Le Navi del Soldano e le Speranze di Venezia (1506 - 1509 / 1516)

This article deals with the different historiographic approaches to the new created political and economic situation in the Indian Ocean by the coming of Portuguese that are present in the Mamluk and in the Venetian historical sources of the 16th century, and more specifically in the Diarii of the Venetian state officer Marino Sanudo (1466-1533) and in the chronicle of the Egyptian historian, of Mamluk descent, Ibn Iyas (1448-1524) with the title Kitab bada'i al-zuhur fi waqa'i al-duhur. We brought to notice and analyzed the existent information of these two major historical sources about the two naval expeditions that Mamluks of Egypt organized and waged against the Portuguese in India in the years 1506-09 and 1516, in order to restore the fruitful spice trade from India and others regions of the Indian Ocean to the markets of Egypt and Syria. The set up of the Portuguese domain in the Indian Ocean and the incapacity of the Mamluks to oppose them effectively led eventually to a geopolitical revolution, which caused the end of an epoch and the beginning of the modern age. Facts and events concerning these historical developments are reported in a very different way in the Mamluk and in the Venetian sources, in spite of the fact that both countries were deeply interested in international spice trade and in the expulsion of the Portuguese intruders from the Indian Ocean. Even if the spice commerce was the same of vital importance for the Mamluk State and for the Venetian Republic, from a comparative analysis of Venetian and Egyptian historical sources that are at our disposal turns out a clear disparity, as regards the amount of the information, their precision, the times and at last as regards the times and the ways of their formulation. The total dimension of the current geopolitical changes in the Indian Ocean and in the Near East with their unavoidable consequences in the economy and in the strength-relations at global level does not escape to the Venetians. Instead, the approach of the Mamluk contemporary historiography, all included in a single text, that is a single individual's work, is very different. Ibn Iyas refers the facts and the events of the two naval expeditions against Portuguese in a quite cold, dry and detached way, accordingly to the nature and to the spirit of his chronicle. Even if he has lived in contact with the Mamluk power centers, Ibn Iyas dedicates a very little part of his work to the facts concerning the expeditions of the Mamluks against Portuguese. They are more or less short passages, secluded in the mare magnum of the infinite and minute information about Sultan´s court life and about events and episodes of several nature that happened in Cairo: circumscribed and secondary episodes from the every day life of the Egyptian capital.On the contrary, Marin Sanudo referring and registering many decades of letters, messages and dispatches coming in different moments from many places of the Mamluk State and the Eastern Mediterranean, succeeded in transmit us the attention of the Venetian political and merchant ruling class to the facts of India. Was an attention full of distressing worry for the future of the international commerce of spice, but the hope that the unfavorable situation which had been created in the Indian Ocean could be upside down and that the spice traffic could go back to the previous situation was not lacking. As the time was going by and the situation in the Indian Ocean becoming more and more difficult for the Mamluks and Venice, because of the continuos reinforcement of the Portuguese position in the region, Venetians' worries were growing, reaching the despair limits in a few cases. In the end, since it was impossible for them to intervene in a direct way against Portuguese, all their hopes were concentrated on the ships, which the sultan was preparing in the Red Sea port of Suez in order to defeat definitively the Portuguese.

Keywords: Mamluks-Egypt-Venice-Portuguese-Indian Ocean-Spice Trade-Marin Sanudo-Ibn Iyas

Doi Number :http://dx.doi.org/10.9737/hist_311

Bu Makale Mısır Memluklarının Hint Okyanusunda düzenledikleri Portekizlilere karşı düzenledikleri iki seferden (1506-1509 ??? 1516) bahseden iki önemli kaynağın karşılaştırma denemesidir: Mısırlı tarihçi Ibn Iyas (1448-1524)´ın Kitab bada´i` al-zuhur fi waqa´i` al-duhur adlı eseri ve Venedikli devlet adamı Marin Sanudo (1466-1536)´nun Venedik egemenliğindeki yerlerle Venediklileri ekonomik çıkarlarının olduğu bir çok yabancı ülkelen gelen rapor ve mektupların kaydedildiği Diarii adlı eseri. Baharatın Hindistan´dan serbestçe geçişinin güvenliğinin sağlanması iki ülkenin en önemli endişesiydi ve bu sadece askeri önlemlerle olabilirdi. Nihai amaç, Hint Okyanusunu istila etmiş olan Portekizlilerin kovulmasıydı. Bu iki askeri seferle ilgili olaylar aşağı yukarı biliniyorsa da Venedik ve Memluk kaynaklarını birlikte kullanmanın bu olaylar hakkında daha geniş ve daha derinlemesine bilgiler edinmemiz ve daha iyi anlamamız açısından bazı önemli açılımlar sağlayacağı düşüncesindeyim. Bu çalışmanın başlıca amacı, Mısır Memluklarıyla Venedik´in olaylar hakkındaki iki farklı bakış açısını ve anlayışını sunmaktır. Ayrıca iki kaynağın dile getirdiği seferlerin sonuçlarıyla ilgili gerginliğe yol açan duyguların, beklenti ve endişenin yanı sıra tarzı ve yayılma şeklini irdelemektir.

Anahtar Kelimeler: Memluklar - Mısır - portekiz - Hint Okyanusu - baharat ticareti - Marin Sanudo - İbn İlyas

Doi Number :http://dx.doi.org/10.9737/hist_311