RECONSTRUCTING the MEDICI PORTRAIT of FAKHRAL-DIN AL-Macani

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.

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