were of vital importance for its very existence. , Luther was of the conviction that the Catholics and Turks (Muslims) were similar. According to him, they both thought that God gave help only to the pious, and that like the Pope, the Turks were also not going to ascend to the Father through Christ, because the Turks did not recognise Christ's

5

On Busbequius, see Zweder von Martels, "Impressions of the Ottoman Empire in the Writings of Augerius Busbequius (1520/1-1591)", in Journal if Mediterranean Studies, Vohune 5, Number 2, (Malta: Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta, 1995.)

6

Antonio Carile, "La crudele tirannide: archetipi politici e religiosi dell'immaginario turchesco da Bisanzio a Venezia" in Verrzia e I Turrhi, ed. Carlo Pirovano, (Milano: Electa Editrice, 1985), p.76. 7 On the concept of the "othemess" see also Kate Fleet, "Italian Perceptions of the Turks in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries", in Journal if Mediterranean Studies, Volume 5, Number 2, (Malta: Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta, 1995.)

5

ltnl[f ifthe "Turk" in Italy divine nature, and because the pope had betrayed him.s Strangely enough, for another Protestant and an opponent of the Pope like Elisabeth I of England, the Turks and Protestants were quite similar. In 1583, Elisabeth I sent her ambassador William Harborne to sultan Murad III (1574-1595), described as a "totally lost Calvinist" by the Venetian b::tilo in Qmstantinople, Gianfrancesco Morosini, for the aim of promoting England's trade interests in the Orient. The letter that she gave to the ambassador contained the affinnation that friendship between Turkey and England was natural. Since France and Spain and especially the Pope were idol worshippers, and England abhorred sacred images as much as the Muslims, and that their religion was greatly similar to the Turkish one as much as a Christian confession could be.9 Other opinions on the religion of the Turks were made in the relazioni, which was the result of more accurate and truthful description of the Turks: The Turks really venerate the name of our lord Jesus Christ; and their opinion is almost the same as that of the Arians, as will be shown as follows: Firstly they say that there have been four preachers of the law on earth. The first one was Moses, who left the Bible. The second one was David, who similarly left the Psalms, and these were sent by God, as the first law had been trespassed by men. However, as that of David was also trespassed by human wickedness, came Jesus the saviour, of whom they have such an opinion that he was the messenger of God, but not his son; that he was born of Virgin Mary ( they believe Our Dame to be virgin, as the Turks also believe that there be sons not conceived of man, who they call nefis), that he had lived without any sin; that his precepts are sacred, and that his miracles were real. They believe in all 8 Franco Cardini, Studi sulla stmia p.222.

e

sull'idea di crrxiata, (Roma: Editori Laterza, 1993),

9 Rialdi Ordinis PrarJicatomm Contra sectamMahunrticamnon indignus scitu libellus. Parisiis, off. Henrici Stephani, 1511 in L'lslanisnv e la Odtura Europea, Aldobrandino Malvezzi, (Firenze: Sansoni Editore,1956), pp.261-262. 6

A ntithesis

ifthe "E uropean"

his life, until when he went to speak in the woods, but that he was not captured or martyred, and that in his guise the Jews had crucified another body, and that Jesus from then on went in soul and body to heaven, where, on God's lap he enjoys eternal glory. Therefore, they hate the Jews, because they had such a perfidious mind to catch and condemn a man sent by God to give the law to the world; and thy hate Christians, since they accuse them of not having written the truth about his life, because they abused and perverted his commandments, and because they venerate the cross, upon which the Jews tried to vituperate the sacred and holy prophet Christ; therefore it was witnessed (they say) that God being infuriated wanted to send another prophet, that is Mohanuned, to renew the 10 law. The aforementioned citation from an anonymous relazione dated circa 1579, presumably belongs to the hailo Giovanni Corraro, or to his secret�l; and describes the Turks as similar to the Arians, which was considered to be heresy of Christianity, founded by a priest of Alexandria named Arius (250336). Arius denied the full deity of Christ, and asserted that he was created by God and had the "likeness" of God in him. Arianism which was well-spread among the subjects of the Roman Empire, started posing a threat to the political authority of the Church, which held to the orthodox view that Christ was in body and nature divine and the son of God. The political issue was solved by the first ecumenical council convoked in Nicaea in 325 AD., under the auspices of Emperor Constantine (b. circa 280-d.337) condemned Arianism, but could not eradicate it. Although it is the common attitude of Catholic theologians to draw parallels between Arianism and Islam12, the above attitude of the Italians not only drew considerable parallels between the Turks and the oriental rites of Christianity, as the degeneration of a long10

Eugenio Alberi (ed), Relazioni degji Animciatori Vtn'ti al Senato, Serie Ill, Volume I, (Firenze: Tipografia e Calcografia all'Insegna di dio, 1840), pp.455-456.

11

Eugenio Alberi, ed, op. cit., p.438.

12

The Cathdic E rx:;dopedia. http://www.newadvent.o�/cathenl01707c.htm

7

ItrUlF ifthe "Turk JJ in Italy

rooted oriental heresy, but - as it will be seen in the proceeding chapters many Renaissance writers also drew considerable parallels between the Turks and the Persians.lJ In both of the analogies, be it as in the case of an oriental heresy, or in the case of the Persians as opposed to the Greeks, the Turks were what the man of Renaissance saw as the antithesis of the civilised world. The Persians were destroyers of the values of antiquity, and the oriental heretics, as in the case of the Arians, did not recognise the authority and civilisation of Rome. And for the man of the Renaissance, both ancient Greece and Rome were sources of inspiration. There is a surprisingly abundant literature tracing the origins of the Turks back to the Scythians, which were a folk of Asian descent, however, with nothing much to do with the Turks. Others claimed the origin of the Turks back to the Trojans. Many confused the Turks with the Saracens, Moors, Arabs or Muslims in general. Still for many, the word Turk was used simultaneously to denote a Muslim, as the expression il forsi TU"IW (to become a Turk) simply meant to convert to Islam, originally meant for the ri� or the Christians who converted to Islam. For most Italians, clerics as well as secular intellectuals, Turks were the incarnation of the anti-Christ. Apart from these negative characteristics, they have also represented an admirable example for Christendom of how a mighty state should be. The Turks were admired and praised by many Italians for their military valour, obedience to authority, discipline, perseverance, justice, order and many other qualities that the Italians perceived to lack in Christendom in general and in the Italian states in particular. Another Venetian reIozione praises the Turks as follows: They tenibly fear their ruler and they are very obedient to their superiors in such a way, that when they are in the presence of the Great Turk [the sultan], one would not hear even the faintest noise - a marvellous thing - which is worthy of setting an example to the Christian nation.14

IJ See R Schwoebel, The Shadow if the 1517), (Nieuwkoop: n.p., 1967.)

14

Crescent: The Renaissance

Eugenio Alberi, ed., op. cit., p.397. 8

[mtge if the Turk (1453-

A ntithesis

ifthe "E wupean"

Another fact that was a matter of praise among the Italians was the institution of the der.j£rrfF, or in other words, the Ottoman state policy of taking Christian children in their early teens from their families and raising them as part of the Janissary cOIpS or as part of the Ottoman bureaucracy. In the subject period, almost all of the high-ranking state officials were of Christian origin, raised within the deqinn: system. The Roman pilgrim, Pietro della Valle, describes admiration for the Ottoman capital in the following words in his travel accounts published in Rome in 1662. One day when the dimn was being held (it is customary to do it several times a week) which is the council of state here, or rather as we would say in Rome: the concistoro, where one would treat not only matters of state, but also those of justice. I went near the gate of the serai to see the viziers enter, as well as other major ministers who were present there. All of which go by horse, with pomp and escort, almost like the cardinals in Rome. However, with all the good grace of the things of my land, one must confess, that this one in Constantinople is much more majestic, concerning the great quantity of people, all of which appear not only in solemn dresses, all according to his office, but also with superb and rich dresses, the best of them that everyone can [afford]. They definitely become very impressive. When one further considers that all of them are slaves, and that even among the greatest ones, there is nobody born noble, like in our countries, it IS creates less admiration in me, with all their ostentation. The words of della Valle, which reflect both admiration and contempt for this Ottoman custom, was typical of the Italian envoys and ambassadors. They mostly came from noble families, for whom it was a point of admiration and a scandal together as to how such a vast empire could be governed virtually by slaves. These would not even have been admitted to

15 Pietro della Vaile, Via� di Pietro della Valle, It Peilegrino, Parte Prima: Turchia, (Roma: Apresso Iacomo Dragondelli, 1662), pp.44-45.

9

their presence in Italy. Yet the scandal was that in the Ottoman capital, these nobles were the ones to ask for an audience with these slaves. It is , however, true that this fonn of government has also given the Turks not little utility to enlarge their state, since all of them are slaves trained in a vile way, the sultans managed to keep them more easily in that state of obedience which is necessary for the conservation of the states, which, in the Turks' case has been very big. Since, apart from being trained in such a vile and abject way, in the government there's also a very useful way for the preservation and enlargement of the state, (and this is perhaps more true for the Turks than elsewhere) which is the hope for prizes and the fear of punishment, for they are ruled by a single prince, upon which all the commodities, life and honours depend, just as all the created things receive their vigour from the sun. [ ] those who commit errors cannot escape so easily, like the delinquents do in our countries; furthennore, the distance of the borders makes it difficult to escape, as the bordering countries are, of religion and ideas, very inimical to the Turks, from which, those who escape do not expect any security. Therefore, no homicides take place among 16 the Turks [. .. ] .....

..

This exaggerated view that no homicides took place in the Ottoman Empire is indicative of the high esteem that the Italians had for the Ottomans. Such myths, however not totally untrue, become clear, considering the reign of bandits in much of Italy in the fifteenth and the sixteenth century. Rumour among the Venetians had, that there were more murders committed in Venice in one night, than all of the murders committed in CDnstantinople in a year. CDnsidering the other face of the rirTrl£lFli (conversion) scandal for the aristocracy of the time, Lucetta Scaraffia demonstrated, that within the Mediterranean milieu, there had been approximately three hundred thousand 16

Eugenio Alberi, ed., op. cit., pp.327-328. 10

A ntithesis

ifthe "E uropeanJJ

between 1500 and 1600. "Most of which were slaves and they saw conversion to Islam, as a way to improve their situation and attaining e th freedom either by concession of the master or by escaping, thanks to a lesser degree of smveillance."17 However, Scaraffia adds that also among the free people, there were those who converted to Islam in great numbers willingly, since they saw it as a way of improving their social and economic condition.ls She says that among the famous Ottomans were names like that of Ulustantinopoli", in Misadlanea Marriana, Vol. VI, ed. Marino Zorzi, (Venezia: Biblioteca

122

A New Visionfium Venice In the sixteenth century, there was an extreme interest about any news, article, book or simply pamphlet about the Turks. Evidently, the publishers made much money out of publishing these Turkish thems that almost anything was published on this subject irrespective of the reliability of its source. As it is testified in Lazzaro Soranzo's book, L Ohommno ('The Ottoman), published in Ferrara in 1598, the same year the Ottoman­ Hungarian war was going on, referred to an earlier book of Soranzo's entitled Sopra la �a de' Twrhi in OntFria (On the Turkish war in Hungary) which was evidently full of some wrong information, and the author wanted to withdraw from the milieu in which it was disseminated: '

However, knowing by experience that it was impossible if not uncomfortable to recuperate all of them, since they were disseminated and multiplied in various countries, and that furthennore, such indecent and lacerated people started to publish, as so the publishing houses do for little things - for which this century is to be blamed - printing eagerly books of little worth as long as they (the readers) are curious - as they are now - . about books which take the Turks as subject.28 One of the most famous Venetian writers of the sixteenth century Venice on the theme of the Turks, is Francesco Sansovino (Rome, 1521- Venice, 1583) , mentioned earlier. Very well aware of the demand by public curiosity to read about the Turks, Sansovino wrote numerous works on the Turks, whose sources were not only the books of his earlier colleagues such as Angiolelli, Bassano, Spandugino, but also leakage of information from the baila and the rrdazioni, travellers, pilgrims and merchants who went to the Levant, in short any source of information available at the time. In one of Sansovino's books, Mehmed the Conqueror is described as follows:

Nazionale Marciana, 199 1); Giaeomo E. Carretto, "Bessarione e il Tureo", in B£5sarione e l'Umm£sirm, ed. Gianfraneo Fiaeeadori, (Napoli: Vivariwn, 1994.) 28 Lazzaro Soranzo, op.eit., extraet from the last word of the book.

123

Imt� cfthe "Turk " in Italy

[Mehmed was] very shrewd and had a bright intelligence, because of which he was interested in various things. Beside other things, he was very fond of the study of astrology and used to say that he had foreseen, thanks to that science, that he would become the ruler of the world. Apart from this, he knew five languages besides his natural one, since he certainly spoke Greek, Latin, Arabic, Chaldean [called also Chaldaic, is synonymous with the biblical language Aramaic, called also Syriac] and Persian. He had extreme pleasure reading great things in these languages, among which coming before all were the matters on Caesar and Alexander the Great, whom he had pursued to imitate, enjoying very much to be considered an other Alexander the Great.29 [Bayezid II] enjoyed peace, as he had a serene soul and a pleasurable nature. He was intelligent and used to study philosophy and especially he liked the works of Averroes [i.e. Ibn Rushd. 1 126 Cordoba- 1 198 Marrakesh]. He was in brief, a prince of good nature.3D [Selim I] was especially fond of the leaders of antiquity like Alexander the Great and Caesar the Dictator, and he was always reading their affairs translated into the Turkish language.31 This theme that the Ottoman sultans immensely enjoyed reading the histories of Alexander the Great, is encountered also in the aforementioned book published in Rome earlier in 1545 by Luigi Bassano, I Catumi et i Mali Partialari de la Vita de' Turrhi (The Particular Ways and Customs of the Life of the Turks) . In his book written during the office of (Damat) Riistem P that the sultans were especially delighted in reading the history of Alexander the Great written in Arabic.32 These kind of similarities in the books of different writers confinns the fact that they most often copied from each other, rather than verifying the truth about these facts, and testify to the dearth of original infonnation. It is a recurrent theme in books written in this period to make allusions to the fact that the Ottoman lands were once owned by either Christians or by the predecessors of Christian culture. In this respect, geographical names of places in Anatolia are almost exclusively written in the Greco-Roman version such as Bithinia, CilUia, Gtppada:ia, O:ddea, Phrigja and so on. Considering that the word Anatolia in Turkish which is of Greek origin - is inseparable from the Turkish mother tongue, it probably is not a shocking fact. However, the habit of tracing one's origins to the great figures of the antiquity, with overwhehning references to the historical figures of the time (i.e. Alexander the Great), was a double effort of showing firstly the alien origin of the Turks as Scythians, being members of a barbaric nation of the Asian steppes, who conquered the lands which once belonged to people of their own cultural sphere. Second, it was an attempt to presume, or at least to ignore the fact that this barbaric nation could have anyone to read as worthy literature except the very works of the predecessors of the Christian civilisation, of which the Renaissance Europe delighted in seeing itself as the heir. In this respect, a work like Gli A nnali TurdJeschi of Sansovino stating Averroes (Ibn Rushd) - belonging to the enemys cultural sphere - being read by Bayezid 11, an Ottoman sultan, is rather the exception than the rule. The confinnation of the rule, perhaps right until Dona's book is the enemy image of the Turk, whose euphoric emotions gave birth to a myriad of anti-Turkish literary works, particularly after the Ottoman defeat at Lepanto, which was the first instarv:e for the Europeans to shake the image in their eyes of the imincible Turk. An exemplary of the short-lived post-Lepanto euphoria is characterised by the following Venetian sonnet:

Ben, sier Seiin, sela sta de wuo la crUra de sti na;tn wtizai 32

M. Luigi da Zara Bassano, op.cit., p. 1 10.

125

Imt� cfthe «Turk " in lta/y s(3santa rrile turrhi, e �i con tresento to We se anda in bruo «Caronre, aspetta !'ane!7'l? ai paluo d'A l1, PiaEi cv i aitri A /ab;dai. Fa me'! MUhes, con quei to Bassa� rnia/eg;t la schincada me ti abuo «0Jepensawtu a rmter a mint:hion la ltalia e Spagpa, con la to canaia? e a Gmsto cnxIer mepuaia Maron? 'Romt, !'A qui1a e '! L ion con le sgtiffe passar et stretto no stimt una paid, Sl me aspetta a sentir, tcf, taffe, e tijfe.33

Well, Signor Selim, it has been of velvet the league of our baptised ones [Christians]: Sixty thousand Turks and the converted, with three hundred sails of yours went into the broth. Charon 34 awaits their souls at the swamp: Ali, Piale, with the other sons of Allah . Let your Mohanuned (?) now, with those Mas of yours, medicate the defeat which you have had. What did you think, that you could have fooled Italy and Spain with your rascals? Did you think that Mohammed could beat Christ?

33 (Anonymous, Miscellanea Marciana, 169,2), in Guido Antonio Quarti, La Battagjia di Lepanto nei Qmti Papaari Ddl'Epoot, (Milano: Istituto Editoriale Avio-Navale, 1930), pp. 128- 129. 34 The ferryman of Greek Mythology who carries the condemned souls on a ship through the Hell's swamp Styx.

126

A New Visionfivm venUe Rome [Pius V], the Eagle [Spain], and the Lion with paws [Venice] can easily pass the straits [the Dardanells], thus behold to hear their cannons, arquebuses and their swords. The literary works of the Venetians dare consider the civilised aspects of the Ottomans only after the failure at Vienna. The trerrFndous imi:nd.ble image of the Turk following the fall of Constantinople, was altered at Lepanto as the 'li:nable Turk, followed by digesting the Turk in the European mind consequently in the coming decades after the failure at Vienna of 1683, as the «nunc" irma:uous Turk of the eighteenth century. It then culminated in the second half of the nineteenth century into the image of the side mm if Europe. It is after this irma:uous Turk phase that we see the Venetians starting to write about an image of the Turk that was to produce in the coming eighteenth century Venetian literature, particularly after the treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, themes of interest about the daily and cultural life of the Turks not spoiled by themes "directly tied to war-matters or inspired to visceral hatred" .35 In DeIJa Letteratura de' TurdJi Dona could be considered heralding such a future in Venetian literature on the Turks. Although 1688, the year Delta Letteratura de' TurdJi was published, is a date barely posterior to I the defeat of Vienna, it is still anterior to - but on the eve - of rommticisation of the Orient and the appearance of the Ottoman Empire as the home of \ oriental mystery and the feminine Orient. However, in Delta Letteratura de' TurdJi, . one can feel the trend. As it is expressed by Donado: "It was thought that my principal preoccupation were to be that colossal might - as I was in its vicinity - which makes itself ever more complex, devouring the others, which had not been punished by any nation until now. In any way, it was my most precise incumbency to discover its power and weakness. Since the world, as it is in itself, does not contain anything eternal." 36 No episode in the history of Europe in the seventeenth century has attracted more attention than the second Turkish siege of Vienna. The centenary "remembrance of

35 PaoIo Preto, "Il mito del Turco nella Ietteratura veneziana" in Venezia e i Turrhi Srontri rorfronti di dtJe ci:riit2t, ed. Carlo Pirovano, (Milano: EIecta Editrice, 1985), p. 136.

e

36 Giovanni Battista Donado, op.cit., p. 2.

127

Irm� ifthe CfTurk " in Italy things past" in 1983 as well as in 1883 has produced an abundance of literature on the subject.37 It is around these years that Giambattista Dona makes his appearance in the literature on the Ottoman Empire. Dona was elected as the ambassador to Constantinople on 19 May 1680. In 1683, he was called back to Venice for surpassing his authorisation as an ambassador and was suspected of having made secret agreements with the Ottomans, after which his innocence was proved. Dona read his relazione on his mission in Constantinople, in the Venetian senate on 20 August 1684. His relazione remains to be the last one until the peace of Karlowitz.38 According to Kenneth M Setton, Dona enjoyed close relations with the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa P�a starting from 1682, for it was in the latter's interest to keep close relations with Venice for his plan to attack the Habsburgs, "bestowing gifts upon Dona,, 3\ also given that there had been peace between Venice and the Ottomans for more than a decade, which was not to be disturbed on the eve of the second siege of Vienna, and that was to come the following year.40 The DeIJa Letteratura de' Turrhi of Giambattista Dona has a great, though an ephemeral success, because evidently after centuries of Turquesque publicity obsessed by the monotony of themes of the Crusade, the wickedness, barbarities and ferocity of the Turks, many receive this book with a sigh of relief, though with inadequate means to be able to know the literary patrimony of a nation which

37 Kenneth M. Setton, V� A ustria arrl the Turks in the SezerrtEenth Century, (philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1991), p.260. 38 Nicolo Barozzi and Guglielmo Berchet, Le Relazioni de;Ji stati europei lette al Senato dagji A rrb:tsdatmi Veneziani nel Sea:to Decirmettinn Turrhia. , Volume unico-Parte 1., (Venezia: Prem.Stabil. Tip. di P. Naratovich Edit., 1871), p. 7.

39 Kenneth M. Setton, V� op. cit., p. 257. 40

ibid.

128

A New Visionfrom Veni& believed to be unable to express itself as a valid and autonomous civilisation.41

was

The term "inadequate means to be able to know the literary patrimony of a nation", used by Paolo Preto in the above citation, alludes to the fact that Giambattista Dona was neither a man of letters nor a philologist by profession. He admits to have learned some Turkish in Venice before going on to his b:tiJaggjo in Istanbul, however, neither his linguistic skills nor the availability of his time for undertaking such a work like Della Letteratura de' Turrhi were adequate. Dona was a politician by profession. He served in Venice as the member (sa7i0 of the council of Venice, he was appointed to the difficult task of ambassador to Constantinople in 1680, was called back to Venice in 1684, and incarcerated for his alleged conspiracy to make secret agreements with the Ottomans. Namely, that of having caused Venice to pay too high a sum of money as reparations for the damages caused on the Ottomans in 1682 by the quasi- Venetian subjects of Dalmatia, the Morlacchi. After his innocence was proved, his membership to the council was returned to him, and he died in 1700, at the age of seventy-six.42 It is within this historical background that Dona's book should be read. His inquisitive mind and his work should not be considered as a scholarly work of a man who is an expert on the area, but rather as the author of a pioneer work which attempted to eradicate the negative and uncouth image of the Turk in Venice (and not only in Venice) until the 1680s. The preface to his book is written by the dragoman of the Venetian embassy in Istanbul, Gian Rinaldo Carli and Pietro Dona, the son of the author. In the book it is written that G. Dona made use of Gian Rinaldo Carli for the translations of the material he has used for his book Although Dona is the first Venetian ambassador to learn some rudimentary Turkish before departing to Istanbul in Venice, his knowledge of the Turkish language was certainly not sufficient for such an undertaking. The translation of the preface to Della Letteratura de' Turrhi is as follows:

41 Paolo Preto, Vm:zia e i Ttnrhi, (Firenze: G. C Sansoru Editore, 1975), p. 345. 42 Nicolo Barozzi and GuglieLno Berchet, op. cit., p. 292.

129

Imt� ifthe "Turk " in Italy [preface] The publisher to the reader

Of the vast empire of the Turks, which extends itself to a major part of Asia, Africa and Europe, many described the countries, the nations and the traditions, not to mention the political government of the great court of the Ottoman monarchs. It is the curiosity of the French writers43 who have swpassed the Italians and the Gennans with minute diligence, that described all the sects of their religions, very sacred ceremonies, as well as the profane ones, the differences of dress of women as well as men, the civil laws and offices as well as the military ones, and the various and diverse emblems of their dignitaries, which to a major extent consist of the various and different fonns of their caps and turbans. However, of the study of the literature of the Turks, no or very little news until now has been disclosed in Europe. Moreover, the universal, or rather, the erroneous idea was diffused that the Turkish Nation were indeed ignorant of the good and fine letters, incapable of rhetoric, of poetry and were remote from the study of law, medicine, philosophy and mathematics and that it were solely devoted to the use of anns . Since military discipline and the art of war have been the areas where the Turks have made themselves excellent and terrible, they occupied, thanks to their victories, many kingdoms and provinces of Christian princes and of other neighbouring sects of theirs.44 Therefore, within a range of 43 Probably the first name that comes to one's mind is the famous Frenchman Guillarnne Postel (born in 1510), or Guglielmo Postello (as he was called in Venice), whose figure is inseparable from Venice. The manuscripts that he got hold of in his travels in the Orient are today in the San Marco Library of Venice. Postel, whose first travel commenced in the year 1 536, stayed also in Istanbul, looking for books in Chaldean. See Marion Leathers Kuntz, "L'Orientalismo di Guglielmo Postello e Venezia", in Venzia e l'Oriente, ed. Lionello Lanciotti, (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki Editore, 1987.) 44

The allusion here is to the Shiites.

130

A New Visionfrom VenUF a hundred and fifty years, six eminent authors undertook to teach the Christian princes the way to beat them in war and really to expel them from Europe. These were Gilenio Busbeqi045 and Francesco Savaro, the lord of Breves [Bresse in France?], both of them ambassadors, the fonner, that of the Emperor [03are], the latter, that of the King of France [Re Gmstianissirrv] to the Porte. One wrote in Latin on the strategy of resisting and waging war against the Turk, the other one wrote a book in the French language on the secure means of destroying the Ottoman monarchy. Subsequently, the same matter was cleverly treated by the lord of Nue in the French language, and by Lazzaro Soranz046 in Italian in the book Irrperio Gtomtno [The Ottoman Empire] and by Achille Tarducci in the discourse entitled It Turw Uncibile in UrlfFrla am m:dia:ri aiuti di Gerrrunia [The vincible Turk in Hungary with moderate aid of Germany]. Lastly the learned Giobbo LudoIfo [Hiob LudoIf, 1624- 1704], counselor of the Holy Imperial Majesty, in the book that he wrote, De bdlo amtra Turras feliciter rorfoiendo [How to successfully conduct the war against the Turks], teaches with extremely fine politics, the means of really extinguishing the Turkish Religion in Europe and of conserving and maintaining the kingdoms and provinces in obedience which have been taken away from the barbarians with the last victories. Therefore, not being there anyone who took care of researching on the study and the literature of the Turks, the senator of eminent judgement, of firm letters and of notable eloquence, Giovanni Battista Donado, in the conspicuous 4S O. G. de Busbeq, The Turkish Letters, ed. E. Forster, (Oxford: 1968.) See also Zweder von Martels, "Impressions of the Ottoman Empire in the Writings of Augerius Busbequius (1520/ 1 - 1 59 1)", jaemal ifM£Xiiterarrun r Studies, (Malta), Vo!. 5, No: 2, (1995), pp. 209-22 1. 46 See: Lazzaro Soranzo, op. cit. I t is alluded to the same Lazzaro Soranzo and his work mentioned earlier in the article.

13 1

ImtlJ? cfthe "Ywk " inltaly office of bailo in C..onstantinople for the Serenissima Republic of Venice, gave all the signs of extreme prudence, of invincible perseverance and that of unreachable zeal towards his country, who more than anyone else was able to grasp secret notices with shrewd diligence from the Turkish Empire: the illustrious relazione on the sciences of the Turks, which he wrote to his Monsignor brother the Abbot. I knowing what a pity it would have been that, it stayed buried in private hands - have implored His Excellency [Dona's brother] not to envy such rare curiosity of the men of letters and important knowledge. As a result of his benign concession, which gave honour to my printers, the learned curiosity of your erudite intelligence will be nourished, 0 Reader. May you live happily.47 -

The preface of the book is followed by the introduction of Dona in the form of a letter to his brother Andrea the abbot: 48

47 The translation of the passages from the book DelIa letterature de' Twr:hi of Dona and

the page munbers are taken from the copy found in the Bibliteca Universitaria of Padua, and due to printing inadequacies of the time, there may occur - as it sometime does shifts in page nwnbers or minuscule differences in the text, when compared with other copies of the book even when printed by the same publisher.

48 It is worth mentioning here that the epistolary style is chosen by Dona, rather than

writing about the Ottomans in the form of m:rmire; - as mostly so do the diplomats of today - or rather than writing it in the form of an unofficial relazione, besides the official one he had to submit to the senate. Interestingly enough, one sees the same deliberate choice also in an other more famous work of similar nature: namely, the Turkish Letters of Busbeq, the ambassador to Turkey of the Habsburg Empire. As Zweder von Martels puts it: "As a diplomat and servant of the Emperor, Busbequius had to be more cautious than others in airing his views and he may deliberately have chosen the epistolary genre as the most appropriate mediwn to do this." See Zweder von Martels, op. cit., p.2 l 1.

132

A New Visionfrom venUe (p.1)

Of the Literature of the Turks. ObselVations made by Gio: Battista Donado Senator Veneto, ex-ambassador in Constantinople

Informd nan-atiw wittenfor my brother Sir;zor A ndrea the ablxJt, 'lRho questioned m: on the inteflifPKE and custom that the Turks haw ifthe scierm and on their literature I recall that conversing with you when in the year 1680 our Serenissima Republic wanted to post me to the grave office of (p.2) ambassador [btilo] at the Ottoman Porte, many pondered reflections were made, not only about the circumstances of the times; but also about the might of the lordship where I was to reside. It was thought that my principal preoccupation were to be that colossal might - as I was in its vicinity - which makes itself ever more complex, devouring others, which had not been punished by any nation until now. In any way, it was my most precise incumbency to discover its power and weakness, since the world, as it is, does not contain in itself anything eternal. Having set my eyes on the object, I comprehended it sufficiently, as I put it in the form of notes under subject, in my report on that empire to the excellency of our Senate: that, that nation is not as greatly vigorous as it had the reputation to be invincible; however, not that, (p. 3) it had such a roughness of intelligence and that it was totally unskilful in the cognition of sciences and arts. To be able to have access to such a reality with more proof, I gained the confidence of the most qualified and distinct men of their government. As it is known to you, also that vast country is governed in the civil, commercial and military areas, which is conformed to the other countries of the world. However, in any of the mentioned 133

ImlSf ifthe "Turk in Italy JJ

activities, which are more or less practised with attention to our favour. I will tell you on the first one that among the subjects of the Turks, there are currently a great number people employed, who are called effendi, who are persons that are experts - as they say - in law. Likewise, I remind you that they have equally and freely permitted the use the jurisprudence both of canon (p. 4) law, and of the civil one as well, as having reached that intelligence which is necessary to lead the consciences in the parishes and to administrate justice with jurisprudence in the tribunals, they promiscuously use the former as well as the latter. Having acquired the familiarity of the qualified people of the above mentioned category, not only did I find myself in their familiar gatherings of erudition, but also I have joined meetings that mostly took place in the homes of various people, to converse in matters of science, and in particular in the house of Abdullah Efendi [A lxIula Ejfendi], who lives outside the Porte of Silivrea [Poria di Sili'lJ'f!a, i.e. Silivri Kapl], in the outskirts of that metropolis. He was a man who enjoyed several offices as mufti, and at his advanced age, after having served many years for the sultan [Gran Signmc'] with his faculties, enjoyed (p. 5) humbly three hundred realt'49 of stipend a month, living a solitary life free of office, accompanied solely by numerous books and from time to time, by not a small number of other major Efendis of Constantinople, who usually went to see and venerate him, like Seneca was by his nation and age. In these frequent gatherings, I got to know their ability, and by their means I got hold of books of various sources [fani sic, corrige: fonti sources] 50 and many works, as well =

One reale was a golden money which corresponded to ten shillings in England of the sixteenth centuty.

49

so

In the text, there is a printing mistake where the word forti (plural fonn of the word forte: strong) appears, instead of the wordfanti (which means sources).

134

A New Visionfrom Venza. as the very canons of their studies and the discipline of doctorate. However, you my brother signore, should know that, in spite of the above information, one should not think all the Turks to be in possession of arts and sciences, since most of them are deprived of publications and are compelled to a forced ignorance. However, (p. 6) there are various concrete reflections to pemUt the not-mediocre cognition of letters and that of intelligence, most of which are in pos!tlve terms. The dilation of acquisitions in the provinces inhabited by people of major erudition; The crowd of the quantity of the converted [nnneg:mJ of various nations, most of whom are advanced in a way more than mediocre in the scholastic cognition, some of whom in not secular [education], before making themselves Turkish [converting to Islam]; The continual use of command, in which jurisprudence is a necessary part, also legal cognition is studied; The necessity of teaching the Qur'an [A ham] for the purpose of their own instruction as well as for other aspects, very easily facilitate not to allow the universal error that they are totally ignorant. To be able to understand this truth better, however, one should consider that the Turkish language is, like it is in (p. 7) provincial Italy, where every person speaks with the forms, the pronunciation and the accent of his own locality. However it [Turkish] becomes embellished by Persian, as we do with the Tuscan language. Likewise, also Arabic is present among the Turks, like Latin among us. Since the Qur'an is written in the mentioned language, Arabic becomes necessary for them, like it would to us the language in which the Holy Scriptures are written. They use the entire Arabic manne rs, voices, and periods for ornament, eloquence and decor mostly in the schemes and commandments, and other orders of major transactions and arbiters; letters of the 135

Imt� cfthe "Turk " in Italy prince, ministers, pa§as [Bassa] and the command of the imperial will . As a result, the major erudition among them is explained and is present in the men of law, who are (p. 8) those, who are employed in the tribunals of the judiciary, in the parishes or clergy of theirs, as said; as well as in the most distinguished men of the court of the notaries, secretaries and chancellors, all of which for the sake of necessity of their office understand, speak and write Arabic. It is well-known how much these arts and sciences have been explained by Arab authors, whose entire works are found since a long time among the Turks in their original character and language. It, however, - in its pious and charitable assistance to catechumens will usually find persons of not mediocre knowledge and it will have obvious pursuit of the previously narrated truth. Indeed, the Turks work about the mentioned putpose, I will refer to what I saw, that anyone curious of it could easily have (p. 9) the most certain pursuit. On the streets of CDnstantinople, there are mostly shops of various goods and materials that are in use in the cities of the West [ponente]. Among them, some shops are seen with big tables like at tailors' by us - on which many children sit in order, who have their books in hand, learning the alphabet, proceeding to read, to write and to count, taking notes as we practice. It is customary to shout at one of them in a loud voice and at the same time, the others say the same thing, as well as they make them recite their lessons and orations all of them together, with which they facilitate learning to all. There are sites also in the streets for the [teaching of] grammar, as above, where others show the principles, and also other teachers in their private houses, like by us, where one (p. 10) sends the youth to learn. There are also other teachers who go to the coffee-houses of men of major level to teach the youths. Sufficient and evident proof of this comes from a book entitled: RuditrErTto de1Ia L inp;ta TurdJesca [Rudiments of -

-

136

A New Visionfrom VenKe Turkish Language] written by the Annenian Signor D. Giovanrll Agaup, born in O:mstantinople, published in Venice in the year 1685, dedicated to you my brother, Signor Andrea the abbot, for your pious employment at the house of catechumens, where the Turkish language is taught with all the grammatical rules, as they do in the above mentioned City of Constantinople. However, those who have been in the mentioned city with the ambassadors of Christian princes, can testify that the teacher of reading, writing and of Turkish grammar went every day to every palace, to teach (p. 1 1) it to the young students of Turkish language of every nation, as it was the custom, particularly with the Venetian youths residing with me. There are also various teachers at their homes who teach the youths, according to their capabilities, those sciences which they desire to learn, however, only in positive tenns and not in the speculative and inquiring way like we do. To strengthen this matter further, it is witnessed that the sultans have from time to tme, erected various schools, many colleges and lecture houses, also at the level of doctorate to qualify the men at the judiciary, and especially those serving at mosques and to regulate the consciences of the priests in charge, or others, especially to train them for the pulpit on which they climb particularly at feasts, (p. 12) preaching to the people where they inculcate to persuade the moral virtues, to detest vices and to revere and adore the supreme Deity. However, in order to give an example, I resolve to record here that which Hliseyin Efendi [Hussein Effendi] writes in his treatise DelIa Grarmza deIla Casa Oitomtna [Of the Grandeur of the House of Osman], written in Constantinople. The Hliseyin Efendi mentioned here is Hliseyin Hezarlen, born in istankoy ­ died on 24 September 1691 in Istanbul. The translation reported here by Dona is the first part of the greater work he wrote, entitled TeIhis iil-lryin fi ka7.iinin-i iiJ-i GmirI, about the laws of Mehmed IV, the first part being on the 137

Irrn� cfthe "Turk " in Italy origins of the Ottoman Dynasty, their family trees and order of ascendance to the throne. We learn from Babinger that Hiiseyin Hezmen met many European travellers and was eager to share with them his library and knowledge.51 Hence, the assumption that Dona's personal ties with Hiiseyin Hezarien made him quote Hezmen's book extensively between pages 12-43, 89-92, in DeIJa Letteratura de' Turrhi. The translation from Hiiseyin Hezmen's book starts with the short introduction on the beginning, the origin and the deeds of the first members of the House of Osman. Dona inserts bits and pieces from various chapters of Hiiseyin Hezarien's book, arriving at the time of the-then-alive Valide Sultan's (Mother Sultan) starting the building of a mosque in the year 1663, between pages 12- 17. This is followed by other translations from chapters on the hierarchy among the ulerru on pages 17-43. After which, Dona goes on to explain his selection and/or collection of books in different disciplines of letters and sciences starting from grammar and following with poetry and logic, mathematics, geometry and the like. (p. 43) Having acquired the aforementioned facts, I have commenced the collection of some Turkish books, to converse with people who are revered by them for their virtue, whom I found - as I said - in the Effendis (as such the men of law are called), in other words, those who profess the divine as well as mundane law. [....] In the collection of the books, I have united different ones - not with little difficulty - since the Turks do not have printers, furthermore, (p. 44) it being prohibited by their sovereign, in order not to deprive many of their jobs, and in consequence, many of their food, namely the scribes. Otherwise, for some other furtive aim, since they are extremely cautious about us Christians, thinking that by communicating their things they would become profane, for it is especially prohibited to do in the matters of law. Nevertheless, one overcomes everything in that country with flatteries and with manne rs. I have come into possession of many (books), and of others, have I had the 51 Franz Babinger, Qmmlz Taw Yazarlan 'lE! Eserkri, trans. Kiilti.ir ve Turizm Bakanhg1, 1982), pp. 251-255.

138

Co�kun

D�ok, (Ankara:

A New Visionfrom venUe information, having had them translated, and as I returned home, from his Excellency Signor Pietro Duodo, who came to possess them through the acquisition of Coron. However, of many others, I have had information from Signor Timoteo Agnolini, the bishop of Mardin [Marur02], who at the present, is in possession of many of them, and he also reported to have seen information, which I will hereby record. (p. 45) About this particular fact, it is to note that, many sciences and fine arts are not in the cognition of the Tmks, given that many authors which will hereby be mentioned are Arabs, or copied from the Arabs themselves, many of them having already been translated into Latin languages, Greek, French, and Italian [ui�n'] by various gentlemen, who had had the curiosity about their content, as I will hereby record. Some of the books listed by Dona are as follows: In grammar, the listed books are the Torrh if Grarrm:tr (Lucema Grammaticale) by an anonymous author. An Arabic, Persian, Tmkish and Chaldean dictionary, whose authors are not mentioned. Rudirrmts if Turkish Grarrm:tr (Rudimenti della Grammatica Tmca), which is written - as it is reported by Dona - by A ndrea di Rp, who was the consul of the French king in Egypt, published in Paris in 1633.52 In poetry Dona says that there are numerous authors. Compendium if Pcetry (S wrunario di Poesia), written by H1flZ Sirazl (A /fez ScirazV; Compendium in Persian (Summario in Persiano) by Fuzuli (PesuEi); Compendium if Pcetry (S wrunario di Poesia), by Baki (BcuhZ); Compendium if the A ct5 if Orrist (Summario de' fatti di Christo), in praise of his heroic actions by Neslml (Nascim); History of (Kassan Seharry; History by the Patriarch Josef (Gioseffo Patriarra); The LOTRS if Putifor (Amori di Putifat), (Iusul EzelidJe) (Ytisuf u­ Zallha) .53 Dona claims the discipline of logic to be the instrument for the rest of the sciences, where he says that there are various types of argumentation, all 52 D ona, op. cit. p. 45-46. 53 ibid., p. 46-47.

139

Imt� ifthe crTwk " inlta/y of which are to be found in the book Introit to La;!ic (Isahuugl) of an unmentioned author. 54 In mathematics, the author enumerates: a book of speculative and practical arithmetic by Ali KU§�u ( ? - 1474) (A li A kusz); a book of geometry by A bialutfo; another book of general geometry by Aflinio; and De Panderibus by Iran!.55 In geometry, a book of Euclid's; in optics, a book of Ptolemeus'; and in music the books of Alfasad and A bisalifo among few others are mentioned.56 Details of the books listed in all the disciplines by Dona are beyond the confines of this work; the examples mentioned above will be sufficient to give the reader an idea the way the author treated the subject in his book However, the rest of the disciplines mentioned with occasional citations of the translations of some books written in these disciplines are: optics, music, medicine, chemistry, astrology, astronomy, philosophy, law, history, geography and prose.57, Dona, after having mentioned various authors in various subjects, says that he wants to give a translated extract from the introduction of the history book written by Hiiseyin Efendi [Cusseino Effendi], entitled: q the Grandeur if the CXtomtn E npire [Delle grandaze dell'Irrperio CXtomtno], alluding to the aforementioned book of Hiiseyin Hezarten, TeIhfs Ul-l:ryin ft kawni*i al-i amino He repeats the recurrent theme that the Turks are generally not as intelligent as the Venetians, and that they do not possess knowledge on sciences as much as they do.58 Following the translation from Hiiseyin Hezarten's book, which goes on in tone of odes for three pages on the Grandeur of the Ottoman Empire, and was written during the reign of Mehmed IV. The author says that the reason why he included the mentioned translation in his book, is his talks with "the famous and most knowledgeable Ifes Effendl' . Dona mentions to Ifes EJfencIl his intentions of writing a book on 54 ibid., p. 47-48. 55 ibid., p,48

56 ibid., p,48-49. 57 ibid., p. 49-88. 58

1'b'd 1 .,

p. 88.

140

A New Visionfrom venUe the Ottomans, as well as showing him another book written by him entitled, Cl the History if Prinas if the Past [DeIl'Historie de' principi passatt]. The book mentioned was written on the princes of Kina [China] , and Ifo Effendl urged him to write a book also on the Ottoman sultans, so that it sets an example to the European writers to write something decent and in positive te1TI1S about the Ottomans. Dona claims that upon this encouragement of Ifo Effendl, he composed the present book entitled: The History if Grandeur if the CXtorrnn E mperurs [Raaonto delIa grandezza deJi inperatmi ottomtm] .59 At this point, it must be said that it is not really clear whether he alludes to Della Letteratura de' Turrhi or whether there is another book written by him entitled: Raaonto delIa grandeza deJi imperatari ottomtni. However, the fonner is more plausible. This is followed by the translation of an oration or prayer [tUia] in Turkish,6o which had been recited by Hasan P�a [Kas-san Bassa] as the author says was the P�a of Napdi di Rommia (the city of Kavala, then being called in Greek Nedpdis).61 The tUia of Hasan P�a leads in Dona's book to a list of translations of sayings in Turkish.62 Some of which are reported here as follows in Dona's transcription: -

-

Ne Kader gjad iders&n bir murade ' Nassib anus � ziade transcription in proper Turkish and translation: Ne kadar cmad idersen bir murada Naslb olmaz mukadderden ziyade However much one would strive for an end One would not receive anything more than the predestined

59

1'b'd 1 .,

p, 92-93.

60

D ona says that the dua (the oration as he calls it) is in Turkish, however, there is every reason to believe that it was in Arabic. 61

62

. ' op. Clt. Dona, p. 9 4-96 1'b'd 1 .

p. 9 7- 100. 141

Imt� ifthe "yurk " in Italy A rrfsen bir chiul ieter roriatsen g};ir rurgftia (sic.) transcription and translation: (corrige) Arifsen bir gill yeter kokmaya Hoyrat isen gir bah0, e.d}(.WJf'>'l;ffrn<J �rLt:1

p..f��PUr"'.etJ_ ')�"�"",, in,·".

O"u.(".;' ill',"'';' tato;a.""atl! d, ·(;',.4a�!l

D d modofcudc d:aytlg/?arc il Tu rc() f

r

I ·

LA:

L·

I N

F F R R A R A ,

---

IJ �r V ' rnri. , H :t I ,l , u , S C;J m D :'. r0H� (':' m ('r:! !e . COll licenz.: dt' Supniori. M D X C V I l l .

r ,'..: l

� '

;'

T t1 R

C I-I E

D E L L r

s e A

_,[ n _·1 T f·;

G L\.\I BATIS 1'A T O D E R E \ I

T 0 ),1 0

r .

Itriex

A Abdullah Efendi, 134 Abu Qurra, 1 6 Adrianople, 8 9 , 100 Agaup, Giovanni, 137 Agnolini, Timoteo, 139 Albania, 2, 83, 100 Alb�ri, Eugenio, 1 1 5 Alexander the Great, 13, 26, 29, 124 Alexandria, 7, 96 Ali KU§C;:u, 140 Anunirato, Scipione, xiv, 24, 27, 50, 5 1 , 52, 6 1 , 62 , 65, 80, 82 Anatolia, 1 , 3, 27, 1 04, 1 12, 1 14, 125 Anaxagoras , 26 Angiolelli, 120, 123 Antes, 41, 42, 43 Antonio of Padova, 56 Aquileia, 57 Arab, 1 , 2, 3 , 23, 44, 136 Arabia, 17, 42 Arabs, 1 , 2, 3 , 8 Archipelago, 84, 89, 94 Arianism, 7 Arians, 6, 7 Annenians, 1 14 AsIan