A NARRATIVE ITALIAN TRAVELS PERSIA, FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. ^Translates antJ iZtittrU CHARLES GREY, Esq. LONDON": PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY. M.DCCC.T.XXIII. CONTENTS. PAGE Travels in Persia, by Catering Zeno - 1 Discourse of Messes Giovan Battista Ramusio on the Writings of Giovan Maria Angiglello, etc. - 67 The Travels of a Merchant in Persia - - 139 Narrative of the Most Noble Vincentio d'Alessandri 209 A NARRATIVE ITALIAN TRAVELS IN PERSIA. The close of the fifteenth century is an epoch in the history of the East, and especially of Persia, of which but little is known. The blast of Timour's invasion had swept over that historic land and left it deso- late. These four Accounts of Travels by Europeans are, therefore, especially interesting in a geographi- cal and historical point of view, and will, with the books of Barbaro and Contarini, which are in Ilamusio's collection, complete the series of Italian voyages about that period. In order clearly to un- derstand the facts brought forward, it will be neces- sary to glance at the motives of policy which started the embassies, and the historical changes which in- fluenced their results. In Eastern Europe the Byzantine empire had, after a long and gradual decline, at length crumbled into ruins beneath the power of the Ottomans, which threatened to be as great a scourge to Europe as that of Timur (or Tamerlane) had been to Asia, while the stability and vitality of their empire oifered a great contrast to the ephemeral charac- A 11 A NARRATIVE OF ter of Timur's dominion. Singly, the powers of Christendom could in vain hope to withstand their terrible foe ; and Venice, the Great Republic, then rich and flourishing, with a far-sighted policy, endeavoured to induce all the Christian princes to make common cause against the Ottoman Turks. Hungary and Poland were engaged in continuous warfare with the Musulmans ; but the petty jealou- sies, which no danger, however imminent, could lull, caused the other powers to look coldly on the pro- posed alliance. Venice, in her need, then cast her eyes to the East, where she found a new dynasty firmly established in the ancient kingdom of Persia, the inveterate foe of the house of Othman. That country, after the death of Timour, had been nomi- nally subject to his descendants, though two rival Toorkoman tribes had established principalities in Azerbigan and Diarbekr. These were the Kara Koinlu, and Ak-koinlu, or the Black and White Sheep, between whom a deadly feud existed ; the former were the first to rise to power, under their chief, Kara Mahomed ; while his son, the famous Kara Yusuf, threw off the yoke of the descendants of Timour in 1410. Secunder, the son of Kara Yusuf, waged war with Shah Rokh ; and, after his death, his brother Jehan Shah, in 1437, not only over- ran Irak, Fars, and Kerman, but in 1457 besieged and pillaged Herat. The Kara Koinlus kept the throne until 14<%. ITALIAN TRAVELS IN PERSIA. ill Kara Koinlu Rulees. Kara Mahomed. i Kara Yusuf. i i I Seconder. Abouseyd, Jehan Shah, 1-137- put to death by Secunder. 1468. Hassan Aly. In that year the chief of the rival tribe of the Ak- koinloos, named Uzun Hassan, who had established himself at Diarbekr, succeeded in defeating Jehan Shah in a battle in which the latter fell. The Ak- koinloos were now masters of Persia, and Uzun Hassan carried his victorious arms against Sultan Abouseyd, the reigning prince of the house of Timour, who also fell before him. Malcolm's account of the reign of Uzun Hassan is very meagre. He was the chief of the Ak-koinlu, or Turks, of the tribe of White Sheep, and established a powerful principality at Diarbekr. He defeated and killed Jehan Shah and his son Hassan Aly, whom he had taken prisoner, with all his family. The dynasty which Uzun Hassan founded is termed Bayenderee ; the family date their rise from the reign of Timour, who made them grants of land in Armenia and Mesopotamia. Hassan, after defeating his rival, engaged in a war with Sultan Abouseyd. He owed his triumph to his skill and activity in a predatory warfare, and at last having taken his enemy prisoner, made himself master of a great part of the dominions of the house of Timour. Malcolm a 2 ; IV A NARRATIVE OF " says : Uzun Hassan, after making himself master of Persia, turned his arms in the direction of Turkey but his career was arrested by the superior genius of the Turkish emperor, Mahomet II ; he suffered a signal defeat, which terminated his schemes of am- bition. He died after a reign of eleven years, at the age of seventy. All authors agree in ascribing valour and wisdom to this prince. We are told by an European ambassador, who resided at his court, that he was a tall thin man, of a very open countenance, and that his army amounted to fifty thousand horse, a great proportion of which were of very indifferent quality." He adds that this ambassador was an envoy from Venice, sent by that Republic to solicit the aid of Uzun Hassan against the Ottoman. The personage alluded to by Malcolm must have been M. Josafat Barbaro, the successor of M. Caterino Zeno. Uzun Hassan had already been in collision with the Turks, having, when ruler of Diarbekr, under- taken to defend Calo Johannes of the noble house of the Comneni, one of the last of the Christian empe- rors of Trebizond, against Mahomet II. This alliance had been cemented by his marriage with the beauti- ful princess Despina, daughter of Calo Johannes, in which manner he was connected with some of the princely families of Venice, so that the way for an embassy was easily paved. The Venetians might hope much from the ambitious and turbulent charac- ter of the Persian prince ; and in this they were not disappointed, as it needed but little persuasion to ITALIAN TRAVELS IN PERSIA. V induce the hitherto almost invincible soldier to take up arms against his hereditary foe. Worn out by a state of anarchy, rival chiefs and tribes struggling for power before the land had fully risen again after the blast of foreign conquest had passed over it, the ancient glory of Persia had paled before the brighter light of its rival ; but the old hatred still remained, with the will, if not the power, to oppose the Turkish arms. An embassy to Uzun Hassan being determined on, the difficult tusk of sending an envoy still remained. The duty would be a hazardous one, as any one proceeding from Venice to Persia would have to run the gauntlet of the Turks. The sister of Queen Despina had married Nicolo Crespo, the Duke of the Archipelago, whose four daughters were in turn wedded to four of the merchant princes of Venice, one of whom was M. Caterino Zeno, a man of courage and talent. He, of all others, appeared the fittest to undertake this honourable but perilous mission, and the patriotism of Zeno induced him to overlook the dangers he would run in traversing hostile and almost unknown regions before reaching his destination. He was rewarded for his courage by arriving safely in the presence of the king, though not without meeting serious obstacles in his journey through Caramania. Zeno was well received by the monarch ; and, being supported in his arguments by his aunt, the Queen Despina, succeeded in inducing Uzun Hassan to take up arms against the Turk. In 1472 the Persians marched into the Turkish vi A NARRATIVE OF dominions and ravaged them, but a flying column under Mustafa, the second son of Mahomet IT, routed a force of Persians under one of Uzun Has- san's generals. In the following year the Grand Turk invaded Persia with an immense army, hut met with a severe check while endeavouring to cross the Euphrates near Malatia, and was forced to re- treat. Uzun Hassan, however, following up his success too rashly, was routed by the Turks at Tabeada. M. Caterino Zeno was then sent as am- bassador from Uzun Hassan to various <£hristian princes, among others to Poland and Hungary, to incite them to take up arms against the Ottoman. M. Josafat Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini were sent from Venice to take his place at the Persian Court ; but no arguments could again induce the Persian monarch to meet the Turks in the field. The account of Zeno's Travels in Ramusio's col- lection was prepared from Zeno's letters, as the editor was never able to get possession of a copy of Zeno's book. For this reason the geographical de- tails in these Travels are not so explicit as in the others, and Pamusio has in his book put Zeno's nar- rative after several others, although in date he was the first. It is supplemented by a sketch of Persian history subsequent to M. Caterino's embassy, taken from other sources. MM. Barbaro and Contarini suc- ceeded Zeno. The account of their travels will form a separate work. The second author in this collection is a M. Giovan Maria Angiolello, who was in the service of the . ITALIAN TRAVELS IN PERSIA. vii Turks, and present in their campaign against the Persians. He describes, shortly, the rise of Uzun Hassan, and gives a full description of the Turkish invasion from the Turkish point of view, and the de- tails of the march. Unghermaumet's rebellion against his father Uzun Hassan is also mentioned by him as well as by Zeno.