Renegades and the “Secret World”, C. –

“Cross-confessional Diplomacy and Diplomatic Mediators in the Early Modern Mediterranean” Budapest, – May Renegades and the “Secret World”, c. – Tobias P. Graf Heidelberg University, Germany [email protected] On the whole, ambassadors’ reports make for rather dull reading. Occasionally, however, even the convoluted and repetitive monotone of administrative language fails to completely drown out the excitement created by the rivalries between various political powers. One such instance is contained in a leer by Friedrich von Kreckwitz, Rudolf II’s ambassador in Istanbul from to , to Archduke Ernst of Austria wrien in August . “I have received reliable reports from secret sources”, wrote the diplomat, that a Portuguese Jew, who has recently become a Turk in order to please Hoca [Saded- din Efendi], is travelling aboard an Ooman vessel which le for Venice a few days ago. ese same sources have informed me that he is to travel further towards His Majesty’s residences in Prague and Vienna by unknown means in order to scout and betray the country’s terrain, distances, and armament. I have arranged with the very same patron [presumably Hoca Sadeddin Efendi] (who is normally well-disposed towards this house) to take [Franc] Jurković to a place where he can secretly examine this Jewish Turk at leisure in order to make a drawing of his likeness. is short quotation, unspectacular as it may seem at first glance, takes us right into the middle of a cloak-and-dagger story of espionage and counter-espionage worthy, if perhaps not of the gadget- juggling likes of a James Bond, then at least of Rudyard Kipling’s Kim. More importantly, however, fragments like these offer insights into what one might with some justification call the ‘Great Game’ between the houses of Osman and Habsburg and into early modern intelligence more generally. My research on so-called renegades, like the Portuguese ‘Jewish Turk’ above, suggests that such individuals played a particularly prominent role in the field, not least because it allowed them to capitalize on their status as intermediaries and go-betweens. To illustrate this point, this paper will begin with a brief discussion of the quantitative data generated by the sample of renegades which I have collected over the course of my doctoral studies before taking a closer look at two case studies. Friedrich von Kreckwitz to [Archduke Ernst], Istanbul, August , KA IÖHKR, Croatica, Akten, box , - -, fol. r-v, at fol. v–r. Jurković seems to have been one of the principal members of von Kreckwitz’s household in Istanbul. See Václav Vratislav z. Mitrovic, Příhody Václava Vratislava z Mitrovic, ed. Jiří Daňhelka (Prague: Československý Spisovatel, ), p. Since this is not the place to provide a survey of the theoretical and methodological debates which have shaped the still relatively young academic field of intelligence studies, it is necessary to point out that the word intelligence itself means both a product — information relevant to decision making — and a process, or perhaps more adequately, a field of activity which, as Michael Warner has so elegantly put it, concerns the “means for a sovereign to gauge risk and uncertainty (and shi them quietly to adversaries)”. It is the laer which I have in mind when I use intelligence in this paper unless it is clear from the context in individual instances that intelligence as a product is meant, such as in the phrase “to provide intelligence”. A sample of renegades Unfortunately, the term renegade is all but unproblematic, precisely because it is so catchy. Etymo- logically synonymous with apostate, early modern Christian authors used it first and foremost — albeit not exclusively — for those who abandoned Christianity, and occasionally Judaism as in the example above, in favour of Islam. Historians have frequently used the term uncritically, sometimes narrowing its meaning somewhat and occasionally expanding it to such an extent that one wonders what purpose it serves. In early modern Christian European rhetoric those which are designated as renegades are frequently also showered in abuse, the most common allegation being that of treason. is is hardly surprising since, as Christine Isom-Verhaaren has put it, “conversion demonstrated a loyalty to the ruler, which was the key to the functioning of the state” in this period. Consequently, abandoning the ruler’s religion signified the withdrawal of one’s loyalty. is link between religious conversion and an (apparent) transfer of political loyalties connects the usage of renegade as a label in different geographical contexts during the early modern period since Christian Europeans, in the eyes of their compatriots and co-religionists, became renegades not just in the Mediterranean but also, for instance, on the Indian subcontinent and in the New World. e process of course occured in both directions. In fact, even Christian European observers were willing to concede that such converts to Christianity, too, were renegades. Consequently, I use the label renegade only for foreign converts, in line with the tacit consensus emerging from more recent research into the renegade phenomenon. e advantage of this depar- ture from contemporary usage of the word lies in allowing me to distinguish between, say, Germans and Italians who ‘turned Turk’ and those Balkan Christians, for example, who adopted Islam and were assimilated into the Ooman military-administrative elite as a result of the devşirme. While such a distinction may seem artificial, it enables us as historians to examine the parallels, but also Michael Warner, “Intelligence as Risk Shiing”, in Intelligence eory: Key estions and Debates, ed. Peter Gill, Stephen Marrin and Mark Phythian, Studies in Intelligence (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, ), p. Christine Isom-Verhaaren, “Shiing Identities: Foreign State Servants in France and the Ooman Empire”, Journal of Early Modern History (): p. Compare Tijana Krstić, “Illuminated by the Light of Islam and the Glory of the Ooman Sultanate: Self-Narratives of Conversion to Islam in the Age of Confessionalization”, Comparative Studies in Society and History (): p. –. See G.V. Scammell, “European Exiles, Renegades and Outlaws and the Maritime Economy of Asia c. -”, Modern Asian Studies (): –; Colin G. Calloway, “Neither White nor Red: White Renegades on the American Indian Frontier”, e Western Historical arterly (): –; Linda Colley, Captives: Britain, Empire and the World, – (London, ). e doctoral research of Manja akatz at the University of Münster and Damaris Grimmsmann at the University of Göingen focuses on the conversion and integration of Ooman subjects into the Holy Roman Empire. See for instance a conversation between David Ungnad and Sokollu Mehmed Paşa reported in David Ungnad to Emperor Maximilian II, Istanbul, May , HHStA, StAbt, Türkei I, box , bundle for May–June, fol. r–v, fol. v–r. See for instance Felix Konrad, “Soziale Mobilität europäischer Renegaten im frühneuzeitlichen Osmanischen Reich”, in Religion und Mobilität: Zum Verhältnis von raumbezogener Mobilität und religiöser Identitätsbildung im frühneuzeit- lichen Europa, ed. Henning. P. Jürgens and omas Weller (Göingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, ), –. the differences, between these different kinds of converts and the way these were integrated into Ooman society and the political system. e question of whether individual conversions were sincere is irrelevant for my definition of the renegade. While the related issue of individual ambiguity and ambivalence is one which is of central relevance to my work and will also surface in this paper, I subscribe to a formalistic and functionalist understanding of conversion to Islam: A Muslim is whoever formally converted to Islam or was deemed to have done so in the eyes of Ooman Islamic law and thus became a Muslim subject of the sultan’s. rough their formal conversions, renegades acquired new religious, social, cultural, legal, and political identities. To what extent these new identities replaced previously existing ones is a central question of my research. e working definition just outlined underpins the sample of renegades to the Ooman Empire which I have collected as part of my doctoral research. is sample is drawn from relevant doc- uments in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv as well as the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna and the Na- tional Archives of the United Kingdom. In addition to these the selection of Venetian dispatches published in the Calendar of State Papers, Venice was consulted and the sample also includes individuals listed in Ralf Müller’s Prosopographie der Reisenden und Migranten ins Osmanische Reich (-). Individuals were only included, if there was evidence to suggest that they were renegades in the sense of the definition outlined above; the mere designation as a renegade by the sources — or other historians, for that maer — was not sufficient. Moreover, the sample only encompasses individuals who had accepted Islam at any point between and , or, if they had converted earlier, were still alive on January . male female undeterminable total individuals % individuals % individuals % individuals % renegades . . . . re-renegades . . total . . . Table : Overview of the renegade sample Table provides an overview of the sample which currently contains individuals. e over- whelming majority of these, persons (. per cent), are men. In contrast, there are only six women (. per cent) while the gender of the remaining six individuals cannot be determined because they are part of groups of mixed composition but unknown gender ratio. e predominance of male renegades in my sample is a consequence of the nature of my sources although there is reason to believe that female converts to Islam are generally underrepresented in the surviving doc- umentary and narrative evidence. In addition to this gender bias, the sources used very probably also introduced a bias in favour of renegades described as ‘Germans’ who at individuals form the second largest ‘national’ group, in the early modern sense of the word, aer the ‘Italians’ with individuals. Information on ‘nationalities’ within the sample are surprisingly complete with .

Load more