Download PDF | Egypt And Arjun Through The Texts Of Embassies And Diplomatic Correspondences Between 1300 And 1330 AD, By Aziz Suryal Attia, Leipzig: Kommisionsverlag F.A. Brockhaus, 1938.
77 Pages
Introduction
The relations between Egypt and Aragon in the first half of the fourteenth century form the basis of an important chapter, not only in the annals of both these countries, but also in the history of the crusade and of commerce in the Levant during the Later Middle Ages. Although still imperfect, our knowledge of the Western sources for this period compares most favourably with the meagreness or even lack of sub- stantial material on the Oriental side. Several scholars, notably Company, Finke and Golubovich, have brought to light a series of letters from Jaime II to al-Malik al-Naşir bearing on matters of moment in the years here under con- sideration; and Golubovich has been able to re-construct from them the story of a number of embassies exchanged between the courts of Barcelona and Cairo.
The striking feature of Golubovich's interesting review of these diplo- matic activities is, however, the absence of any concrete reference to the existence of Mamlük letters to Aragon; and so far as we can judge, historians in general appear to have either overlooked them or assumed that they were missing, though not utterly unknown. Hence this field has been left unexplored and a gap has remained to be filled. It is here that my modest contribution lies; and I hope that the follow- ing pages will provide the settlement of a problem hitherto imperfectly surveyed. In the course of the year 1932 I visited, among numerous manuscript depositories, the Archivio de la Corona de Aragon (Barcelona) in quest of the unpublished material for my work on The Crusade in the Later Middle Ages.
Free access to the Arabic manuscripts was given to me and after labour-ing through unwieldy masses of correspondence the proven- ance of which was the Moorish states of Spain and North Africa, I was introduced to a number of large unidentified Rolls. On closer examination, these were revealed to be the missing Egyptian replies to the court of Aragon. Written in large beautiful 'tulut' Mamlük hand, some of these Rolls extended to the unusually great length of thirty metres or thereabouts. Original documents of this type, it will un- doubtedly be realised, are extremely scarce in libraries and archives, both European and Egyptian. Unfortunately at the time of my visit to Spain, I had set myself above all things to the sole task, not of editing, but of collecting the material relevant to my special study on the later crusade.
The overwhelming nature of the sources awaiting further examination outside Spain, the pressure of time, and the limitation of means all these were deciding factors which forced me to narrow my pursuit in Barcelona down to the reading of the texts at my disposal and to transcribing the essential parts of this correspondence. On two or three occasions, however, I copied letters in extenso as specimens of the rest. The editing of the whole, I then reckoned, would preferably be postponed for another visit with this object alone in view; but the great upheaval of the Spanish Civil War has banished all hope of carrying out this plan at least for some time yet to come, and the fate of these and other documents is now rendered unknown and uncertain. All these circumstances may help to explain the shortcomings of this essay of which I am fully aware. I am, for instance, conscious that the incompleteness of edited texts is usually, and in most cases legitimately, regarded as an unpardonable distortion. On the other hand, it would be unjust to exagger- ate this aspect in connection with the present correspondence.
Those who will read the full Arabic text furnished under the Sixth Embassy will notice at once how hopeless and how exasperating some of its passages can be in their redun- dance and meaninglessness. Arabic style in Egypt during this period was on the whole of an inferior type, and the scribes entrusted with the redaction of official documents were often men of no literary merit. From the historical point of view, the sections here presented together with an accurate and comprehensive analysis of the contents of each letter will, in my opinion, serve fully to illustrate the objects of this correspondence.
I have previously dealt with the subject of this study on two occasions. In the first place, I have made an analysis of both the Aragonese and Egyptian letters in the third appendix to my work on The Crusade in the Later Middle Ages¹). In the second place, I have read a paper on the same at the annual meeting of the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft in Göttingen this year), and the reception generously accorded to my findings by German colleagues together with the demand for this material has left me no room for hesitation in publishing it in the form in which it now appears. I have not been satisfied with the mere editing of the parts in my possession.
This, I am convinced, would neces- sarily limit their usefulness to scholars who are Orientalists and Mediævalists at one and the same time. In addition to the Arabic texts and English translations, I have analysed and quoted the most relevant passages of the Aragonese letters as a necessary introduction to the Egyptian replies. Each set of two letters is treated under the wider title of an embassy, and the genesis and outcome of each embassy have been re-constructed as far as could be gathered from the extant sources, thus making it a complete historical unit.
The background of this correspondence is the reign of Jaime II in Aragon and the second and third reigns of al- Malik al-Nāşir in Egypt³). It would be idle here to attempt a full review of the events of Aragonese and Mamlük history during the whole of that period. Nevertheless a few general remarks might help towards a better understanding of the atmosphere in which these letters came to being. In the first place, we must remember that these diplomatic exchanges occurred in the decades immediately following the complete discomfiture of the Latins in the Holy Land and the down- fall of the remaining outposts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem on the Asiatic mainland including the fortified city of 'Akka in 1291.
This inaugurated a new era in the history of the crusade which was characterised by intense propaganda for the boycott of Egyptian trade and elaborate plans for a strict blockade of the coasts of the Mamlük Empire as a means towards the annihilation of the Sultan's power. I have exa- mined in detail this new and important phase in my history of the later crusade, and those who deem it worthy of their notice may consult my special study on this subject²). It would be sufficient here to draw attention to the fact that Pope Nicholas IV and his successors issued bull after bull forbidding trade and other intercourse with the Saracens on pain of excommunication. Jaime II, who treasured the interests of his country and realised the possibilities of reaping more benefit through diplomacy than by waging futile wars on Egypt, did not shrink from breaking the rules laid down by the Holy Pontiff and the propagandists of the age. Like Emperor Frederick II, he achieved much in this sphere by coming to an understanding with the Sultan; and like him, he incurred the wrath of the papacy and suffered the penalty of excommunication.
When this was finally lifted from him by Pope Boniface VIII on the condition that he should take the Cross and save the Holy Land by armed force, Jaime did nothing in the end to fulfil his obligations²). Indeed he adopted an opposite course by peacefully appro- aching Egypt and courting favour with the Sultan irrespective of the consequences. It was largely this policy and that of the Italian Republics of Venice and Genoa that led to the collapse of the maritime blockade of Egypt and Syria. Our correspondence, it is hoped, will serve as an illustration to this conclusion.
In the second place, the Aragonese ex- pansion in the Levant, partly by way of trade and partly through the adventures of the Grand Catalan Company in Byzantium and Greece, was a notable feature of this age. We need hardly enlarge upon this fascinating chapter in Near Eastern history, since it has been fully and admirably treated by various scholars¹). The main point at issue is that the increasing influence and interest of the Catalans in the Levant must have brought Aragon into closer contact with Egypt as a natural corollary. In the third place, the character of al-Malik al-Naşir) himself made these rap- prochements with Aragon possible in spite of the traditional hostility of Egypt towards the Latins since the time of the early crusades. Small, lame and with a deformed eye, the Sultan was hardly a warlike figure, unlike most of the Mamlük class to which he belonged. Yet he had one of the most domineering personalities of his time. Enlightened, shrewd and indefatigable, he was also a great diplomat and loved the ways of peace which did not impair his prestige or mar his interests. A man of this kind could not refuse friendly overtures whatever their source might have been, more espe- cially if they brought prosperity to his country.
In reality, al-Naşir deliberately encouraged the advent of embassies, both Eastern and Western, Muhammadan and Christian; and the court of Egypt during his reign became a centre of diplomatic exchanges with princes whose trade passed through the marts of Cairo and Alexandria, Damietta and Damascus, as well as the rest of the great emporia of the Mamlük Empire¹). At least his third reign was phenomenal in the story of mediæval Egypt, and the country enjoyed a period of almost incredible affluence under his rule. In acceding to the modest requests submitted to him by Jaime II, al-Nāşir undoubtedly secured a good customer for the Egyp- tian markets and succeeded in creating an irreparable breach in the blockade devised by the Popes and their advisers to choke his commerce and intercept the importation of war material and new stock of young mamlūks to reinforce his ranks.
The Aragonese letters known to exist are six in number. All of them owe their origin to Jaime II, and all bear al- Nāşir's address during his second and third reigns in the years 1303, 1305, 1314, 1318, 1322 and 1327 respectively). The Arabic letters are, on the other hand, eight and must of necessity therefore lead to an increase in the hitherto accepted view of six embassies by two-namely, the first and the last. This correspondence consists of the following manuscripts:- 1. "Carta árabe en papel." Number worn out. Dated 15 Rağab 699 (6th April 1300). 2. "Carta árabe en papel." Number worn out. Dated 13 Šawwal 703 (19th May 1304). 3. "Carta árabe en papel." Number worn out. Dated 1 Ša'ban 705 (16th February 1306). 4. "Documentos árabes del Archivio de la Corona de Aragon; 4.2 Sección, Cartas Orientales, Caja 4, doc. 19." One of four rolls without specific numbers. Dated "first ten" days of Šaban 705 (16th-26th February 1306).
5. "Carta árabe en papel." Number worn out. Dated "Day of Sacrifice", i.e., 10 Dulhiğğa 714 (17th March 1315). 6. Same section as no. 4-"Caja 5, Carta árabe en papel, no. 492." Dated 15 Şafar 723 (23rd February 1323). 7. Same section as nos. 4 and 6-"Caja 4", without spe- cific number of document. Dated 15 Ğumādā 1 728 (29th March 1328). 8. Same section as nos. 4, 6 and 7-"Caja 5, Carta árabe en papel, no. 159." Dated 1 Ğumādā I 730 (20th February 1330). In conclusion, I have tried to render the Arabic texts into English as literally as possible without impairing the general sense underlying each statement. Diplomatic style has its own peculiarities, and this is all the more so in the case of Arabic documents which abound in flowery and redundant phrases forced into the texts for the sake of rhythm and artificial beauty in accordance with the modes and conven- tions of writing during our period. As it has been my firm conviction, however, that the translation should reflect the original text in its fullest details even at the risk of provok- ing criticism among readers who are not Arabists, I have not hesitated in following the Arabic terms without any alteration in the original form and without any attempt at im- provement.
The difficulties encountered in the presentation list under the Third Embassy are of a different nature. The translation and difinition of articles for which we possess hardly any concrete guide has been no easy task. In cases of doubt, I have inserted the various possibilities available from the sources in the footnotes, and it is hoped that my decisions will not be found unacceptable. Apart from the chief MSS. in the above list, the follow- ing MSS. have been used:- Alger MS. Copy of Letter from the Muslims of Spain to Bayezid II. Alger MS. no. 1620 (cf. Fagnan, Cata- logue etc., 450).
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