Envoys Between Lusignan Cyprus and Mamluk Egypt, 838–78/1435–73: the Accounts of Pero Tafur, George Boustronios and Ibn Taghrī Birdī

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chapter 24 Envoys between Lusignan Cyprus and Mamluk Egypt, 838–78/1435–73: the Accounts of Pero Tafur, George Boustronios and Ibn Taghrī Birdī

Nicholas Coureas

There were frequent exchanges of envoys between Cyprus and the Mamluk sultanate during the period under discussion. Following the Mamluk invasion of Cyprus in 829/1426, an event provoked by Cypriot piracy against Mamluk lands and which marked the new determination of the Mamluk sultanate under Sul- tan Barsbāy (r. 825–41/1422–38) to use his sea power effectively, King Janus of Cyprus (r. 1398–1432) was defeated and captured at the battle of Khirokitia. The Mamluk invasion was a military success, notwithstanding the defects in the Mamluk galleys constructed at Beirut which resulted in the use of Nile barges and ships requisitioned from Western merchants in Egypt for the invasion fleet. Consequently, the Lusignan kingdom of Cyprus came under Mamluk suzerainty, and began sending an annual tribute payable in kind and especially in textiles, including camlet. The Italian maritime powers of Venice and Genoa, themselves major beneficiaries of trade with Egypt and Syria and hostile to the Lusignan kingdom in the case of Genoa, were unable and unwilling to prevent the reduction of Cyprus to tributary status. On the contrary, the imposition of the tribute benefited the Venetians indirectly because the tribute from Cyprus was paid in kind, not cash. It therefore acted as a stimulus for the export of Cypriot products to Mamluk lands, and Venetian merchants in Cyprus han- dled a major portion of such exports. Envoys between Cyprus and Egypt were exchanged in connection with the tribute payments, which continued when Venice took control of Cyprus in 1473 and after the imposition of direct Vene- tian rule in 1489. Indeed, the Venetians continued payment of the tribute in order to protect their considerable trade interests and wealth in Mamluk ter- ritories, especially since the money for its payment originated from Cyprus as opposed toVenice itself. Envoys between Cyprus and Egypt, however, also dealt with other issues, such as the transfer of power in Cyprus from the Lusignans to the Venetians, the Mamluk acceptance of this transfer, and Turkish piracy.1

1 Edbury, The Lusignan kingdom; Ouerfelli, Les Relations 338–9; Arbel, Venetian Cyprus 161–

In this paper, I discuss the varied issues related to the social status, nation- ality, treatment, and means of communication employed by the envoys, oral or written. The evidence for the dispatch of envoys between Cyprus and Egypt derives mostly but not exclusively from the accounts of the Castilian nobleman Pero Tafur (d. ca. 1484), the Cypriot chronicler George Boustronios (d. late 15th c.), and the Mamluk historian Ibn Taghrī Birdī (d. 874/1470). All three writ- ers have the merit of being contemporary to the events they recounted. Tafur and Boustronios both had direct access to the kings of Cyprus and Ibn Taghrī Birdī, who descended from a Mamluk of Anatolian extraction, was acquainted with the Mamluk sultans Barsbāy and Jaqmaq. The letter of Queen Charlotte of Cyprus to her husband Louis of Savoy, sent to him by the exiled queen from Rhodes in September 1464, forms another contemporary and valuable source for the dispatch of envoys, this time between Rhodes and Egypt, although in the course of returning from Rhodes to Cairo the Mamluk envoys traveled via Kerynia in Cyprus.2 The account of the Castilian nobleman Pero Tafur, sent as an envoy with letters to the Mamluk sultan Barsbāy by King John II of Cyprus (r. 1432–58) in 840–1/1437, concerns a mission undertaken in order to terminate the finan- cially burdensome Mamluk embassies sent after 829/1426 to exact the tribute due from Cyprus. In 834/1430–1, Sultan Barsbāy sent no fewer than 300 Mam- luks to Cyprus to demand arrears in the Cypriot tribute and they returned in less than one month with 3,000 dinars worth of camlets. No doubt the Cypriots were only too glad to see the back of such a numerous delegation, burdened as they were with the expense of providing hospitality for it. On King Janus’ death, the sultan sent another numerous delegation in two galleys to remind his heir King John II to continue payments, and the envoys received not only the tribute but also a gift. Anxious to end such expensive visitations by numerous Mam- luk envoys the king or his council suggested that one Mamluk should reside in Cyprus to collect the tribute. Instead they apparently sent an amir with forty Mamluks, although this may simply refer to the size of the annual Mamluk delegation sent to Cyprus to collect the tribute.While King John continued making regular tribute payments, he naturally wished to end this costly practice.3 Tafur’s account, however, is also interesting for his descriptions of the pro- cedures that envoys from Cyprus underwent in order to gain an audience with

2; Coureas, Losing the war; Coureas, The tribute; Coureas, Mamluks in the Cypriot chronicle 136–8 and 143–4. 2 Pero Tafur 12–3; Boustronios, Narrative, §§30–1 and 34; Popper, Abū al-Maḥāsin 138; Man- souri, Chypre 143–4; de Mas Latrie, Histoire iii, 129–30 note 1. 3 Ouerfelli, Les Relations 342 and note 84; Ziada, The Mamluk conquest 50 (note 1), 51.