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Ottoman Response to the Discovery of America and the New Route to Author(s): Abbas Hamdani Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 101, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1981), pp. 323-330 Published by: American Oriental Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/602594 Accessed: 11-08-2014 19:03 UTC

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This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:03:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions OTTOMAN RESPONSE TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA AND THE NEW ROUTE TO INDIA'

ABBAS HAMDANI

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MILWAUKEE

The Portuguese and the Spanish carried over the medieval crusading spirit of the in their discoveries of the new route to India and the respectively. The Portuguese aimed at taking with the hope of exchanging it for . They also established links with the king of Ethiopia, identifying him as the Prester John. And finally they tightened the economic stranglehold of the . The response to this initiative came, however, from the Ottoman State, which first incorporated the Mamluk territories in the within its empire, then challenged the Portuguese in the and the Spanish in the Mediterranean. The Ottomans, at the peak of their power in the sixteenth century, possessed the required naval strength and the types of ships needed for journeys of . Having prepared the map of the New World, based on a map of Columbus, with America clearly marked as their administrative province, " Antilia," they were set to pursue their enemies across the Atlantic. The Sa'dian regime of , however, prevented their access to the Atlantic. Revolts on the European, Persian, and South Arabian fronts of the empire further weakened the Ottomans. Since in the age of the East India companies the crusading motivation of the Spanish and the Portuguese had been much diluted, the counter-crusading desire of the Ottomans also no longer needed to extend itself to encompass America.

IN A PREVIOUS ARTICLE FOR the Journal of the movement for the recovery of Jerusalem and its casa American Oriental Society, entitled "Columbus and santa. Columbus' plan was a later example in a long the Recovery of Jerusalem," I maintained that Colum- tradition already developed by Marco Polo (1295), bus' voyages to the New World represented the Marino Sanudo's Liber secretorum (1321), the life- continuance of the crusading spirit of the Spanish Re- work of Pius 11 (1458-65) and such writings as conquista. Columbus' Journals reveal that his empresa Campanus' Oratio (1471).2 de involved a master-plan for contacting the Insofar as the "" was charged with Mongol and pro-Christian Grand in the East, a desire to reach India and the Orient, proved circumventing and encircling the Islamic lands of the more successful than . Although the first serious Middle East, opening a new trade-route to the East to attempts in this direction were made by the Vivaldi bypass Mamluk territories, and combining the forces brothers of Genoa in 1291 (incidentally, the year of the of western and eastern Christendom in an enveloping Fall of Acre), both of whom perished off the Atlantic coast of North , it was the Portuguese who made the most remarkable progress.3 Portugal's King Diniz This article is a revised version of a paper read at the 188th Annual Meeting of the American Oriental Society at Toronto (April 11-13, 1978), and a sequel to my article entitled See JAOS, Vol. 99, no. I (1979), pp. 39-48, where detailed "Columbus and the Recovery of Jerusalem" (see note 2) notes on these persons and their work are given. where grateful acknowledgement was made of help received 3 A brief, yet well-documented, account of Portugal over- from several authorities in the field. Here, I would like to seas before the time of Henry the Navigator is contained in repeat my acknowledgement of the valuable suggestions and Bailey W. Diffie, Prelude to Empire (Lincoln, Nebraska, revisions made by my colleagues, Professors James Brun- 1960). From Henry's time onward we have Charles R. dage, John McGovern, and Russell Bartley. I would also like Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire (New York, 1969) to thank Ms. Jessica Myers for her patience and care in typing and his small but authentic survey, Four Centuries of this paper. Portuguese Expansion (1415-1825) (Johannesburg, 1965);

323

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(1279-1325) initiated this drive which from the outset the . In this capacity, Prince Henry master- was viewed as a crusade. The first step was taken in minded the conquest of Ceuta in 1415.5 From this 1317 with the appointment of Manuel Peqanha (Pes- North African outpost, the Moroccan caravan routes sagno), a rich Genoese merchant, as the of and the Atlantic coast became the channels of the Portugal. He and Gonqalho Pereira were sent to Pope Portuguese crusade southward into West Africa. Go- John XXII at Avignon to solicit funds for construction mez Eanes de Azurara, a contemporary of Prince of a fleet to be used against the Muslims. The Pope Henry, wrote, in 1453, what he considered to be the created for this purpose the Order of Christ,4 to which Prince's motives for patronage of the . he transferred all the Portuguese properties of the According to Azurara, Henry the Navigator was actu- suppressed Crusading Order of the Templars. The first ated by the zeal for God, by the desire for alliance with chapter of the Order of Christ was established at the Eastern Christians, by an eagerness to know how in 1321. Although the Order was presided over far the power of the "" existed, by the wish to by its own Masters, its finances came under the convert people to , and by the desire to management of the Portuguese royal family. During fight the . Gold, ivory, slaves, or spices as Prince his time, Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) Henry's objectives do not figure in Azurara's account.6 administered the Order and used its resources both for "Portuguese ports were a part of the Muslim trade maritime trade and overland military offensives against empire just as Portuguese learning was a part of Muslim geographical and nautical science," observes Bailey Diffie.' In the early fifteenth century a certain type of vessel, the caravel, was adopted for explora- also B. W. Diffie and G. D. Winius, Foundations of the tion, in preference to the (or galira), nau, : 1415-1580 (Minneapolis, 1977). My barcha, and barinel. The caravel, which was also used account is based on these sources. A different type of by Columbus, was adapted from the Arab qdrib which interpretation is contained in Vitorino Magalhaes-Godinho, had been successfully used by the in the eastern L'Economie de 1'EmpirePortugais aux XV' et XVIVSiecles Mediterranean for centuries.8 Whereas Madeira had (Paris, S.E.V.P.E.N., 1969). John H. Parry, commenting on it in the Journal of Interdisciplinary History, II, no. 3 (1972), p. 284, says, "Magalhaes-Godinho brushes aside the crusading element in the story. He points out that the Kingdoms of the 5 For the Muslim side of the picture, see Charles-Andre Maghrib did not present a threat to Christian ; that at Julien, History of , trans. Petrie, ed. Stewart, the time of the first African voyages the Ottoman power was (London-New York, 1970), pp. 207-9. relatively quiescent and that in any event it was far out of 6 Azurara, "The Chronicle and Conquest of Guinea," trans. reach of any 'outflanking' move which the Portuguese might C. R. Beazley and E. Prestage, in Readings in Medieval attempt. He dismisses-a little too cavalierly perhaps-the History, ed. J. F. Scott, A. Hyma, and A. H. Noyes (New search for 'Prester John' and the desire to proselytise as York, 1933) pp. 568-70, also in Brian Tierney, The Middle chronicler's embellishments or as exercises in public relations. Ages, I (New York, 1970), pp. 323-25. The African voyages were searches for the sources of gold." 7 Diffie, op. cit., p. 6, on the authority of the Hispano-Arab One should take into account two crusading approaches after geographer al-Idrsl's (d. 1166) Kitib Nuzhat al-Mushtaq ft the fall of in 1453: the one adopted by the Ikhtiriq al-Afdq, of which a new edition is being published in Spanish Pope Calixtus III (1455-58), which was anti- several fascicles since 1970 by the Oriental Institute of Naples. Ottoman, and second, the Portuguese, which was anti- 8 According to J. Corominas, Diccionario critico etimolo- Mamilik, at least between 1453 and 1517. Rome had gico de la lengua castellana, 4 vols. (Berna, 1954-57), the instituted a Papal fleet in which Portugal did not participate. Spanish word carabela is derived from the Portuguese The latter was more concerned with cutting off the Mamluk caravela, which in turn is a diminutive form of the later Latin trade with the by their presence in the Indian Ocean. carhbus, itself derived from the Greek Karabos (KUpaJpos) The Pope's target was Constantinople, while the Portuguese meaning "sea crab"and an ancient vessel known by this name. were heading toward Mecca. To the Pope unity with Eastern Another derivation is suggested by the Catalonian historian Christians meant unity with the Greek and Nestorian Jaime Vicens Vives in An Economic (Prince- Churches; to Portugal it meant seeking out Prester John in ton, 1969), p. 216. He suggests that the caravel evolved from Ethiopia. an earlier French vessel known as coque which was intro- 4 See the article, "Order of Christ," New Catholic Ency- duced into the Mediterranean from the Atlantic in the early clopaedia. thirteenth century.

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:03:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HAMDANI: Ottoman Response to the Discovery of America 325 been discovered between 1330 and 1418, and the The in 1453 revived crusading Canaries in 1341, more distant islands could now be activities in Europe. Prince Henry saw this in terms of reached by the caravel, such as the in 1431 and circumnavigating Africa and reaching the elusive the Cape Verde Islands between 1456 and 1459. Christian rulers of the East. He saw this also in terms of trade-monopoly, and exemption from payment of Corominas is aware of the possibility of an Arab origin of the customary tithe to the Pope. All this was confirmed the word caravel but discounts it by saying that the word by a Papal bull of 8 January 1455.9 qdrib had entered via the Hispanic Mozarabs. In fact, The next Portuguese ruler, Dom Joao II, sent a the word qdrib comes from the Arabic verb qaraba meaning reconnaisance-cum-intelligence mission overland "to draw near," and is as old as the Arabic language (see the through the Mamluk Middle East, charged with con- Arabic lexicon, Tdj al-'Aras, I, p. 425). The Arab ship qdrib tacting the of Ethiopia as well as with was used in the eastern Mediterranean long before the discovering the sources of the spice-trade in the East. emergence of Hispanic Mozarabs. It was so named because it This was led by two Arabic-speaking gentlemen, Pero was a type of vessel that could go far out in the ocean and de Covilha and Affonso de Paiva. At the same time could yet be drawn near to land, just right for exploration. It Bartholomeu Diaz reached the . was also used as an auxiliary to larger ships (see A. M. Diaz' report in 1488 and that of Covilha in 1492 Fahmy, Muslim Sea-Power in the Eastern Mediterranean convinced Dom Joao of the feasibility of reaching [, 1966], pp. 54-55). India and the Orient by a sea-route via the Cape of A. Ballesteros Berretta, Cristobal Colon, being Vol. V of Good Hope. of Columbus' discovery of the Historia de America (Barcelona-Buenos Aires, 1945), p. 5, Indies have delayed Joao's plans, but later realisa- dismisses the theories of caravel's Latin and Greek origin and tion that Columbus had discovered a new continent cites an early source, as does Mendoqa, namely el foral which was not India revived the Portuguese ruler's (c. 1255) de Villa Nova de Gaya, which was written for determination to equip a new expedition to the south. Affonso III of Portugal, wherein "caravel" is described as a Rounding the Cape in 1497, followed merchantcum-war ship of Arab Moroccan origin. the African coast northward to Malindi (near Zanzi- More than the name, the ship itself is evidence of its Arab bar). There he contacted a renowned Arab navigator origin. The caravel began to stand out as distinct from other who was the author of books on navigation, b. types of vessels in its use of the lateen sail. J. H. Parry, in his Majid.'0 The latter helped the Portuguese to cross the book, The Establishment of European Hegemony, 1415-1715 Indian Ocean and to reach Calicut on the west coast of (New York, 1959), p. 21, writes: "The square-rigged ship-the Southern India, a major emporium of the Eastern nau-played no considerable part in the early discoveries. The spice-trade. Indian spice was thus added to West Portuguese preferred a borrowed alternative, the lateen cara- African gold, ivory, and slaves. The Portuguese estab- vel-a highly individual craft which betrayed Asiatic influ- lished colonies along the new route to India, and ence in its every line. Here, too, Arabs were their teachers.... wherever they went encountered Arab and Muslim The lateen sail is the special contribution of the Arabs to the development of the world's shipping; it is as characteristic of as the itself. It is also a very efficient general- 9 Boxer, Four Centuries, p. 7. See notes 3 and 6 above and purpose rig." Charles Martel de Witte, Les Bulles Pontificales et l'expan- Toward the end of the fifteenth century, Parry points out sion portugaise au XVe sicl/e (Louvain, 1958). (p. 22), the Portuguese and Spanish shipbuilders developed a 10 See A. A. Alim, "Ahmad ibn Majid, an Arab Navigator of new type of caravel-the caravela redonda, which combined the XVth Century and his Contributions to Marine Sciences," the European square-rig with the Arab lateen. It is this type of in the Proceedings of the First International Congress of the ship that was associated with most of the voyages of discovery. History of Oceanography (held in Dec. 1966) (Monaco, 1967). Columbus' first voyage demonstrated the superiority of the A more detailed biography of Ibn Majid is contained in the caravel over the northern nau; his own -ship Santa Maria same author's book, Ibn Mdjid al-Malldh (in Arabic) (Cairo, was a square-rigged nau, sluggish and cumbersome, whereas 1966). the other two, Nina and Pinta, were caravelas redondas, fast Ibn Majid wrote several books on the principles, practice, and seaworthy. and advantages of navigation, two of which are his principal For a discussion of the difference between the caravel and compositions: Kitdb al-fawJdid ft usal cilm al-bahr wa'l- other ships, see Quirino da Fonseca, A Caravela Portuguesa qawd'id and Hawiyat al-ikhtisdr ft usal 'ilm al-bihdr. This (Coimbra, 1934), p. 177, and Jose Maria Martinez-Hidalgo, second book is in verse and shows the literary accomplish- Columbus' Ships (Barre, Mass., 1966), pp. 24-25. ment of the Arab captain.

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:03:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 326 Journal of the American Oriental Societa 101.3 (1981) states. Conditions were right to revive the political and Qansuh GhorT(1501-17)16 to come to their aid, economic offensive against the ." but the MamlUk fleet was defeated in 1509 by the In 1500 the Portuguese clashed with Muslim mer- Portuguese Francisco de Almeida, off Diu in chants at Calicut, where they burned ten Mamllk Gujrdt, which was occupied and where a Portuguese ships. The following year, the King of Portugal de- base was established. Almeida, a veteran of Portu- clared that Arabs would no longer be allowed to trade guese wars against the Muslims of North Africa, then in Indian spices. In 1502 the Portuguese, with the help declared: "As long as you may be powerful at sea you of the south-Indian Hindu King of Channor and will hold India as yours; and if you do not possess this Cochin, declared war on the Sdmilfri () of power, little will avail you a fortress on shore."17 Calicut, the protector of Muslim merchants. Next, the Previously, in 1507, the Portuguese had taken the Portuguese blocked the southern entrance of the Red island of Socotra, off the Southern Arabian coast, and Sea to Muslim shipping. As a result, in 1504 only even earlier, in 1505, had attacked Jedda. Almeida's enough spices for local consumption reached , plan of conquering Mecca itself was blocked at the end and these by alternate routes.'2 of 1506 by the Mamluk Captain Husayn al-Kurdi, Sultan Mahmud Begarha (1459-151 1) of the Gujrat who built fortifications at Jedda, the port of Mecca.'8 State in Western India,"3 the Tdhirid ruler of , Almeida was replaced in 1509 by the new governor, Zdfir 11 (1487-1517),14 and the , Affonso de Albuquerque, who aspired to establishing a Barakdt II (1495-1524),"5 appealed to the Mamluk Portuguese Empire in the East. He seized the port of Goa from the Sultan of Bijapur, an enclave that was to become Portugal's 1 Boxer, Four Centuries, pp. 12-14; Ferndo Lopez de eastern capital. In 1511, Albuquer- que conquered in Castanheda, History of the Discovery and Conquest of India Malacca Indonesia, the major source (originally published in 1552), English trans. by Nicholas of spices. In the last years of his life, he succeeded in taking the Lichefield, in A General History and Collection of Voyages island of Hormuz at the southern entrance and Travels, II (Edinburgh, 1824), pp. 343-59. Also see of the . Although he failed to occupy Aden, he Whiteway, 7he Rise of Portuguese Power in India, 1497-1550 nonetheless succeeded in gaining possession of the (London, 1899). East African ports of Socotra, Hormuz, Diu, Daman, 12R. B. Sereant, The Portuguese off the South Arabian Goa, and Malacca, and in converting the Indian Ocean into a Coast (Oxford, 1963), pp. 13-21. This book contains English Portuguese Sea, closed to Muslim shipping. "If we of several South Arabian chronicles pertaining to take this trade of Malacca away out of their the Portuguese activity in the Indian Ocean, particularly [MamlUk] hands," he declared, "Cairo and Mecca will Ta'rfkh al-Shihri, covering the period 1495-1592. See also be entirely ruined, and to no spices will be G. W. F. Stripling, The Ottoman and the Arabs (1511- conveyed, except what her merchants go to buy in 1524) (Urbana, 1942), pp. 29-30, on the authority of Venetian Portugal."'9 In 1513 Camilio Portio, on behalf of envoys; Peter Pasquali (Letter) and Girolamo Priuli (Diarii). Albuquerque, addressed an oration to Pope Leo X in See also Sir George Birdwood, Report on the Old Records of which he said: "There is thrown open to us by the the India Office, p. 167. The most important contemporary conquest of the kingdom of Ormuz, the road whereby is Duarte Barbosa's Description of the Coasts of East Holy House of Jerusalem (the country in which our Africa and Malabar (ca. 1514); Portuguese ed. (1812) trans. into English by Henry E. J. Stanley (London: Hakluyt So- 16 Stripling, op. cit., pp. 30-36. The contemporary Arabic ciety, 1865); Johnson Reprint (New York, 1970), p. 21. sources are: Ibn lyas (d. shortly after 1522), BaddYical-zuhiir, 13 Vincent Smith, The Oxford , Part II, ed. Paul Kahle and Mustafa, 5 vols. and Indices revised by J. B. Harrison (Oxford, 1958), p. 276. (, 1931-45); and Ibn TURIn(d. 1546); Mufakihat al- 14 Serjeant, op. cit., pp. 13-21. Contemporary Arabic sources Khillan f hawddith al- aman (a and are Ibn al-Dayba' (of Zablid,Yaman) (d. 1537), K. Qurrat al- from 1480 to 1520) 2 vols. (Cairo, 1962/64), although the Cuyin, MS. Dar al-Kutub, Cairo; Abd Makhrama (d. 1540), latter is concerned more with the local affairs of Syria. Qilddat al-nahr, in L. 0. Schuman, Political History of 7 V. Smith, op. cit., p. 328. Yaman at the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century (Amster- This is reported by Ibn Iyas, the last portion of whose dam, 1961); and al-Nahrawdll (d. 1582), al-Barq al-yamdn7 history, covering the period 1501-16, is translated into French fT'l-fath al-'uthmani (Riydd), pp. 18-22. by Gaston Wiet under the : Journal dun bourgeois du 1s Gerald de Gaury, Rulers of Mecca (London, 1951), Caire, p. 106, and confirmed by Duarte Barbosa (ca. 1514), pp. 113-26; also relevant sections of Snouck-Hurgronje, op. cit., p. 24. Mekka, 2 vol. (Leiden, 1888-89). 19 V. Smith, op. cit., p. 329.

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Saviour was born) can again be recovered and rescued strangulation of Mamlhk Egypt which, however, suc- from the hands of those who tyrannically and cumbed, not to a crusading power, but to Ottoman unrighteously possess it."20Albuquerque's ambition in . As in the twelfth century, when Saladin's pushing through the to Mecca and, after conquest of Fatimid Egypt had prepared the way for a conquering the Muslim holy , of exchanging it for counter-crusade, so now the Ottoman conquest of Jerusalem, remained unfulfilled, however.2' Albuquer- Mamnlk Egypt prepared the way for a confrontation que dreamed of an alliance with the Christian king of with Portugal and Spain. Between 1517 and 1519 the Ethiopia who had been identified as the real Prester Ottomans took Egypt, Syria, and and estab- John2 and even propounded a grandiose scheme to lished their sovereignty over Mecca. In 1534, they took starve Egypt by diverting the through Ethiopia to and, in 1546, . As a result, they came to the Red Sea.23 control the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf and were Portuguese trading influence in the East continued thus able to block a Portuguese advance from the after Albuquerque's death, but the Portuguese monop- Indian Ocean northward to Mecca or Cairo. Our oly of the Eastern trade was broken by Dutch and attention is thus now drawn to Ottoman interest in English competitors whose commercial interests were North Africa and the West, which, in a way, consti- not clouded by the crusading motive. Moreover, with tutes Islam's response to the discovery of America. the Ottoman conquest of the Middle East in 1517, the A naval hero of the period, Pirn Ra"is, Portuguese faced a more determined enemy than the records in his diary, entitled BahrTye,24 that he pre- Mamliks. In any case, by 1580 Portugal had merged sented a to the Ottoman Sultan Salim with Spain and was thus drawn into the European (1512-20), conqueror of Egypt in 1517. In 1929, Bay entanglements of its Iberian neighbor. Halil Etem Eldem discovered it when the Topkapu Palace was being transformed into a museum and * * * invited Professor Paul Kahle to study it. This map, drawn in color on parchment of hide, was dated The opening of the back-door of the East-West trade 1513.24a A legend on the map says that it was com- via the Cape of Good Hope achieved the desired posed from twenty mappaemundi. It comprised China

20 The Commentaries of the Great Afonso D'Albuquerque, trans. from the Portuguese edition of 1774 by W. Birch 24 Pinf Ra'is, Kitab-i-Bahriye, facsimile ed., Turkish Histor- (London: Hakluyt Society); Burt Franklin reprint (New York, ical Society publication no. 2 (Istanbul, 1935), as used by Paul 1970), Vol. III, p. 175. Kahle, "A Lost Map of Columbus," The Geographical Re- 2' Ibid., III, p. 37. See also Stripling, op. cit., p. 34, and view, Vol. 23 (Oct. 1933), pp. 621-38. This article along with H. V. Livermore, A New Hivsorr of Portugal (Cambridge, Paul Kahle's other articles on the PlrT Ra'Is map is reprinted 1967), p. 142. in Minora von Paul Kahle, ed. Mathew Black and 22 Christofer Bell in his Portugal and the Quest of the Indies others (Leiden, 1956). (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1974) says (p. 154): "The land 24a The map has been a subject of considerable study. of Prester John had been firmly identified with Ethiopia and Besides the article of Paul Kahle mentioned in note 24, Yusuf from time to time Coptic monks appeared in Jerusalem or Akqura wrote his Hartisi, (Istanbul: Devlet Basimevi, even in Rome to confirm that the ruler of Ethiopia and his 1935) simultaneously in Turkish and in German, French and subjects were indeed Christians." In the time of Almeida and English translations (English version, pp. 12-16). It contains Albuquerque, the Book of Duarte Barbosa (ed. cited, p. 19) the valuable decipherment of the legends on the map. Next speaks of Ethiopia as the Kingdom of Prester John. Cf. are an article by (= Elizabeth P. McCallum), "Un Father Francisco Alvares, The Prester John of the Indies, Amiral Geographe Turc de XVI siecle Piri Reis, auteur de la being the narrative of the Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia in plus ancienne carte de l'Amerique," Belleten, , I, no. 2 1520, trans. Lord Stanley (London: Hakluyt Society, 1881); (April, 1937) as well as her book, The Oldest Map of America, revised ed., 2 vols. (Cambridge, 1961). Also Legatio David Drawn by Piri Reis, trans. Leman Yolaq (Ankara, 1954). In Aethiopiae Regis ... ad Clementem Papam VII, Paris, 1954, Arlington Mallery corresponded with the editor of the Antonius Augerelius, c. 1531, which in the Bologna ed. of Geographical Review, pointing out that Piri Reis' 1513 map 1533 bears the name, Prester John, as author. was not reduced to a single scale. Professor Charles Hopgood 2 Stnpling, op. cit., p. 34. See also H. Morse Stephens on of Keane Teacher's College, , New York, wrote a letter Albuquerque in Rulers of India, 1892; Imperial Gazeteer of dated 3 August, 1960, to President Dwight Eisenhower that India (Oxford, 1907/1908), Chapter 2. the is the oldest existing map of America and is

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and the Eastern regions for which Arabic maps would from the Spanish ships in 1501 and in whose posses- have been the sources. This portion of the map was cut sion was found the map in question. Even the place- and is lost. The portion preserved in sections of varying names on the map are as Columbus gave them, albeit scales depicts, however, the Western regions of the altered in accord with the Turkish usage of the period, Atlantic, for which the source is acknowledged as the for example, Wadluk for Guadeloupe, Santa Mardia map of "Colon-bo." There is no doubt about the and Galanda for Maria Galanti, Samo Kresto for identity of this "Colon-bo," for another long legend Santa Cruz, Undizi Vergine for Virgin Islands (note describes Columbus' life history from his childhood in the Italian undici instead of the Spanish once, which Genoa to his trading of glass-beads for gold and pearls the Genoese Columbus may have used), Kaleot (Galeot) in the . The legend also describes how PirT for Cabo de la Galera. On Piri's map, Hispaniola obtained the Admiral's map. His uncle, Kamal Ra'Ts stretches north-south as it must have figured on (d. 1511), also an Ottoman naval captain, had a Columbus' map,26 because the Admiral considered it Spanish slave who had told him: "Three times have I Cipango or Japan. Cuba is represented as a part of the travelled with Colon-bo to this territory." Kahle cites mainland, with Porta Ghande (Puerto Grande) marked another entry in PTri's diary which describes the cap- just as Columbus believed it to be. The island is ture by Kamal Ra 's of seven Spanish ships off represented as a wedge of land jutting into the Ocean Valencia, an event known to have occurred in 1501.25 and inclining southward, again as Columbus thought it This event followed Columbus' third voyage, which to be. There are several small islands marked with ended in August 1499, and was prior to the fourth, parrot-drawings, as if to indicate, according to Kahle, which began in April 1502. The Spaniard who related unconfirmed discoveries. From this evidence, Kahle Columbus' story must have been the one captured has concluded that PNf used a map carried by Columbus on his first voyage-a map which the based on Columbus' lost map of 1499. He pleaded for a search Admiral was continually changing as the voyage pro- in the Spanish Archives for the lost map of Columbus. He ceeded-and which at some point was passed to also informed the President that Piri Reis' map contains the Martin Alonso Pinz6n, captain of the Pinta.27 contour of the Queen Maud Land of , this being There is evidence that the Ottomans used the confirmed by American Naval Research. This is all the more from Spain as their intelligence agents in important because the Queen Maud Land is now covered by Europe.28 It is likely, therefore, that these Moriscos ice, a mile deep. This proves that Piri Reis must have used could have served the same purpose in keeping track of some ancient maps preserved in the (Photo- stat copies of Mallery and Hopgood letters are in the 26 Professor J. H. Parry informed me that "the earliest American Geographical Society Collection housed at the sketch map of Hispaniola, believed to have been drawn by library of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.) At the Columbus in 1492-93 and now in the Duke of Alba's collec- Xth International Congress of the History of Science, Ithaca, tion has the island running correctly east and west." It is New York, 1962, Hopgood read a paper, "The Piri Reis Map possible that this is not the earliest map and may have been a of 1513" (typescript in the AGS Collection), in which he revised version after a better acquaintance with Hispaniola. It established the accuracy of the Piri Reis map with regard to is also possible that the Turkish cartographer of Pnlr Ra"is' latitude and and pointed out that it contains data map made variations on the original Columbus map. It is regarding places not "officially" discovered until 1513. again possible that the map in the Duke of Alba's collection is Charles H. Cotter summarized the above research in a short not by Columbus. Paul Kahle (ibid. p. 633, note 9) says: "A article entitled "Piri Reis: Admiral Extraordinary" in The sketch of the north coast of Espanola attributed to Columbus, Journal of Navigation, XXV, no. 2 (April 1972), pp. 247-49. possibly dating from 1493 and showing the town of Navidad, Finally, Andrew Hess wrote his "Piri Reis and the Ottoman was reproduced by La Duquesa de Berwick y de Alba in her Response to the Voyages of Discovery," TerraIncognita, XVI Nuevos aut6grafos de Christobal Col6n y relaciones de (1974), pp. 19-37, in which the contents of Piri's Bahriye are ultramar, Madrid, 1902. ... Streicher ... believes its Co- related to the Ottoman response to the Portuguese challenge. lumbian origin is not altogether certain." Hess' attention, 27 however, is on the Red Sea and the Indian P. Kahle, ibid., p. 636. This map seems to have been Ocean and fails to relate the Ottoman response to the completed in 1499 at the end of Columbus' third voyage and is discovery New World across the Atlantic. now not traceable, leaving Ra'Ts' map as the oldest 25 H. A. von Burski, Kemal Re'Ts: Ein Beitrag zur Ge- existing map of America. schichte der turkischen Flotte (dissertation), Bonn, 1928, as 28 Andrew Hess, "The Moriscos: An Ottoman Fifth Column cited in P. Kahle, ibid., p. 626. in Sixteenth-Century Spain," American Historical Review,

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:03:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HAMDANI: Ottoman Response to the Discoverv of America 329 the Spanish and Portuguese explorations in the Atlan- coast, establishing his headquarters at Jijelli and Al- tic. giers. By 1574 most of North Africa was in Ottoman All this goes to show that at a very early date the hands.30 Ottomans were aware of and interested in the discov- Only one territory, Morocco, jealously guarded its ery of the New World, marked on Pirl's map as against Christians and Ottomans alike, 'Vilayet Antilia.' The term Vilayetapplied usually to an under the new Sharff of the Sacdians. It played administrative unit of the . As the a role in the similar to that of Venice in Ottomans were engaged in a counter-crusade in the the Christian world. By 1554 the Sacdians had estab- Indian Ocean and the against those lished themselves at Marrakesh, liberating Safi and very powers who had discovered these new lands, they Azemour in 1549. The Sharif Muhammad al-Mahd! II appeared ready to pursue their enemies on into and (1517-57) entered into trading relations with Britain perhaps across the Atlantic. I would maintain that the and resolutely opposed any Turkish advance into his Ottoman interest in North Africa and their desperate territories. The Turkish drive toward the Atlantic was drive toward the western shores of the Maghrib are thus blocked, and with it all hopes of crossing the themselves evidence of the Porte's intentions. If the Atlantic to the New World. Ottoman frustration is Ottomans did not reach America, it is because they evidenced by the murder of the Sharif, whose head was failed to gain the Atlantic coast. carried to Istanbul by his Turkish assassins. This act Even before 1517 North Africa had become the changed little, however, and Morocco remained closed scene of Hispano-Ottoman conflict. The Spaniards to the Ottomans.31 followed up the reconquest of the by There were other factors besides the failure to gain establishing presidios on the Algerian and Tunisian the Atlantic coast of Morocco that developed later and coast. They had taken Melilla in 1497, Mars al-Kabir must have contributed to a permanent Ottoman loss of in 1505, Pefion of in 1508, Bougie and interest in the New World, such as the continuous in 1510. Small places like Tenes, , Cherchel, and problems on the Central European, Persian, and South became tributaries of Spain. The inquisi- Arabian fronts of their Empire. The Mediterranean tion of Cardinal Ximenes played an important role, itself required considerable naval resources, whether a while pirates like Pedro Navaro provided an extra- victory was achieved in (1570) or defeat suf- legal arm to intercept Ottoman shipping. fered at (1571).32 The Ottoman State still had The Portuguese, in turn, concentrated on Morocco. The conquest of Ceuta in 1415 had begun the process. 30 The above account of the Ottoman conflict with Spain Fronteiras and feitorias were established at al-Qasr as- and Portugal in the Mediterranean is mainly based on Julien, SaghTr in 1458, Anfia in 1469, Mussat in 1488, , pp. 205-19 and 273-302. For details Tangiers and Arzila in 1471, Agadir in 1505, Safi in of Spanish incursions in North Africa see R. Brunchvig, La 1508, Azemour in 1513, Mazagan in 1514, and Mar- BNrberieOrientale sous les IjafsIdes des Origines a la fin du rakesh in 1515. XV' si&cle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1940,47). Cf. Andrew Hess. "The The impotence of the local North African Evolution of the Ottoman Seaborne Empire in the Age of the -the MarTnids, Zayyyanids and Hafsids-had Oceanic Discoveries, 1453-1525," American Historical Re- prompted the Ottomans to sweep them aside, occupy- view, LXXV (Dec. 1970), pp. 1892-1919. Despite the very ing the area with a view to facing the threat posed by suggestive words "oceanic discoveries" in the title, the article Spain and Portugal. The chief architects of Ottoman does not concern itself with the Ottoman interest in the New power in this area were the Barbarossa brothers, World, but it describes the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean corsairs appointed of Ottoman fleets.29 frontiers of the Ottoman Seaborne Empire. Khayr al- Barbarossa built a new Ottoman fleet in 3' Julien, op. cit., pp. 205-19. For details see H. de Castries, 1519, took Pefion of Algiers from the Spanish in 1525, Sources inedites de i'Histoire du Maroc, 2 vols. (Paris, and between these dates occupied most of the Algerian 1921/53); Henri Terrasse, Histoire du Maroc des origines a l'etablissement du Protectorat Franqais (Casablanca, 1949- LXXIV, no. 1 (Oct. 1968), pp. 1-25. The article describes the 50); and Auguste Cour, L'Etablissement des dynasties des role of the Moriscos as Ottoman agents trying to incite the Cherifs au Maroc et leur rivalite avec les Turcs de la regence Dutch Lutherans against the Spanish Hapsburgs. d' au XVl1 siecle (Paris, 1904). 29 See S. Soucek, "The Rise of the Barbarossas in North 32 A good survey of the situation can be found in H. Inalcik, Africa," in Archivum Otomanicum, III (Louvain, Belgium, "The Heyday and Decline of the Ottoman Empire," in The 1971), pp. 238-50. Cambridge , I (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 324-53.

This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:03:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 330 Journal of the American Oriental Society 101.3 (1981) enough vitality to recover naval strength33sufficient challengers such as England, Holland, and France. for the defense of its long coastal frontiers but not Prester John and the Grand Khan had served their enough for any future confrontation with the Spanish utopian purpose. Gold, slaves, and spices as well as and the Portuguese across the Straits of Gibraltar. colonization in the newly discovered lands, were now Spain and Portugal on their part got involved in the more important than against the Muslims. In defense of their far-flung Empire and trade against new the age of the East India companies, the recovery of Jerusalem faded as the prime motivating factor in their political activity. Yet the memory of those still I days 1. H. Uzunqarslii, "Bahriyya" (Section III on Ottoman lingers in such American place-names as Matamoros Navy), Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition). (St. James, "the Moor-Killer").

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