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To cite this article: Hilary Kilpatrick (2008) Between Ibn Baūa and al-ahāwī: Arabic Travel Accounts of the Early Ottoman Period, Middle Eastern Literatures, 11:2, 233-248, DOI: 10.1080/14752620802223830 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14752620802223830
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Between Ibn Battu ta and al-Tahtaw ı: Arabic Travel Accounts of the_ Early_ _ Ottoman˙ Period_
HILARY KILPATRICK
Abstract This article offers a preliminary survey of a neglected genre, Arabic travel accounts from the early Ottoman period. It proposes to classify known texts according to the traveller’s aim: pilgrimage, spiritual initiation, diplomacy, requests for support, commerce, and private reasons. It draws attention to issues such as the writer’s milieu, the level of language used, and the relation of the time when the account was composed to the time when the journey took place. Finally, it argues for further comprehensive study of the genre, in both the Maghrib and the Mashriq and among both Christians and Muslims.
Introduction One of the most exciting developments in recent research on Arabic literature has been the growing interest in what was for a long time labelled the ‘Age of Decadence’. In the volume of the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature devoted to the post-classical period,1 a milestone in this process, Roger Allen and his co-editor Donald Richards brought together some valuable contributions adopting new approaches to the period and discussing hitherto unknown texts. This preliminary survey of Arabic travel accounts in the early Ottoman period (i.e. from the late 1500s to 1800) is intended as a modest supplement to that volume and above all a stimulus to further investigation. As will become clear, there is a wealth of travel writing in this period. An adequate approach to it would require both more space than is available here and a team of researchers, such as produced the volume on autobiography in the Arabic literary tradition.2 The ideas in this paper can only serve as notes for the subject. In assembling them, I have drawn on writings from various regions of the Arab world and several religious communities. The criterion for inclusion is that they be written in Arabic of some variety or other, fusha , dialect or one of the many intermediate stages between the ˙˙ two. Not all the texts mentioned were available to me for consultation: some are still Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 unpublished, and others are not to be found in the libraries I have used. In such cases I have been obliged to depend on secondary sources, as will be clear. Following a
Hilary Kilpatrick, 155 avenue de Cour, 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland. E-mail: Jacobus.Waardenburg@ unil.ch
ISSN 1475-262X print/ISSN 1475-2638 online/08/020233-16 Ó 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14752620802223830 234 H. Kilpatrick
time-honoured convention, I invite readers to correct and supplement the information given here, thus earning the gratitude of posterity. I understand travel accounts as first-person narratives3 of actual journeys made for a variety of purposes.4 Although they can be classified according to different criteria (e.g. narrator’s profession or religion, places visited5), the preliminary grouping adopted here is based on the explicit aim of the journey. It may turn out later, however, that other classifications will be more useful, since the texts within each group vary widely. Nor are the categories entirely clear-cut, because authors of travel accounts often have more than one aim in mind both when travelling and when writing.6 The aims distinguished are: (1) pilgrimage; (2) spiritual initiation and nourishment; (3) diplomatic missions; (4) requests for positions or financial support; (5) trade; (6) private reasons.7
Pilgrimage Accounts Before the days of mass tourism, pilgrimages were the voluntary journeys most widely undertaken, in particular in the Muslim world, where the hajj is obligatory for all believers who have the means to perform it. There is an extensive corpus of accounts of pilgrimages in Arabic, and the early Ottoman period is no exception. And whereas other journeys were undertaken by members of specific socio-economic groups—diplomats, ‘ulama’ , merchants, men of letters—anyone could go on the pilgrimage, and anyone literate could set down his experience of it. Pilgrims from different regions of the Arab world tended to respond to what they saw in different ways. To Moroccans, the eastern Arab world was foreign parts.8 For instance, Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-F as ı (d.1213/1799), whose Rihla is written in a ˙ ˙ ˙ straightforward and accessible style, provides valuable information on the countries he passed through and notes differences between the customs of eastern Arabs and those of the folks back home ‘f ı Maghribina ’ (in our Maghreb).9 An earlier pilgrim, Ahmad ibn ˙ Muhammad ibn N asir al-Dar‘ ı (d.1129/1717), also employs an unpretentious style and ˙ ˙ is a keen observer. His account even includes the bombardment by a European fleet of Tripoli, which he was passing through at the time; despite the dangerous situation, he records in an objective tone the ships opening fire, the noise of the explosions and the damage caused by the cannon.10 Through their travels, these and other Moroccan travellers became more conscious of their distinct identity and of their place in the Mediterranean world, including the threats to which they were exposed from hostile European powers. Most authors of pilgrimage accounts were Sufis and religious scholars, and their rihlas ˙ are designed partly to emphasize this and enhance their reputation, through both the events and encounters they describe and the style they employ. Another Moroccan, Abu S alim ‘Abdall ah al-‘Ayy ash ı (d.1090/1679), who made the hajj three times and taught for a time in Medina, left an extensive account of his travels, Ma’ al-Mawa’id (Table Water).11 Stylistically more elaborate than the two preceding texts, this rihla combines ˙ Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 observations of a Moroccan in the East with accounts of meetings and discussions with mystics and fellow ‘ulama’ in historic centres of learning such as Cairo, Mecca and Medina and notes on the libraries he visited on his way.12 The best known and most studied of such scholars’ pilgrimage rihlas are those by the ˙ Syrian ‘Abd al-Ghan ı al-N abulus ı (1050–1143/1641–1731), jurist, man of letters and renowned mystic. Al-N abulus ı seems to have enjoyed travelling, for he left accounts of four journeys, his pilgrimages to Jerusalem and to the Holy Cities of the Hijaz (this latter Between Ibn Battu ta and al-Tahtaw ı 235 __ _ _ _ combined with a visit to Cairo) and two short trips he made to Lebanon.13 Profoundly conscious of the religious significance of place, he regards bilad al-sham (geographical Syria) as a land of saints and pious people and as a burial place of prophets second only to the Hijaz.14 Although he divides his texts according to individual days, he does not describe in detail the places he passes through; he focuses his attention on the gatherings he attends of fellow mystics and scholars, meetings with majadh ıb (‘fools of God’), and visits to shrines and tombs of saints. Al-N abulus ı was steeped in Arabic literature and profoundly knowledgeable about Islamic tradition and law, and his rihalat , in rhymed ˙ prose with frequent passages of poetry, bear witness to his faith, his learning and literary and poetic gifts and the respect he enjoyed among scholars and mystics in the places he visited. Whereas al-N abulus ı was free to journey when he liked, the Iraqi ‘alim ‘Abdall ah ibn al-Husayn al-Suwayd ı (1104–1174/1692–1761)15 undertook the pilgrimage only with ˙ the permission of the Ottoman governor of Baghdad after he had performed a signal service for him, playing a leading role in the discussions with Shi‘i scholars about N adir Sh ah’s demand in 1156/1743 for recognition of the Ja‘far ı madhhab alongside the four Sunni ones. His al-Nafha al-miskiyya f ı l-rihla al-makkiya (The perfumed zephyr: a ˙ ˙ journey to Mecca)16 which starts with an autobiographical sketch, rather surprisingly devotes most space to his stay in Aleppo and Damascus on his way to the Holy Cities, and in particular to the contacts he had with notables and ‘ulama’ , discussions and recitations of poetry, and records of the gifts he received. Interspersed in his account is correspondence with his sons and various acquaintances. Though al-Suwayd ı was a leading ad ıb (he incorporates a maqama he was commissioned to write), his style in the Nafha is seldom ornate. He often makes factual observations about the places he passes ˙ through and their inhabitants, and he has a sense of social classes; in Damascus he has critical comments for the excesses of syncretistic Sufism and the undeserved wealth of the religious establishment. It has been argued that his rihla expresses a trend toward ˙ more sober mystical practice and rigorous Islam also present in Istanbul, as well as an Iraqi ‘alim’s envy of his more prosperous Syrian colleagues.17 Like the Moroccan travellers, his experience of Bilad al-Sham and the Hijaz strengthens his sense of regional identity. Accounts of Christian pilgrimages are very rare. The usual destination is St Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai, though Jerusalem and the Monastery of Our Lady at Saydnaya are also mentioned.18
Accounts of Spiritual Initiation and Nourishment This type of account is closely related to the preceding one, as is clear. But although it may include a pilgrimage, that is not the primary goal. Where initiation is concerned, the account has a marked autobiographical character, as the example of Ibn ‘A¯ bid al-F as ı’s Rihla shows.19 Claiming descent from the founder of the Idr ısid ˙ Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 dynasty in Morocco, Ibn ‘A¯ bid (966/1558–1559—after 1036/1627) starts by tracing his genealogy before recounting his life, first as a student in Fez and Meknes, where he was introduced to Sufism, and then, after tragedy struck his family, as a traveller to Egypt, the Holy Cities and finally Hadramawt, in each place meeting with leading ˙ Sufi shaykhs and progressing on the path˙ of initiation. He married and settled for a time in Hadramawt, but divorced his wife because he found her family too attached ˙ to worldly things.˙ He then married the daughter of a Yemeni legal scholar and lived 236 H. Kilpatrick
in various Yemeni towns as a highly respected shaykh. He ends by justifying his emigration to Yemen as a parallel to his ancestor’s emigration to the Maghreb, but his not returning to his homeland evidently weighs with him. Apart from these personal notes, the text is essentially a record of his teachers, the shaykhs he met and his spiritual journey. Another more ambitious traveller was the Syrian-born Mustaf a al-Lat ıf ı (1012–1123/ 20 ˙_ _ 1602–1711). His itinerary included regions of the Muslim world north of the Sahara from the Maghreb to India, Russia and the Balkans. His original motive for travelling was to visit saints’ graves and meet Sufi shaykhs and majadh ıb. His shaykh sent him on further journeys, and with interruptions that sometimes lasted several years he was on the road from 1030/1620 to about 1102/1690. His Siyah a (Journey) a mixture of credible ˙ and extraordinary elements (it is unlikely that he visited all the places he mentions), was apparently intended as an example of the life of a Sufi who finally reaches the rank of shaykh, but unusually for a Sufi travel account it also includes a marked interest in matters of everyday life. Appropriately, al-Lat ıf ı who lacked much formal education, uses _ an unadorned prose which sometimes includes dialect, and on occasion the text reads as a tale delivered orally—this is not surprising given that he apparently dictated it to his son. In the case of T ah a al-Kurd ı (1135–1214/1723–1800),21 his departure from his ˙ remote Kurdish village in the district of Kirkuk followed a meeting with a Q adir ı shaykh when he was a teenager and eight subsequent years of ascetic training. He then set off on travels, mainly in Syria and Egypt, before settling in Damascus. Like al-Lat ıf ı, whose _ Siyah a he may have known, T ah a al-Kurd ı had only a limited education (which began in ˙ ˙ Persian), and his travels reflect the experiences of a dervish of humble rank, with its lot of practical problems. He, too, has an eye for everyday occurrences, and writes in a simple style, even addressing the reader from time to time when he wants to drive home the moral of a situation.22 A rare example of an Egyptian who left a travelogue in this period is Mustaf a As‘ad al-Dimy at ı al-Laq ım ı (1105–1178/1693–1759), an ‘alim and Sufi and ˙ _ _ the author of Mawanih al-uns bi-rihlat ı li-wad ı l-Quds (Sources of congenial company on ˙ ˙ my journey to Jerusalem’s valley), the account of a journey he undertook to visit a Sufi master in Jerusalem. The two Lebanese journeys of al-N abulus ı properly belong in the category of spiritual nourishment. As a Sufi master himself, he had no need to seek out other shaykhs, but his visits to the shrines of prophets and saints brought him spiritual reward, while his meetings with brother Sufis were occasions for religious and literary discussions and participation in Sufi rituals. The welcome he received on his way as a distinguished and saintly ‘alim also enhanced his prestige. The second Lebanese journey (and the last of his journeys altogether), which he recorded in al-Tuhfa al- ˙ nabulusiyya f ı l-rihla al-Tarabulusiyya (al-N abulus ı’s rarity about his journey to Tripoli), ˙ ˙ however, shows him spending much time with governors and discussing questions of hadith and fiqh, giving the impression that he had been ‘co-opted into the Ottoman 23 Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 establishment’. Of another Sufi master, Mustaf a al-Bakr ı (1099–1162/1688–1749), accounts of eight ˙ _ journeys he made in Egypt and the Mashriq are extant.24 A member of the Khalwatiyya mystical order, he soon established himself as a teacher, his influence extending throughout various countries. His travels included not only visits to shrines of saints and meetings with fellow Sufis but also contacts with his disciples; here travel served not only the purpose of acquiring, but also of providing, spiritual nourishment. Between Ibn Battu ta and al-Tahtaw ı 237 __ _ _ _ Unlike al-Lat ıf ı and T ah a al-Kurd ı, these highly educated Sufis write in an ornate _ ˙ prose intended for an audience of the literary and religious elite, while at the same time expressing pastoral and educational concerns. Quotations of poetry, their own or others’, philological excursuses, discussions of legal points, allusions to Islamic history and earlier Arabic literature are woven into texts marked by Sufism, a profound sense of tradition, and the desire to discover God’s lessons (‘ibar) for mankind.
Accounts of Diplomatic Missions In this period the only independent or semi-independent states in the Arab world to despatch diplomats on missions were in North Africa. Four Moroccan envoys sent to European countries, two to Spain, one to Spain and Naples, and one to France and the Low Countries, have left accounts of their travels.25 They are, in chronological order, Kitab nas ir al-d ın ‘ala l-qawm al-kafir ın (Religion’s support against the ˙ unbelievers’ cohort) by Ahmad ibn Q asim al-Hajar ı (ca. 977/1569 –1570—ca. 1051/ ˙ ˙ 1641);26 Rihlat al-waz ır f ı iftikak al-as ır (The journey of the minister to rescue the ˙ prisoner), by Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahh ab al-Ghass an ı (d.1119/1707);27 partial ˙ translation in Matar 2003: 113–195); Kitab nat ıjat al-ijtihad f ı l-muhadana wa-l-jihad (The book of the fruit of endeavour in making peace and warfare) by Ahmad ibn ˙ Mahd ı al-Ghazz al (d.1191/1777);28 and al-Iks ır f ıfikak al-as ır (The remedy: about the captive’s recovery) and the as yet unedited al-Badr al-safir li-hidayat al-musafir ilafik ak al-asar ı min yad al-‘aduww al-kafir (The unveiled moon to guide the traveller in freeing prisoners from the thrall of enemy unbelievers) by Muhammad ibn ‘Uthm an al- ˙ Mikn as ı (d.1214/1799). Ibn ‘Uthm an, moreover, recorded a visit to the Mashriq which combined a mission to Constantinople with performing the pilgrimage.29 Each text has an individual character. Al-Hajar ı, who had been born in Spain, ˙ sought refuge in Morocco, where he became the sultan’s interpreter thanks to his command of Spanish and Arabic. He was sent to France in 1020/1611 to obtain restitution for the goods stolen from Moriscos expelled from Spain in 1018/1609 by the captains of the ships transporting them, and he continued, for reasons which are not entirely clear, to the Netherlands. The account he wrote of his journey shortly after is lost; what has survived is a reworked version of nearly thirty years later produced at the request of a M alik ı ‘alim he knew in Cairo. Memory has filtered out many mundane details of the journey, leaving two main subjects, al-Hajar ı’s meetings ˙ with well-born and influential people in France and the Netherlands, and his discussions with Christians and Jews on theological issues.30 Well-versed in the Bible and also aware of the doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants, he shows himself confounding the unbelievers with arguments from their sacred texts time after time, while at the same time developing sincere friendships with some of those he met. The three ambassadors to Spain had worked in the administration. Their reports, all
Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 of which have a personal slant, were submitted to the Sultan and include observations on the political, economic and social conditions they encountered there. They also comment on the traces of Muslim presence in the country, in particular the mosques which have been turned into churches. For al-Ghass an ı, sent in 1102/1690 to negotiate the release of Moroccan prisoners and the return of Arabic manuscripts seized in Andalusia, the Reconquista and the expulsion of the Moriscos were still a painful recent event, all the more so since he was of Andalusian origin. At the beginning of his journey 238 H. Kilpatrick
he has a historical excursus on the capture of Gibraltar and T ariq’s entry into Spain and, ˙ contrasting with his sober prose style, he includes quotations from Arab poets on the places he visits. It is as though in this way he seeks to evoke the Muslim presence in Spain. The text ends after the visit of the cathedral (mosque) of Toledo with a lengthy quotation from Ibn al-Qu tiyya’s Tar ıkh infitah al-Andalus (History of the conquest of _ ˙ Andalusia), which can be seen as balancing the initial historical account and undoing, as it were, the Reconquista.31 The second envoy, Ahmad al-Ghazz al, set off for the Spanish court in 1179/1766 to ˙ negotiate a peace treaty, to arrange for the liberation of Muslim prisoners and to try to recover Arabic books. He travelled more widely in Spain than al-Ghass an ı, and devotes sections to the places he visited, introduced by ‘al-khabar ‘an . . .’ (account of . . .). He is less interested in history than in the present state of the country, including economic activities and features such as bullfights and the participation of women in social events; his judgements are strongly coloured by his sense of what is acceptable for Muslims. He often provides descriptions of great precision, employing a range of technical terms. The only verses in his account are the texts of inscriptions he saw in Granada. Ibn ‘Uthm an al-Mikn as ı’s mission to Spain in 1193/1779, recorded in al-Iks ır f ıfikak al-as ır, was to ransom captives and restore friendly relations with Morocco; a peace treaty between the two countries was signed the following year. Like both his predecessors, he was also charged with recovering Arabic books. His record of what he saw at times parallels their observations, at times supplements them. Perhaps because of the passage of time and his not being of Andalusian descent, he takes a more philosophical view of the Reconquista (‘The earth is God’s, and he bequeaths it to whom he will among his servants’ [Q A‘r af 7: 128]).32 Unlike the Andalusians, however, he was subsequently sent on a mission to Istanbul, which he combined with the hajj; the journey lasted nearly three years (1200–1202/1785–1788). His Ihraz al-mu‘alla wa-l-raq ıb f ıhajj ˙ ˙ bayt Allah al-haram wa-ziyarat al-Quds al-shar ıf wa-l-Khal ıl wa-l-tabarruk bi-qabr al-hab ıb ˙ ˙ (Preserving precious boons from the pilgrimage to God’s sacred house, visiting noble Jerusalem and Hebron, and taking blessing from the Beloved’s tomb) is the work of a seasoned observer of foreign countries, providing an independent Muslim view of the strengths and weaknesses of the Ottoman Empire. He includes a brief history of the early Ottomans and the conquest of Constantinople and information about the administration and the army. He notes certain differences between Turks and Arabs, comments on the Turkish language, and, apropos of the appearance in Dagestan of a man claiming to be the Mahdi, explains the Shi‘i understanding of this doctrine. His descriptions of cities vary according to the significance he assigns to them; whereas he focuses on the socio- economic aspects of Constantinople, in Jerusalem religious elements come to the fore. He also modifies his style according to the subject. His prose is simple and sober when relating stages of the journey, recounting biographies, or discussing legal and linguistic questions, whereas it is ornate in the preface and in passages where he experiences emotions of either happiness or anxiety. He includes some of his own poetry, such as an
Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 ode to Sultan ‘Abd al-Ham ıd I wishing him victory in the Russo-Turkish war, and a ˙ qas ıda praising the Damascene saint Shaykh Arsl an. The differences between Ihraz al- ˙ ˙ mu‘alla wa-l-raq ıb and al-Iks ır f ıfikak al-as ır are in part due to the author’s ‘knowing the cultural language’ of the Ottoman Empire.33 The only known account of a diplomatic mission from the eastern Arab world is the text appended to Ahmad al-Kh alid ı al-Safad ı’s (d.1034/1624) Lubnan f ı ‘ahd al-am ır ˙ ˙ Fakhr al-d ın al-Ma‘n ı al-than ı (Lebanon in the age of the emir Fakhr al-D ın al-Ma‘n ı the Between Ibn Battu ta and al-Tahtaw ı 239 __ _ _ _ Second), which describes Fakhr al-D ın’s stay in Tuscany, Sicily and Naples from 1022/ 1613 to 1027/1618.34 It is generally recognized that the author of this text is not al- Kh alid ı, and that he either accompanied Fakhr al-D ın to Italy or wrote down the recollections the Emir dictated to him after his return to Lebanon.35 Exceptionally among the works discussed here it is written in the third person, but the author is utterly self-effacing; the perspective is always Fakhr al-D ın’s. The Emir receives hospitality from the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Dukes of Messina and Palermo and the Viceroy of Naples, and in Malta he is greeted by the firing of cannons. The author describes varied aspects of Italy, such as the organization of the Knights of Malta, the cities of Florence and Naples, features of public life such as the Carnival, the dowry system, the sentencing of criminals, hospitals, orphanages and banks, the recording of baptisms and burials, and the process of printing. Frictions arise with the Catholic authorities over such matters as the consumption of meat on Fridays and the construction of a suspected minaret, but compromises are found. The text uses a language with marked dialect features and no attempt at literary adornment, and is resolutely matter-of-fact.
Accounts of Journeys to Request Positions or Financial Support After the Ottoman conquest of the Arab East, major appointments there were decided in the capital. Consequently, those who sought to acquire or retain an important position or otherwise further their careers set out for Istanbul. Several accounts of such journeys are known, including those of the ninth/sixteenth century legal scholar Muhibb al-D ın from ˙ Hama, the Jerusalem ‘alim Haf ız al-D ın al-Quds ı (d.1055/1645–1646),36 and the ˙ ˙ Medinan Ibr ah ım ibn ‘Abd al-Rahm an al-Khiy ar ı (1037–1083/1628–1672).37 Typically, ˙ such accounts of journeys to Istanbul have other aims besides describing the search for employment: Muhibb al-D ın defends the importance for a judge to be a master of the ˙ Arabic language and well-versed in its literature; Haf ız al-D ın criticizes the Muslim ˙ ˙ rulers for failing to ward off Christian attacks but also includes entertaining stories of adventures at sea and on campaign; al-Khiy ar ı had always wanted to visit Syria, and having to go to Istanbul to get himself reinstated in the teaching position he had lost gave him the opportunity to do so. Al-Khiy ar ı explains that he took notes on his way, which led via Damascus to Istanbul and then back with a detour through Cairo. He visits places connected with the earliest history of Islam, meets eminent men of letters and mystics (including a youthful ‘Abd al- Ghan ı al-N abulus ı), records sermons he hears, seeks out the graves of mystics he admires such as Ibn ‘Arab ı, and describes noteworthy buildings and other sights. He appears to have no axe to grind. His style is conversational and discursive, he incorporates proverbs and quotes short poems, and for his own utterances he uses saj‘. Istanbul was not the only destination for men seeking advancement or a way out of problems. Murtad aibnMustaf a al-Kurd ı left Damascus for Egypt when he wanted to ˙ ˙ _ Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 escape from a feud with a Bedouin tribe in which his uncle, a Kurdish chieftain, had been killed. His Tahdh ıb al-atwar f ı ‘aja’ib al-amsar (The refinement of dispositions ˙ ˙ concerning the wonders of certain regions)38 recounts his journey, which ends with him meeting the governor of Egypt and being appointed as a tax-collector in Upper Egypt; it includes descriptions of places he visited on the way, biographical information about notables he met, conversations he had and ethical reflections. Al-Kurd ı quotes from older Arabic literary texts in the adab tradition and also from two travel accounts, one of 240 H. Kilpatrick
them al-N abulus ı’s book on his journey to Egypt and Hijaz. Moreover, his adventures are reminiscent of the faraj ba‘d al-shidda genre. He also employs an unusual technique for travelogues, the flashback, and has constructed his text carefully to show how he himself has behaved according to the standards of a cultivated man, an ad ıb. If Muslims usually turned to Istanbul and the Ottoman court for help, Christians had to look further afield. In the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eigteenth centuries higher Orthodox clergy in the Ottoman Empire undertook many journeys to ask the Orthodox rulers of the Romanian principalities and Russia for money. The Patriarch of Antioch Yuw akh ım V went to Moscow in 994–995/1586–1587, and one of his companions, Bishop ‘ Is a of Hama, has left a poem describing the occasion, only about half of which has been published.39 After a basmala, hamdala, profession of faith and outline of the ˙ journey, most of it is devoted to the description of Moscow, the Kremlin and a church service on a feast-day, also including an invocation of blessings on Russia and the Russian people. The poem is in monorhyme (-at ı), but its metre is problematic and its language is strongly marked by dialect features. A far more substantial account—indeed one of the major travelogues of the period—is Bulus ibn al-Za‘ ım al-Halab ı’s Safrat (or Rihlat) al-Batriyark Makariy us , the record ˙ ˙ ˙ written by his son of the journey Patriarch Mak ariyus III of Antioch made to Moldavia, Wallachia, Ukraine and Muscovy between 1062/1652 and 1069/1659 in search of money to pay the Patriarchate’s debts.40 It is sober and factual, intended to provide reliable information about distant lands and to edify Bulus’s fellow-Christians with accounts of the piety of their brothers in the faith and their noble customs. Agriculture, architecture, manners and customs of the various peoples the travellers encounter, structures of government, court rituals and the composition of the army are some of the subjects he regularly treats, besides church services, which he describes in detail. Where he can, he provides historical notes, for instance on the background to the Ukrainians’ revolt, the conversion of Novgorod to Christianity, or the lives of the saints whose relics they venerate. Mak ariyus and his companions were treated with great honour wherever they went (the Romanian principalities and Ukraine had no resident Patriarch). Yet they could not stay aloof from the sometimes life-threatening events in the countries they passed through, such as the violent overthrow of the ruler of Moldavia, the ongoing struggle of the Ukrainians for independence from Poland, or an outbreak of plague which kept them from entering Moscow; Bulus conveys their emotions in these situations. A short introductory section in The Travels of Macarius traces the history of the Patriarchate after its seat was transferred to Damascus in the thirteenth century, the account becoming successively more detailed as it approaches Bulus’s own time, and records Mak ariyus’s actions after his election as Patriarch in 1647.41 Likewise, the text continues after the Patriarch and his companions have arrived safely back in Syria, describing the settling of debts, new constructions, and the restoration of unity in the Patriarchate after conflicts had broken out during Mak ariyus’s long absence. The
Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 journey is thus seen to have achieved its aim of establishing prosperity in Antioch. Bulus spoke the ‘cultural language’ of Orthodox Eastern Europe, though he found the Russian variant of it somewhat alien. Already a Greek speaker, he picked up some Romanian and became fluent in Russian. More importantly, The Travels of Macarius records a growing experience in the ways of the world and self-confidence on its author’s part. A self-effacing son at the beginning of the journey, the Bulus who returns to Damascus negotiates directly with the Ottoman authorities to reduce the taxes levied on Between Ibn Battu ta and al-Tahtaw ı 241 __ _ _ _ the Orthodox and apparently sees to the restoration of the Cathedral buildings on his own, no doubt using ideas he has picked up on his travels—he has moved out from under his father’s shadow. Bulus’s Arabic shows a certain fluctuation between a more literary and a more colloquial style, but at no point does it fail him in expressing what he seeks to say. As anyone leafing through the text can see, there is a smattering of words written in the Greek alphabet, and the text includes, besides Greek liturgical and Turkish administrative vocabulary, terms from Romanian, Russian and Polish, and even a short dialogue in Russian. Another major travelogue by a seventeenth century Christian is Ily as al-Mawsil ı’s ˙ Kitab siyah at al-khur ıIlyas ibn al-Qiss ıs Hanna al-Mawsil ı (Book of the Journey of the ˙ ˙ ˙ Priest Ily as, Son of the Cleric Hann a al-Mawsil ı), which recounts a Chaldean Catholic ˙ ˙ priest’s journey from Iraq by way of Europe to South and Central America.42 Setting out from Baghdad in 1078–1079/1668, he travelled first to the Vatican and the Catholic courts of France, Italy and Spain, but his fund-raising for his Chaldean community met with little success there. Only when in 1086/spring 1675, having received the necessary royal permission, he visited the Spanish colonies in South America did his mission succeed. His itinerary took him to Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru (he spent over a year in Lima, the capital of the Spanish possessions), Bolivia, Central America, Mexico and Cuba; he was not able to carry out his plan of returning to Spain via the Philippines and thus travelling round the world. Back in Europe in 1094/1683, he went to the Vatican, where he presented the Pope with gifts from the New World. In the Spanish Empire al-Mawsil ı was treated as an honoured guest, given hospitality ˙ and helped on his way by governors and other officials. Local ecclesiastical authorities allowed him to celebrate Mass and take the collection for his community. He was able to visit many places generally closed to foreigners, such as gold and silver mines, where he records the methods of extracting the metals. He describes the strange flora and fauna he saw or heard about and provides information about the manners and customs of the Indians, their present situation (occasionally including the oppression they suffer) and their pre-colonial history. He is more interested, however, in the Spanish colonial administration and especially its success in spreading Christianity among the indigenous peoples; in fact, his account of his journey serves as the introduction to a history of the conquest of America and the conversion of the Indians, understood as a re-affirmation of the might of the Catholic Church after it had been shaken by the Protestant Reformation. He subscribes to the Spaniards’ belief in their civilizing mission, expressed in the spread both of Christianity and of European culture and institutions. Al-Mawsil ı’s ˙ Arabic was equal to the demands of describing America, but because Rabb at’s edition of _ the Siyah a has ‘tidied up’ the original text, a proper judgement of his style is impossible. ˙ From the eighteenth century there survives a short record of the journey of two Melkite monks resident in Rome to gather funds in Northern Italy and Hungary. Churches and relics figure prominently in it, but it also refers to important political events and even natural catastrophes.43 Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015
Accounts of Journeys for Trade The only text I have come across where the explicit aim of the journey was trade is the Aleppine merchant Ra‘d’s record of his visit to Venice in 1065–1066/1655–1656, Wasf ˙ safarinail a l-Bunduqiyya bilad al-Ifranjiyya (Description of our journey to Venice, the land of the Franks).44 Ra‘d evidently wrote this short account in or after 1083/1672, 242 H. Kilpatrick
since he refers in it to the death of Patriarch Mak ariyus of Antioch, which occurred in that year. The Wasf safarina begins by describing Ra‘d’s and a fellow-merchant’s travel by ship ˙ to Venice and the dangers they faced on the way. They are admitted to the city after going through quarantine, sell their goods and wait a year for a ship to take them back to Tripoli. Ra‘d describes the cityscape, dominated by canals and bridges, customs such as the wedding of the Doge to the sea, the funeral ceremony for the Doge and the process of choosing his successor, the putting out of poor children for fostering until the age of seven, when their parents could reclaim them, and the Torre del Orologio with a procession of figures marking the hours. Before taking ship to Syria the two merchants stock up with goods which they sell on their arrival in Aleppo. In this account detailed passages, such as the choosing of the new Doge, contrast with the sketchiest of indications. For instance, Ra‘d does not explicitly mention the goods he brought to Venice, where he stayed, what business contacts he had, or what he bought to sell in Aleppo (though it seems to have included various kinds of cloth). Written in an Arabic close to dialect, this description of a journey records a Syrian Christian merchant’s recollections, eighteen years later, of what impressed him most in Venice— and what contrasted sharply with the life he knew in Aleppo.
Private Reasons Yahy a ibn Ab ıl-Saf a’ al-Mah asin ı (d.1053/1643–1644) has left an account of the journey ˙ ˙ ˙ he made to Tripoli in 1048/1638–1639 at the invitation of a friend of his, the chief finance officer (defterdar ), who had been transferred there from Damascus, presumably as a demotion. It is entitled al-Manazil al-mahasiniyya f ı l-rihla al-Tarabulusiyya (The way- ˙ ˙ ˙ stages of al-Mah asin ı on his journey to Tripoli).45 On his way through the Biq a‘ to the ˙ Mediterranean port, he observed much destruction caused by the fighting between Fakhr al-D ın al-Ma‘n ı and his rivals of the Sayf a and other families of chieftains, while at the same time experiencing the beauties of nature, which he evokes in terms familiar from Arabic poetry. These two themes, the transitory nature of human power and endeavour and the Creation as a sign of God’s omnipotence, are interwoven in a text marked both by ethical reflection and by literary elaboration.46 The judge Muhibb al-D ın Muhammad ibn Ab ı Bakr al-Hamaw ı (d.1016/1608) ˙ ˙ ˙ travelled from Damascus to Cairo in 978/1570 both to accompany his benefactor and friend, the chief qadi Muhammad Chiwiz ade, who was taking up his new appointment ˙ there, and to meet Shaykh Muhammad ibn ‘Al ı al-Bakr ı, whom he greatly admired. ˙ During his stay in Egypt, which lasted over two years, Muhibb al-D ın performed various ˙ duties as a legal official, but he returned to Syria when his patron was transferred to Bursa. His text, composed in saj‘ with literary allusions and poetic quotations, focuses on meetings with ‘ulama’ and qadis; it provides unusual insight into personal relations between fellow-travellers or guests and hosts, including tensions with Egyptians arising 47 Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 from the author’s expressed preference for Damascus over Cairo. The motive of another journey, that of Ramad an ibn Mus a al-‘Utayf ı (1019–1095/ _ 1610–1684), described in Rihlat ı min Dimashq al-Sh˙am ilaT arabulus al-Sham (My journey ˙ ˙ from Damascus, Syria to Tripoli, Syria),48 is not clear. This text has two chapters, the first in praise of travel, the second describing al-‘Utayf ı’s journey—the theory and practice, as it _ were, of travelling and travelogues. The praise of travel, in the style of adab compilations, starts with quotations from Qur’an and Hadith and moves on through maxims and sayings Between Ibn Battu ta and al-Tahtaw ı 243 __ _ _ _ of prominent personalities of early Muslim culture to a medley of verses drawn from poetry of different periods of Arabic literature. It is rounded off with a series of useful hints about how travellers should behave in strange lands. The second, shorter, chapter gets al-‘Utayf ı _ and his travelling companion to Tripoli quite quickly, and concentrates on presenting his meetings with the city’s notables, in particular the ruler, ‘Al ıibnMuhammad ibn Sayf a,49 ˙ and Shaykh Mustaf aal-Sh afi‘ ı, the preacher and imam of the Great Mosque, with whom ˙ _ al-‘Utayf ı kept in touch after his return to Damascus. Whether al-‘Utayf ı, who was a young _ _ man at the time, hoped for some position from ‘Al ıibnMuhammad is not clear; he refers ˙ to him as the raison d’eˆtre (bayt al-qas ıd) of the visit, but given the ornate style he employs ˙ this may be merely one compliment among many. In any case he does not mention any disappointment during his visit, which ends with his poem defending the beauties of Damascus against an Egyptian man of letters visiting Tripoli and a description of the main mosques. That the text was composed after his return to Damascus emerges not only from his reference to a subsequent exchange with Shaykh Mustaf aal-Sh afi‘ ı, but also from his ˙ _ note on the end of the Sayf a emirs.
Common Features It will have become clear that parallels and similarities exist between texts that record journeys with different aims. The relation between the time the journey took place and the time it was recorded provides one example. Some writers, such as al-Ghass an ı, al- Ghazz al, al-Mikn as ıorBulus ibn al-Za‘ ım made notes on the way or even, like Ily as al- Mawsil ı, started to write their account before the journey was over. Al-Hajar ı and Ra‘d, by ˙ ˙ contrast, wrote many years later, and they are much more selective in what they describe, stressing or even reinterpreting certain aspects of their experience and ignoring others. Some travellers aim at accurate description of what they saw and heard. The Moroccan ambassadors to Spain, Fakhr al-D ın’s amanuensis and Bulus ibn al-Za‘ ım all seek to give a faithful report of their journeys; indeed for the ambassadors it was part of their task. Al-Lat ıf ı, by contrast, is not averse to including fantastic stories. Other authors _ can be situated along a continuum between the factual and the fictional; Ily as al-Mawsil ı, ˙ for instance, almost always stays close to the facts, apart from a few unverified assertions. The autobiographical component in the texts varies greatly. It is most evident in the accounts of travel for spiritual initiation and nourishment; Ibn ‘A¯ bid al-F as ı’s Rihla is as ˙ much the story of his life as it is the story of his journey. But it is found elsewhere too. Unlike the ambassadors’ official reports, Al-Hajar ı’s Nas ir al-d ın tells a life story through ˙ ˙ the inter-religious debates in which its author engaged. Even though the autobiogra- phical element in the Safrat al-batriyark Makariy us is subordinate to the general account, ˙ it is important especially in the latter part of the text. In many texts, however, the autobiography is a fragment limited to the period covered by the journey, as in the case of al-N abulus ı’s travels, other pilgrimage accounts, al-‘Utayf ı’s trip to Tripoli or Ily as al- _ Mawsil ı’s Siyah a. In the Mulhaq to al-Kh alid ı al-Safad ı’s history, there is no ˙ ˙ 50˙ ˙ Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 autobiographical element at all. The variant of Arabic used may be close to dialect (Ra‘d, T ah a al-Kurd ı) but it may ˙ also be the purest fusha (al-‘Utayf ı, al-N abulus ı). The style may be functional (Bulus ibn ˙˙ _ al-Za‘ ım, al-Hajar ı, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn N asir al-Dar‘ ı), reflect patterns of ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ speech (Ra‘d, T ah a al-Kurd ı) or be consciously literary, al-N abulus ı being the supreme ˙ example of this tendency. Some works, such as al-Suwayd ı’s al-Nafha al-miskiyya, quote ˙ prose texts written in another style more elaborate than the travel narrative, such as 244 H. Kilpatrick
letters or maqama s; many texts include passages of poetry by the author or earlier masters. And of course there is Bishop ‘ Is a’s valiant try at an entire travelogue in verse. Closely related to the level of language and style are the level and type of education of the authors. Many of them possessed the traditional accomplishments of an ‘alim and ad ıb, some had an administrative background, a handful a Christian clerical education, including knowledge of at least one European language; this last qualification also holds good for al-Hajar ı, who grew up in Spain. Others, such as Ra‘d and T ah a al-Kurd ı, had ˙ ˙ only limited schooling. While all the accounts seek to impart information about the countries visited, most of them have at least one other purpose: spiritual edification, illustration of the author’s mastery of the literary tradition, ethical reflection or entertainment.
Prospects and Conclusion In a field as little researched as Arabic travel accounts of the early Ottoman period, it is likely that new texts will be discovered, adding to the variety of the corpus of known works. The edition and further analysis of texts belonging to the genre is one important task. Other rewarding avenues for future study include focussing on a given category, e.g. pilgrimage accounts, and asking specific questions about it. For instance, what is the influence of differences in the author’s origin (Maghrebi or eastern), or of his level of education? What kind of mystical or other religious orientation do authors have, and how does that affect their accounts? Do they accord more importance to visits to shrines than to meetings with scholars or Sufis? What style (or styles) do they employ? Another avenue may be to take a theme, for instance the visit to Istanbul, comparing the descriptions of it by Syrian and Hijazi seekers of preferment on the one hand and the diplomat al-Mikn as ı on the other hand. Are there points in common, too, between al- Mikn as ı’s presentation of Istanbul and Bulus ibn al-Za‘ ım’s presentation of Moscow, since in each case the author knew the cultural language of the place, while still being an outsider? Once the texts are better known, other possibilities too will open up. By considering the whole range of accounts now known, at least for a given category, scholars may refine earlier conclusions, become more wary of generalizing, or question assumptions. To give an example: it has sometimes been implied that the topoi identified in al-N abulus ı’s pilgrimage accounts are typical of all such texts. But perhaps they are only typical of texts written by highly educated Sufis, and less educated pilgrims employ other topoi. Again, it is often assumed that texts written by Muslims and Christians by definition belong to discrete categories—even though they are written in the same language, which in literary studies is usually the primary factor defining a literature. Abandoning such an assumption makes it possible to carry out the comparison of al- Mikn as ı’s view of Istanbul with Bulus’s view of Moscow, as proposed earlier, or the role of the selective memory in Ra‘d’s and al-Hajar ı’s accounts. Of course, the idea that the ˙ most meaningful way to approach travel accounts is to group them according to the
Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 explicit aim of the journey, as I have done here, also needs to be looked at critically. In any event, these travel accounts fit well into the picture of early Ottoman literature which is now emerging, mainly on the basis of studies of history and popular poetry.51 Thus, for instance, the authors came from a wider range of backgrounds than earlier writers. Some of them had only a rudimentary education and voiced the preoccupations of the common man, or at least the common city-dweller; nonetheless, they did not shy away from recording their journeys and found readers even among the cultivated elite.52 Between Ibn Battu ta and al-Tahtaw ı 245 __ _ _ _ Two Christians, Ily as al-Mawsil ı and Bulus ibn al-Za‘ ım, wrote major examples ˙ of the travelogue well before the nineteenth century nahda and even before Archbishop Jirm anus Farh at (d.1144/1732) and his contemporaries˙ in Aleppo. Theirs is in fact ˙ the first significant contribution by Christians to Arabic literature for many centuries.53 Finally, these accounts bear witness to the mobility, diversity and creativity within Ottoman culture; they strike another nail in the coffin of the theory of an ‘asr ˙ al-inhitat . ˙ ˙ ˙
Notes 1. Roger Allen and D.S. Richards (eds), Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). 2. Kristen E. Brustad, Michael Cooperson, Jamal J. Elias, Nuha N. N. Khoury, Joseph E. Lowry, Nasser Rabbat, Dwight F. Reynolds, Devin J. Stewart and Shawkat M. Toorawa, Interpreting the Self: Autobiography in the Arabic Literary Tradition, ed. Dwight F. Reynolds (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001). 3. The account of Fakhr al-D ın al-Ma‘n ı’s visit to Italy, which is a borderline case, is discussed below. 4. This is a narrower definition than the one proposed by Tabish Khair in Tabish Khair, Martin Leer, Justin D. Edwards and Hanna Ziadeh (eds), Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing (Oxford: Signal Books, 2006), 20–25, which embraces studies, autobiographies and literary essays as well as pilgrimages and travel accounts, understood as distinct categories. For a helpful taxonomy of travel, as distinct from travellers’ accounts, in the later medieval Muslim world, see Shawkat M. Toorawa, ‘Travel in the Medieval Islamic World: The Importance of Patronage as Illustrated by ‘Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (d. 629/1231) (and other litte´rateurs)’, in Rosamund Allen (ed.), Eastward Bound: Travel and Travellers, 1050–1550 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), 66–67. 5. These are the starting point of Bernard Lewis, The Muslim Discovery of Europe (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1982), and Daniel Newman, ‘Arab travellers to Europe until the end of the 18th century and their accounts: historical overview and themes’, Chronos (Revue d’histoire de l’Universite´ de Balamand) 4 (2001): 7–61. 6. A point made by Ralf Elger, ‘Selbstdarstellungen aus Bilaˆd ash-Shaˆm. U¨ berlegungen zur Innovation in der arabischen autobiographischen Literatur im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert’, in Renate Du¨ rr, Gisela Engel and Johannes Sussmann (eds), Eigene und fremde Fru¨he Neuzeiten. Genese und Geltung eines Begriffs (Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2003), 127, 130–131. 7. For the whole corpus of texts, I. Yu. Krachkovskii, Arabskaya geograficheskaya literatura (Moscow: Izdatel’skaya firma ‘‘Vostochnaya literatura’’ RAN, 2004 [1957]), chs xxii–xxiv, is still valuable. 8. For the special significance of the pilgrimage for Moroccans, see Abderrahmane El Moudden, ‘The ambivalence of rihla: community integration and self-definition in Moroccan travel accounts, 1300– 1800’, in Dale F. Eickelmann and James Piscatori (eds), Muslim Travellers. Pilgrimage, migration and the religious imagination (London: Routledge, 1990), 69–84. 9. Quoted in Muhammad al-Akhdar, al-Hayah al-adabiyya f ı l-Maghrib ‘ala ‘ahd al-dawla al-‘alawiyya ˙ ˙ (Casablanca: D ar al-Rash ad al-H˙ ad ıtha, 1977), 329–330. ˙ 10. Quoted in al-Akhdar, al-Hayah al-adabiyya, 174–176. ˙ 11. AbuS alim al-‘Ayy˙ ash ı, Ma’ al-Mawa’id , 2 vols., lithographed (Fez, 1316 [1898–9]). 12. El Moudden, ‘The ambivalence of rihla’, 76–79. 13. Al-N abulus ı left no record of the journey he made as a young man to Istanbul. He embarked on a programme of travel in 1100/1688 after seven years’ seclusion spent studying the writings of the great
Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 mystics. See Elizabeth Sirriyeh, Sufi Visionary of Ottoman Damascus: ‘Abd al-Ghan ı al-Nabulus ı, 1641–1731 (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005); the journeys and al-N abulus ı’s accounts of them are discussed at 84–128. See also Heinz Grotzfeld, ‘Die Reisen des ‘Abdalgan_ ı an-N abulus ı. Strukturen und Topoi arabischer Wallfahrtsberichte’, in Beschreibung der Welt. Zur Poetik der Reise- und La¨nderberichte, ed. Xenja von Ertzdorff (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000), 163–203. 14. Preface to ‘Abd al-Ghan ı al-N abulus ı, ‘Hullat al-dhahab al-ibr ız f ı rihlat Ba‘labakk wa-l-Biq a‘ al- ˙ ˙ ‘az ız’, in Zwei Beschreibungen des Libanons, ed. Sal ah al-D ın al-Munajjid and Stefan Wild (Beirut/ ˙ ˙ Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1979), 55–56. 246 H. Kilpatrick
15. For his life and works, see ‘Abb as al-‘Azz aw ı, Tar ıkh al-adab al-‘arab ıf ı l-‘Iraq , vol. 2 (Baghdad: D ar al-Shu’un al-Thaq afiyya al-‘A¯ mma, 2001), 34–35, 109–110, 176–182. 16. ‘Abd All ah ibn al-Husayn al-Suwayd ı, al-Nafha al-miskiyya f ı l-rihla al-makkiyya, ed. ‘Im ad ‘Abd al- ˙ ˙ ˙ Sal am Ra’uf (Abu Dhabi: Al-Majma‘ al-Thaq af ı, 2003). 17. Hala Fattah, ‘Representations of Self and the Other in Two Iraqi Travelogues of the Ottoman Period’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 30 (1998): 55–62, 69. 18. Joseph Nasrallah, Histoire du mouvement litte´raire dans l’e´glise melchite du Ve` au XXe`sie`cle, vol. 4.1, Pe´riode ottomane, 1516–1724 (Louvain: Peeters, 1979), 231; vol. 4.2, Pe´riode ottomane, 1724–1800 (Louvain: Peeters, 1989), 300–303; Us ama ‘A¯ nut ı, al-Haraka al-adabiyya f ıBilad al-Sham khilal al- ˙ qarn al-thamin ‘ashar (Beirut: Manshur at al-J ami‘a al-Lubn aniyya, 1971), 224, 233–234; Carsten- Michael Walbiner, ‘Ein christlich-arabischer Bericht u¨ ber eine Pilgerfahrt von Damaskus zum Berge Sinai in den Jahren 1635/36 (Hs. Balamand 181)’, Parole de l’Orient 24 (1999): 319–37. 19. Yusuf Ibn ‘A¯ bid ibn Muhammad al-Idr ıs ı al-F as ı, Rihlat Ibn ‘A¯ bid al-Fas ı min al-Maghrib ila ˙ ˙ Hadramawt, ed. Ibr ah ım al-S amarr a’ ı and ‘A. M. al-Habash ı (Beirut: D ar al-Gharb al-Isl am ı, 1993). ˙ ˙ 20. See˙ Ralf Elger, ‘Narrheiten und Heldentaten. Die merkwu¨ rdigen Reisen des Mustaf aal-Lat ıf ı (1602– ˙ 1711)’, in Erkundung und Beschreibung der Welt. Zur Poetik der Reise- und La¨nderberichte_ ,_ ed. Xenja von Ertzdorff and Gerhard Giesemann (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003), pp. 268–287. The text is unpublished: Elger used a Berlin manuscript. He does not comment on al-Lat ıf ı’s extraordinary longevity (reminiscent of that of the joker of classical Arabic literature, Ash‘ab)._ But al-Lat ıf ımay have died earlier, since the last event mentioned in his Siyah a is the reconquest of Belgrade in_ 1102/ ˙ 1690. 21. Karl K. Barbir, ‘The formation of an eighteenth century Sufi: Taha al-Kurdi (1723–1800)’, in La vie intellectuelle dans les provinces arabes a`l’e´poque ottomane ed. Abdeljelil Temimi (Zaghouan: Centre d’e´tudes et de recherches ottomanes, 1990), 41–47, using a manuscript of T ah a al-Kurd ı’s Rihla in ˙ ˙ the British Museum. Another manuscript exists in Cairo. 22. Elger, ‘Selbstdarstellungen aus Bilaˆd ash-Shaˆm’, 135–36; idem, ‘Arabic Travelogues from the Mashrek 1700–1834. A Preliminary Survey of the Genre’s Development’, in Crossings and passages in genre and culture, ed. Christian Szyska and Friederike Pannewick (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2003), 34, 36. The latter article contains a valuable bibliography of 18th century Muslim travelogues from the eastern Arab world on 37–39. 23. Sirriyeh, Sufi Visionary, 106–7. 24. Listed in Elger, ‘Arabic Travelogues’, 38. 25. Discussed in Newman, ‘Arab travellers’, 30–46, and Nabil Matar (ed. and tr.), In the Lands of the Christians: Arabic Travel Writing in the Seventeenth Century (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), xxx–xxxviii. For the visits to Spain, see also Nieves Paradela Alonso, El otro laberinto espan˜ol: viajeros a´rabes a Espan˜a entre el s. XVII y 1936 (Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Auto´noma de Madrid, 1993), 54–100; Lewis, The Muslim Discovery, 117–118, 179–181, 197, 204. 26. Ahmad ibn Q asim al-Hajar ı, Kitab nas ir al-d ın ‘ala l-qawm al-kafir ın (Supporter of religion against the ˙ ˙ ˙ infidel), ed. and tr. P. S. van Koningsveld, Q. al-Samarrai and G. A. Wiegers (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas, 1997). 27. Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahh ab al-Ghass an ı, Rihlat al-waz ır f ı iftikak al-as ır, 1690–1691, ed. Nur ı ˙ ˙ al-Jarr ah (Abu Dhabi/Beirut: D ar al-Suwayd ı li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawz ı‘/al-Mu’assasa al-‘Arabiyya li-l- ˙ Dir as at wa-l-Nashr, 2002); partial translation in Matar, In the Lands of the Christians, 113–195. 28. Ahmad ibn Mahd ı al-Ghazz al, Kitab nat ıjat al-ijtihad f ı l-muhadana wa-l-jihad , ed. Ism a‘ ıl al-‘Arab ı ˙ (Beirut: D ar al-Gharb al-Isl am ı, 1980). 29. Muhammad ibn ‘Uthm an al-Mikn as ı, al-Iks ır f ıfikak al-as ır, ed. Muhammad al-F as ı (Rabat: al- ˙ ˙ Markaz al-J ami‘ ı li-l-Bahth al-‘Ilm ı, 1965); idem, Rihlat al-Miknas ıIhraz al-mu‘alla wa-l-raq ıb f ıhajj ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ bayt Allah al-haram wa-ziyarat al-Quds al-shar ıf wa-l-Khal ıl wa-l-tabarruk bi-qabr al-hab ıb, ed. ˙ ˙ Muhammad Bukb u t (Abu Dhabi/Beirut: D ar al-Suwayd ı li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawz ı‘/al-Mu’assasa al- ˙ ‘Arabiyya li-l-Dir as at_ wa-l-Nashr, 2002, 2003). There is an untranslatable allusion in this title to the Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 pre-Islamic game of chance called maysir. 30. His interest in religious discussions led him to append to the book a chapter on two further encounters with monks in Morocco and Egypt. 31. This is an alternative interpretation to those of Paradela Alonso, who finds this passage disconcerting and believes either that the manuscripts are incomplete, or that the account of the journey was never finished (El Otro Laberinto, 60, 66). 32. This is inspired by his visit to Cartagena (al-Mikn as ı, Rihlat al-Miknas ıIhraz al-mu‘alla , 56). ˙ ˙ Between Ibn Battu ta and al-Tahtaw ı 247 __ _ _ _ 33. The phrase is used by Sam I. Gellens, ‘The search for knowledge in medieval Muslim societies: a comparative approach’, in Muslim Travellers, ed. Eickelman and Piscatori, 51. 34. Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Kh alid ı al-Safad ı, Lubnan f ı ‘ahd al-am ır Fakhr al-d ın al-Ma‘n ı al-than ı, ˙ ˙ ˙ eds. Asad Rustum and Fu’ ad Afr am al-Bust an ı (Beirut: Publications de l’Universite´ libanaise, 1969), 208–41; Italian translation: ‘Soggiorno di Fakhr ad-d ın II al-Ma‘n ı in Toscana, Sicilia e Napoli e la sua visita a Malta (1613–1618)’, tr. Paolo Carali, Annali del Reale Istituto Superiore Orientale di Napoli 8, no. 4 (Settembre 1936): 15–60. 35. Albrecht Fuess, ‘An instructive experience: Fakhr al-D ın’s journey to Italy, 1613–1618’, in Les Europe´ens vus par les Libanais a`l’e´poque ottomane, ed. Bernard Heyberger and Carsten Walbiner (Beirut: In Kommission bei Ergon Verlag Wu¨ rzburg, 2002), 26–28, and for a summary of the contents of the Mulhaq, 28–36. ˙ 36. Elger, ‘Selbstdarstellungen’, 126–127, 130–131 (both accounts are still unpublished). Elger comments on the fact that when Syria was ruled from Cairo under the Mamluks, Syrian job- hunters are not known to have recorded their journeys to Egypt, and he suggests that the (mild) culture shock produced by travelling to a non-Arab country may have stimulated them to record their experiences (126–127). 37. Ibr ah ım ibn ‘Abd al-Rahm an al-Khiy ar ı al-Madan ı, Tuhfat al-udaba’ wa-salwat al-ghuraba’, ed. R. M. ˙ ˙ al-S amarr a’ ı, 3 vols (Baghdad: Wiz arat al-Thaq afa wa-l-‘Ilm, [1965], 1979, 1980). 38. The text is still unpublished. Ralf Elger discuses it in ‘Die Reise des Murtad aibnMustaf a al-Kurd ı ˙ von Damaskus nach A¨ gypten im Jahre 1127/1714’, in Beschreibung der Welt,˙ ed. von Ertzdorff,_ 367– 387, from which these remarks are derived. Curiously, Elger translates f ı in the title as though it were wa (and). 39. A version of the poem (52 lines) has been published by Joseph Nasrallah in ‘Chronologie des Patriarches melchites d’Antioche de 1500 a` 1634’, Proche-Orient Chre´tien 7 (1957): 86–87. The 18 lines from the text in ms. Ma‘luf 175 which ‘ Is aMa‘luf published in al-Risala al-mukhallasiyya 8 ˙ (1941): 30–31, diverge considerably from the Bibliothe`que orientale manuscript which Nasrallah used. I thank the American University of Beirut Library Archives for making this article available to me. 40. A complete edition of this text has yet to be published. A partial edition, which leaves the travellers in Kiev, is Voyage du Patriarche Macaire d’Antioche, ed. and tr. Basile Radu, Patrologia Orientalis 22, fasc. 1 (1930, repr. 1976); 24, fasc. 4 (1933, repr. 1976); 26, fasc. 5 (1949); see Hilary Kilpatrick, ‘Journeying towards modernity. The ‘Safrat al-Batrak Mak ariyus’ of Bulus ibn al-Za‘ ım al-Halab ı’, ˙ Die Welt des Islams 37 (1997): 156–77. The beginning_ of the text, up to when Mak ariyus leaves Syria, and the end, when the travellers re-enter the country seven years later, were published by Qustant ın al-B ash a as ‘Nukhba min Safrat al-Batriyark Mak ariyus al-Halab ı bi-qalam waladih al-Shamm_ _ as ˙ Bulus’, al-Masarra 3 (1912) and 4 (1913);_ repr. Har ıs a: Matba‘at al-Qidd ıs Bulus, 1913. For the rest, ˙ ˙ from Kiev to Muscovy, and back through Moldavia, Wallachia_ and Anatolia, scholars must either consult the various manuscripts in St. Petersburg, Paris, London and Damascus or else rely on an English or Russian translation. The slightly abridged English translation is Paul of Aleppo, The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch, tr. F. C. Belfour, 2 vols (London: The Oriental Translation Fund of Great-Britain and Ireland, 1836), reprinted in Marshall Poe (ed.), Early Exploration of Russia (London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), vols 7 and 8. 41. For the historical component in the Safra, see Hilary Kilpatrick, ‘Bulus ibn al-Za‘ ım as a historian’, to appear in the Proceedings of the conference on ‘Le roˆle des historiens orthodoxes dans l’historiographie’ organised by the University of Balamand, 12–14 March 2007. 42. The title of this account is given variously in different sources: Antun Rabb at, ‘‘Rihlat awwal s a’ih ˙ ˙ sharq ıil aAmr ık a’’, al-Mashriq 8 (1905), 821–34, 875–86, 931–42,_ 974–83,_ 1022–33, 1080–88, 1118–28; repr. Antun Rabb at (ed.), Rihlat awwal sharq ıila Amr ıka (Beirut: al-Matba‘a al- ˙ K athul ıkiyya, 1906);_ Nur ı al-Jarr_ ah (ed.), al-Dhahab wa-l-‘as ifa: Rihlat Ilyas al-Mawsil ıila _ Amr ıka ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ (Beirut: al-Mu’assasa al-‘Arabiyya li-l-Dir as at wa-l-Nashr, 2001). There are two English translations: Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015 Elias al-Muˆ sili, An Arab’s Journey to Colonial Spanish America: the Travels of Elias al-Muˆsili in the Seventeenth Century, ed. and tr. Caesar E. Farah (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003) is based on Rabbat’s text; ‘Europe and South America. Kitab siyah at al-khur ıIlyas ibn al-Qiss ıs Hanna ˙ ˙ al-Mawsil ı (The Book of Travels of the Priest Ilyas, Son of the Cleric Hanna al-Mawsuli). Ilyas Hanna al- ˙ Mawsuli (1668–1683)’, in Matar, In the Lands of the Christians, 45–111, incorporates some fresh manuscript research. I have benefited from insights in an unpublished biographical entry by Elias Muhanna, ‘Ilyas al-Mawsili (fl. 1668–1683)’, forthcoming in Studies in Arabic Literary Biography, 248 H. Kilpatrick
1350–1850, ed. Joseph E. Lowry and Devin J. Stewart (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 2008), and am grateful to Mr. Muhanna for making it available to me. 43. Michel Abras, ‘Le voyage de deux moines melkites en Italie du Nord en 1775’, in Les Europe´ens vus par les Libanais, ed. Heyberger and Walbiner, 59–65. 44. The text is published in K arstin-Maykal W alb ınar [Carsten-Michael Walbiner], ‘Rihlat Ra‘d min ˙ Halab il a l-Bunduqiyya’, in Me´langes en me´moire de Mgr. Ne´ophytos Edelby (1920–1995), ed. Nagi ˙ Edelby and Pierre Masri (Beirut: CEDRAC, Universite´ St. Joseph, 2005), 367–83. 45. Stefan Wild, ‘Einleitung’, in al-Munajjid and Wild, Zwei Beschreibungen des Libanons, xvi–xvii. 46. Ralf Elger, ‘Der Raum als Zeichen go¨ttlicher Macht und des Wirkens der Zeit im Libanon- Reisebericht al-Manazil al-mahasiniyya f ı l-rihla at-tarabulusiyya des Yahy a al-Mah asin ı (st. 1053/ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ 1643)’, in Erza¨hlter Raum in Literaturen der islamischen_ _ Welt, ed. Roxane Haag-Higuchi and Christian Szyska (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2001), 69–80. I was not able to consult Muhammad ˙ ‘Adn an Bakh ıt’s edition of the text. 47. Muhibb al-D ın al-Hamaw ı, Had ı al-az‘an al-najdiyya ila l-diyar al-misriyya, ed. M. ‘A. al-Bakh ıt ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ (Mu’ta–Kerak: ‘Im adat al-Bahth al-‘Ilm ı wal-Dir as at al-‘Uly a, J ami‘at Mu’ta, 1414 [1993]). ˙ 48. Stefan Wild, ‘‘Utayf ı’s Reise nach Tripolis’ in al-Munajjid and Wild, Zwei Beschreibungen des Libanons, xiii–xviii,_ 1–25. 49. Al-‘Utayf ı’s visit to Tripoli coincided with ‘Al ıibnMuhammad’s brief period as governor in 1043/ ˙ 1634_ (Wild, ‘Einleitung’, xv). For the end of Sayf a rule, see Abdul-Rahim Abu-Husayn, Provincial Leaderships in Syria, 1575–1650 (Beirut: American University of Beirut press, 1985), 56–60. 50. The close relationship between autobiography and travel accounts can be seen in Elger’s ‘Selbstdarstellungen aus Bilaˆd ash-Shaˆm’, which draws mainly on such accounts in its study of the presentation of the self. 51. Michael Winter, ‘Historiography in Arabic during the Ottoman period’, in Arabic Literature in the Post-Classical Period, ed. Allen and Richards, 171–88; Margaret Larkin, ‘Popular poetry in the post- classical period’, in ibid., 230–42; Nelly Hanna, ‘Culture in Ottoman Egypt’, in The Cambridge History of Egypt, vol. 2, ed. M. W. Daly (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 94–110. 52. Elger, ‘Narrheiten und Heldentaten’, 271–72, 286–87. The quotation of the 18th century historian Muhammad Khal ıl al-Mur ad ı’s response to the work is given on 270. ˙ 53. For the evolution of Arabic literature by Christians in this period, see Hilary Kilpatrick, ‘From Literatur to adab: the literary renaissance in Aleppo around 1700’, The Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, 58, nos. 3–4 (2006):195–220. Downloaded by [Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia - Sistema Bibliotecario Ateneo] at 10:43 22 March 2015