european travelers in islamic lands |
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From the time of Marco Polo, Europeans were drawn by the thought of travel to the Islamic lands to the east. The westward discoveries in the Americas only increased the fascination invested in the much closer realms from Morocco to Tartary. Living in early sixteenth-century Italy, Lodovico de Varthema sensed that the great geographical discoveries were almost over, and longed to experience the mysteries of the near East. Religious quests drove people to the Holy Land, and European armies gathered many thousands for power struggles against the Turks and their imperial allies. |
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[7] The Holy City
Georg Braun. Civitates orbis terrarum. (Antwerp: 1575). This plate presents the embattled city of Jerusalem, a place of transcendent importance for the adherents of three major religions. Sites holy to Christians were open to pilgrimages in the first century of Islamic rule, but became troubled under the reign of Calif Hakim early in the eleventh century. When the Seljuk Turks secured Jerusalem from the Egyptians in 1071, as well as defeating Byzantine Emperor Romanus IV, Christian access was denied and the Holy Sepulcher despoiled. Late in the eleventh century, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I appealed to the west for military assistance. Pope Urban II argued for recapture and restoration of the Holy Sepulcher, inspiring the First Crusade. Explanatory text by Georg Braun is printed on recto of each plate; the engravings are by Franciscus Hogenberg and Simon Novellanus. This is the second of two views of Jerusalem prepared for this volume on great cities by Braun and Hogenberg. Partly the work of imagination, it also shows some awareness of the physical relationship of various holy sites, derived from the description by Bernhard von Breydenbach. At lower left is the crucifixion site of Golgotha, on the lower right inset, Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. Columbus, a millennialist mystic himself, expected Jerusalem to be recaptured – and much more – as a result of his westward explorations and their accumulated wealth. |
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[8] The First Crusade
Robertus, Monachus. Bellum Christianorum principum, praecipue Gallorum, contra Saracenos. (Basel: 1533). This remarkable 16th-century compendium found its way to Providence because it contains a Latin translation of the initial report of Columbus on his first American voyage. But the book also presents a story of 700 years of struggle between Christianity and Islam. In particular, Robertus presents an account of the First Crusade, while Carolus Verardus offers a narrative of the expulsion of Muslims and Jews from Spain. Despite an avowed holy mission, the Crusades also promised secular goals like the capture of personal wealth, which seriously imperiled its objectives. The murder of European Jews enroute and of Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem itself stained the Crusaders’ accomplishments. For their part, the Muslim soldiers understood the defense of Jerusalem to be a purely straightforward military operation, and were confounded by the seemingly bizarre behavior of the Crusaders. The foreigners, generally characterized as “Franj,” or “Franks” from the First Crusade, are recorded as having paraded around the city walls, then kneeling in prayer before throwing themselves onto the defensive walls, as if expecting their collapse. After one long, but successful siege of a Syrian town in 1098, sources record the Crusaders as having nourished themselves through cannibalism, with no food of any kind remaining in the area. These experiences informed the perception of Crusaders in the region. |
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[9] A European in Arabia Lodovico di Varthema. [Itinerario. German] Die ritterliche unnd lobwirdige Reys des gestrengen und uberall ander weit erfarne Ritter und Landtfahrer / Herrn Ludovico Vartomans von Bolonia. Sagend von den Landen Egypto/Syria/von beiden Arabia/Persia/India/und Ethiopia. (Frankfurt a.M.: 1548). The travels of the Italian merchant Varthema between 1502 and 1508 rank as one of the most remarkable of the 16th century. Ostensibly converted to Islam, the European undertook the pilgrimage to Mecca and traveled across much of the Islamic world, experiencing many dangers before returning to Europe. His narrative, published in numerous editions, provided considerable information on a world largely closed to Europeans. Although some other voyagers found much fault with Varthema and cast doubt on the veracity of the account, scholars in modern times have found it to be largely accurate. Some of the early Varthema editions were enlarged by the addition of Juan Díaz’s narrative of the Grijalva expedition a world away in Yucatán. A traveler on a camel is presented on leaf C1v. |
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[10] Captain Smith's Adventure
John Smith. The true travels, adventures, and observations of Captain John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Affrica, and America ... 1593 to 1629. (London: J.H., for T. Slater, 1630). Captain John Smith is known to every young American as the English settler of Virginia and the man supposedly saved by Powhatan’s daughter, Pocahontas. How he obtained the title of Captain is addressed less often. Smith received military training in France and eventually, late in 1600, signed up with the Austrian forces confronting Ottoman Turkey in eastern Europe. He attained the rank of Captain before being captured in Transylvania. At the battle of Verestorony / Rothenturm, 12 miles south of Sibiu / Hermannstadt, the outnumbered Austrians and Smith’s fellow English soldiers faced 40,000 Crimean Tartars and two divisions of Turkish troops. The sky was literally darkened with Tartar arrows and 30,000 lay dead at the battle's conclusion. While pillaging the bodies, soldiers reckoned the wounded Smith in his armor as a suitable candidate for ransom, and treated his injuries. Smith was among those sold into slavery at Axopolis and sent on to Adrianopolis in chains. He was then transferred to Timor, Bashaw of Talbrits in Tartary. He was put to work as a thresher, but often ridiculed and beaten by his new master. One day he responded in anger, beating his master to death. He escaped on horseback and rode aimlessly until happening on a Russian fortress on the River Don. There he was freed of his irons and given sustenance. He made his way back through Europe to Morocco, and arrived back in England in the winter of 1604-05. The bibliographically complicated first edition, shown here, is one of the best-illustrated, with graphic display of Smith’s adventures in the Balkans and Asia, including military exploits, his capture, and his dramatic escape. |
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[11] How the Turks Live
George Sandys. A relation of a journey begunne, Anno Dom. 1610, written by George Sandys, and here contracted. In: Purchas his Pilgrimes. (London: 1625). The learned Englishman Sandys traveled from Venice to Constantinople in 1610 and drafted vivid descriptions of the life of the Greeks and Turks he observed. Here he describes the manner of dress of Turkish women (page 1298), but notes that they cover their faces with linen, excepting the eyes, when they leave the private spaces of the home. The appearance of the habit is conveyed here by a British artist . |
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[12] Quaker Ventures
Gerardus Croese. [ Historia Quakeriana. English] The General History of the Quakers. (London: 1696). One of the more unusual travel accounts is that of the Quaker woman Mary Fisher. In the spring of 1658 this woman in her mid-thirties set off to bring the Turkish Sultan the Good News of Christianity as understood by the Society of Friends. Any straightforward conversion attempts were officially forbidden. The Grand Vizier, having heard that an Englishwoman wished to present the Sultan with a message from God, caused her to be brought before the seventeen-year old Sultan Mohammed IV, who was camped near Adrianople. The Sultan, in the company of his advisers, urged her to speak the truth without fear. When she had finished, he declared that he had understood every word conveyed by the interpreter, and that he held it to be the truth. The advisers then questioned her on her understanding of the Prophet Mohammed, which she answered in a manner deemed acceptable to them. She turned down an offer of escort to Constantinople, and proceeded there on her own, and afterward safely back to England. A much different response was received by the Quakers Perrot and Luffe, who tried something similar on arriving that same year of 1658 in Venice. They were tried by the Inquisition and imprisoned. Mary Fisher herself later traveled to New England, where her beliefs were judged heretical. Two Quaker men known to her were hanged for their beliefs at about the same time in Massachusetts. Quakers escaping persecution in Massachusetts found a safer environment in Rhode Island. |
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[13] Transport by Caravan
Eduward Meltons Engelsch Edelmanns, Zeldzaame en gedenkwaardige zee- en land-reizen. In: Purchas his Pilgrimes. (Amsterdam: 1681). This set of narratives was published under the pseudonym of Edward Melton and may have been compiled from a variety of sources by Godofridus van Broekhuizen. Presented here is a lengthy description of a land voyage across Arab and Persian territory and caravanserais (caravan rest stops) from Anatolia to Persia (page 240). The narrator describes in detail the accommodations for men, horses and camels. There are also numerous instances of the abuse of slaves and harsh punishments of criminals. |
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[14] Social Life Abroad
Simon de Vries. Curieuse aenmerckingen der bysonderste Oost en West-Indische verwonderens-waerdige dingen. (Amsterdam: 1681). The late seventeenth century was a time of much interest in customs and the manner of living around the world. Dutch and German publishers were especially active in combining accounts and illustrations. Simon de Vries, who drew much of his material out of the writings of the German compiler Erasmus Francisci, provided in this volume illustrations of American Indian ritual sacrifice, a Turkish slave gang of Christian prisoners, and a tableau of unusual Persian punishments for malefactors. In the ambitious engraving shown, wedding customs around the globe are presented in a single, confusing tableau: Nuptial ceremonies and processions are portrayed of Tupí Indians, Peruvians, Persians, Abyssinians, Muscovites, Hindustanis, and Chinese (part 2, page1). |