HAFEZ CH EHAB

RECONSTRUCTING THE MEDICI PORTRAIT OF FAKHRAL-DIN AL-MAcANI

Before the nineteenth century, portraits of rulers in th e mary 7, 1609, but his so n Cos imo 11 de'M edici (r. 1609­ Islamic Middle East were a rarity. Of all the princes of 21) co n tin ue d his fathe r's rel ations with Fakhr al-Din. Mount Lebanon, only two are kn own to have be en por­ Their secret alliance was discovered by Ahmad Hafiz, th e trayed,Fakhral-Din ibn Qurqmaz al-Ma' ani (1572-1635) ,1 Ottoman governor of Damascu s, and resulted in 1613 in amir of the Shuf and governor of Mount Lebanon (r. a retali atory raid on th e amir's domains. Fakhr al-Din 1590-1633 ), then under Ottoman co n tro l, and Bashir 11 decided to exile hirnself; he left Saida with his younge r al-Sh ihabi (r. 1787-1840 ), a descendant of th e Ma'ianids wife a nd a retinue of aro u nd seventy-five people, and through several marriage alliances between the two fled to ltaly, leaving his mother, Sitt Nassab, of the Tan­ houses. Several engravings purporting to depict Fakhr nukh princely house, a nd his younger brother Yun is al-Din have surfa ce d, all of th em by Western artists. behind to govern his lands. Fakhr al-Din arrived at The ea rliest record of a portrait of Fakhr al-Din is doc­ Livorno on November 3, 1613, th e Grand Duke wrote to urnented in a letter written on July 20, 1659 , by Sh eikh welcome hirn and sen t a delegatio n to gre et hirn h eaded Abu Nawfal al-Khazen, a Maronite ove rlord who had by his first sec retary Lorenzo Usirnbardi ." lived in Tuscany from 1635 to 1637. H e wrote, on behalf The amir's arrival at Florence is d escribed in a ch ro n­ of Fakhr al-Din 's grandnephews am irs Qurqmaz and id e of his reign attributed to Ahmad al-Khalidi al-Safadi Ahmad, to Ferdinando 11 de 'Medici, grand duke ofTus­ (d . 1624 ).7After visitin g Pisa and spendi ng the night at ca ny, asking to borrow th e portra it ofFakhr al-Din in th e th e Villa Ambrogiana, Fakhr al-Din was gre eted by the Grand Duke's possession. In it h e reports th e death of Grand Duke's unde Don Giovan ni de'Medici8 in whose Fakhr al-Din 's nephew Am ir Milhim Ibn Yunis al-Ma'iani, carosse th e am ir rode to the Palazzo Pitti. There Cosimo and asks in the name of his two sons and suc cessors that de 'M edici, his wife, and h is co urt rec eived th e prince "Your Highness kindly allow th e J esuit Fathers, d ele­ from Mount Lebanon in th e grand salo n." While in Flo­ ga ted by their Superior, to bring to th e amirs th e painted rence, th e amir and his family resid ed at the Palazzo Vec­ port rait of th eir unde Am ir Fakhr al-Din in th e palace of ch io'" in the apartment of Pope Leo X.II H is main resi­ Your Highness, or allow them to co py it, and send it here dence until May 1614 was in Livorno. In June 1614, h e [to Beirut] from Livorno in th e first vessel to sail to Saida moved to the Palazzo Medici Riccardi" where he resided or Beirut.t" There is no evidence th at Ferdinando 11 until the end ofJuly 1615.13 H e soon became weil known ac te d upon his request, however, and th e whereabouts of in Europe." the port rait today is unknown . According to the chronid e, Fakhr al-Din left Florence Relati ons between the Medicis and Fakhr al-Din went in 1615 for Messina, a t the invitati on of the duke of back to th e time of Ferdinando I de 'Medici (r. 1587­ O ssuna, viceroy of Spain in Sicily (Spain was th en at wa r 1609).England, Spain, France, Tuscany, the city sta tes of with the Ottomans). The duke welcomed the amir and Venice and Ge noa, and th e cities of th e Low Lands all gave hirn a residence ove rlooking th e harbor. At th e co m peted for trade in th e easte rn Mediterranean, and amir's request he equi pped hirn for a reconnaissance vessels fro m all of th em bro ught goods to Fakhr al-Din's trip to Mt. Lebanon, whi le keeping his fam ily and reti­ ports of Beirut, Sid on , and Tyre. In 1608 Ferdinando I nue in Messina. On th e way back to Sicily, the am ir negotiated an agreemen t with Fakhr al-Din 3 th at stopped offat Mal ta,15where he was welcomed with great induded a safe co nd uc t to Tuscany for the Ma'ianid pomp. In the meanwhile th e vice roy had moved to prince,"The Codice Mediceo dei Regio Archivio di Firen­ Palermo, and Fakhr al-Din followed hirn there and th en ze (Fo ndo Mediceo), and th e Arc hivio Vaticano, Fondo on to Naples where he is said to have resid ed unti11618,16 Borghese 11, contain several lette rs co ncern ing Fakhr al­ when he was finally able to return to Mount Lebanon af­ Din for the period 1608-1 3.5 Ferdinando I died on Feh- ter th e assassination of Grand Vizier Nassuh Pash a and 118 HAFEZ CHEHAB

The ea rliest known portrait of hirn (fig. 1) was pub­ lished by Eugene Roger." A French Franciscan in Naza­ reth, who was one of Fakhr al-Din 's physicians in th e last year of his re ign (1632-33).21 Roger describes Fakhr al­ Din as folIows: "Lorsque I'Emi r Fech rreddin fut deffaict il estoit aage enviro n de soixan te & dix ans. Ce Prince estoit de moyenne sta ture, la face vermeille, I'oeil bril­ lant, d 'un courage invincibl e, docte en I'astrol ogie et phisionomie. "22 The illu stration shows a tall , old, bearded man; dressed in moderately luxurious garments -Eugene Roger describes his re tinue as "Ies princes et ceux qui tiennent rang de noblesse son t passabl ement bien vestus .,,23 The ami r's face is shown in profile, th e same profile that is see n in an illustration in th e sam e book en titled simply "Marchand maronite.,,24The similar­ ities of th e two heads indicate th at th e illu strator did not make th ese illustrations from life, but merely depicted his own idea ofwhat a MiddIe Eastern figure would look like, based on accurate information abo ut costumes. In 1677 , an engraving re presen ting an episode of Fakhr al-Diri's life was published in Amsterdam by Olfert Dapper." The illustrati on (fig. 2) shows a dram ati c cap­ ture sce ne in Baroque Ru ben esque style. In the fore­ ground, Fakhr al-Din is shown po in ting his co mmanding hand toward two soldiers with swords at th eir sides, hold­ ing a man down on th e gro und. T he sce ne is set in front ofa ro und tent with elaborate textil es and a crowd ofsol­ diers with lances and sta ndards.T he episode represen ts th e captu re of Mustafa, pasha of Dam ascus, at th e Battl e of cAnjar in the Biqa" Valley, on November 1623.26 Sev­ eral dignitaries surround the prince, probabl y his son cAli and his closest allies, Ami rs Muhammad and cAli Shihab who fou gh t in th e battI e of CAnj ar. This iIIustra­ tlon '" is too theatrical to be regarded as a portrait of th e amir, th ough the costumes are ro ug hly re presen tative of Fig. I. Portrait of Amir Fakhr al-Din. Fro m Euge ne Roger, La Terre th e period. The artist may have been inspired by Eugene Sainc te . .. (1646) . (Photo: by permission of the Hou ghton Library, Roger 's illustration (fig. I). Harvard University) In his book on Fakhr al-Din, Ade l Ismail reproduces an engraving by Henri Bonnart (ca. 1642-1711 ),28which th e rui n of Hafez. The new grand vizier, Muhammad Bonnart identifies with th e captio n, "Emir Fech reddin Pasha, was an ally of Fakhr al-Din.17 Du rin g th e remain­ prince des Druses" (fig. 3) . Th is portrait was found at th e der ofhis re ign he kept up his ties with Pope Urba n VIII , Biblioth eque Na tio nale in Paris in a manuscript on th e the Medicis , and Spain." Druses." The prin t is probabl y th e same as item 127, Fro m that time on , Amir Fakhr al-Din ibn Qurqmaz al­ "Emir Fech rredin prince des Drus," on CharIes Le Ma'iani was fre que n tly mentioned by travelers to th e Ho­ Blan c's list of Henri Bonnart's engravings r" H en ri Bon­ Iy Land, histori an s, and geographers." One may assurne nart must have based his design on Roger's illustration th at suc h a well-know n character could also have been because there are several sim ilarities be twee n th e por­ port rayed by artists, but only a few portraits have sur­ tra it in Roger and Bonnarr's port rait of Fakhr al-Din. faced, all engravings, ran ging in date from th e seven­ Both faces are old and bea rd ed; th e turbans are similar; tee nth to the end of the eighteen th century. th e cloaks are stripe d and held in th e same man ner.