The Eye of the Beholder: The Creation of a Portuguese Discourse on Safavid Iran (original) (raw)

Abstract

This article is an overview of the relations between Iran and Portugal during the Safavid Age, taking into account how Iran and Iranians were perceived by the Portuguese, and how this discourse evolved over time according to origin of the writer of the discourse.

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References (41)

  1. Cf. Amoretti, Sâh Ismâ'îl I, vol. I, p. 11.
  2. Cf. Matos, Das relações, p. 13. To attest the Italian connection of the term 'Sophy', there is a missive of D. Manuel which makes clear how 'Sophy' had come into Portu- guese from the Mediterranean and 'Xeque Ismael' from India, as it states: 'being him [Afonso de Albuquerque] in the said city of Goa, there arrived an ambassador of "Xeque Ysmael", who here [in Portugal] is called "Sofy" '; D. Manuel to the Bishop of Segovia, Lisbon, 12 July 1511, in Cartas de Afonso de Albuquerque, seguidas de documentos que as elucidam [henceforth Cartas], eds. Raimundo António de Bulhão Pato and Henrique Lopes de Mendonça, 7 vols. (Lisbon: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa and Imprensa Nacional, 1884-1935), vol. III, pp. 20-21.
  3. As seen in four letters dated from the early 1510s, in Matos, Das relações, pp. 30-32. The greatest source of intelligence on Persian affairs coming out of the Mediterranean to Lisbon in this period seems to be Italy, particularly Rome, where the Portuguese ruler had a permanent diplomatic representative.
  4. Albuquerque, Comentários, vol. I, pt. II, ch. XXIII, pp. 132-135. 28 The letter no longer exists, but its content can be partly reconstructed through a missive sent by D. Manuel to the bishop of Segovia, Lisbon, 12 July 1511, in Cartas, vol. III, pp. 20-21. 29 He died poisoned in Hormuz; cf. Albuquerque, Comentários, vol. I, pt. II, ch. XXIII, pp. 135-148.
  5. 'Of the route made and what happened with the ambassadors sent to Shaykh Esmâ'il, and of the gift which they took him, and of the reply they brought', n. d. [1515- 1516], Cartas, vol. II, pp. 247-248.
  6. Tenreiro, in Itinerários, p. 34.
  7. Gouveia, Relaçam, f. 53v.
  8. Jean Aubin, L'ambassade de Gregório Pereira Fidalgo à la cour du Châh Soltân- Hosseyn 1696-1697 (Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1971), pp. 72, 74. Pereira Fidalgo's expectations that Gorgin Khan would stay permanently at court, where he would end up being poisoned, were not fulfilled, though he met a tragic death a decade later. And there is no mention of Gorgin Khan's presence in Pereira Fidalgo's last audience with Shah Soltan Hosayn. On Gorgin Khan's career, also known as Shahnavaz Khan II, see Rudi Matthee, 'Gorgin Khan', in Encyclopaedia Iranica, eds. Ehsan Yarshater et al., vol. XI (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), pp. 163-165. 53 Cf. Barros, Décadas da Ásia, I/1-1, pp. 11-12; Manuel Severim de Faria, 'Vida de João de Barros', in Discursos vários politicos, ed. Maria Leonor Soares Albergaria Vieira, (Lisbon: INCM, 1999), p. 55.
  9. Barros, Décadas da Ásia, II/5-2, p. 443. Barros gives no clue if this cosmography was about the universe, or about the earth, as both meanings are valid.
  10. S. Bernardino, Itinerário da Índia, p. 172.
  11. Gouveia, Relaçam, f. 27v.
  12. Fr. António de Gouveia, Jornada do Arcebispo (Lisbon: Edições Didaskalia, 1988), bk. III, ch. xi-xii, pp. 316-345.
  13. Cf. Jorge Borges de Macedo, 'Livros impressos em Portugal no século XVI. Inter- esses e formas de mentalidade', Arquivos do Centro Cultural Português IX (1975), p. 204 (table 5). Even if Portugal's total printing production for the sixteenth century could be revised, its final number would remain very low when compared with the output of Paris alone with 25,000 titles, and even with Dutch typographic manufacture (8,000 titles);
  14. Fernand Braudel, Civilization & Capitalism 15th-18 th century, vol. I, The Structures of Everyday Life (New York: Harper & Row, 1985), p. 400. 106 There are two known manuscripts, one in IAN/TT, Manuscritos da Livraria, no. 2262; and another (probably an earlier version) in BNP, FG, cod. 11026. 107 Cf. Itinerários, pp. 131-132.
  15. 108 Not even in the index Mestre Afonso's name appears under the subject 'Secular History', as is the case of António Tenreiro; cf. Diogo Barbosa Machado, Biblioteca Lusitana, 4 vols. (rpt. [1741-1759], Coimbra: Atlântida Editora, 1965-1967), vol. IV, pp. 648-668.
  16. See Ana Isabel Buescu, 'Cultura impressa e cultura manuscrita em Portugal na Época Moderna. Uma sondagem', in id., Memória e poder. Ensaios de história cultural (séculos XV-XVIII) (Lisbon: Cosmos, 2000), pp. 29-48. 110 They were Fr. António de Gouveia, Fr. Gaspar de S. Bernardino, Pedro Teixeira, Nicolau da Orta Rebelo and D. Álvaro da Costa. 111 As can be seen in the carefully written manuscript kept in BNP, FG, cod. 340, destined to the press. Though noticed for the first time in 1745, the manuscript had to wait until 1972 for its publication; Un voyageur portugais en Perse au début du XVII e siècle Nicolau da Orta Rebelo, ed. Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão (Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1972), pp. 25-43. 112 Of which there are two copies: Biblioteca Pública de Évora, CXV/1-5, and Biblio- teca Pública Municipal do Porto, cod. 482, no. 4. On the author, see Luís Graça, 'Notícias de uma relação de viagem do século XVII: o Tratado de D. Álvaro da Costa', Portugaliae Historica I (1973), pp. 306-320; and José Nunes Carreira, Do Prestes João às ruínas da Babilónia. Viajantes portugueses na rota das civilizações orientais (Lisbon: Editorial Comunicação, 1980), pp. 187-189. 113 For the circulation of manuscripts within the Iberian Peninsula see Fernando Bouza Álvarez, 'Cultura escrita e história do livro: a circulação manuscrita nos séculos XVI e XVII', Leituras. Revista da Biblioteca Nacional 9-10 (Autumn 2001-Spring 2002), pp. 63-95. For example, Duarte Barbosa's work, concluded around 1518, circulated widely in manuscript form (one of its copies even ending up in Congo): Barbosa's Livro was published (in Italian translation) by Giovanni Battista Ramusio in 1550 (Delle Naviga- tioni et Viaggi (vol. I, Venice, 1550); modern edition by Marica Milanesi (Milan: Ein- audi, 1979), vol. 2, pp. 537-709), though it had to wait until 1812 to be printed in Portugal and in Portuguese. For further details see Barbosa, Livro, vol. I, pp. 18-41.
  17. 'Instructions to Gregório Pereira Fidalgo', Goa, 20 March 1696, in Aubin, L'ambassade de Gregório Pereira Fidalgo, p. 101.
  18. L'ambassade de D. Garcia de Silva Figueroa en Perse: contenant la politique de ce grand empire, les maeurs du Roy Schach Abbas, et une relation exacte de tous les lieux de Perse & des Indes, oú cét Ambassadeur a esté l'espace de huit années qu'il y a demeuré/ traduite de l'Espagnol par Monsieur de Wicqfort (Paris: Jean Depuis, 1667). 116 As the work in Castilian was only printed in 1903-1905, 2 vols. (Madrid: Sociedad de Bibliófilos Españoles, 1903-1905).
  19. Relaciones de Pedro Teixeira d'el origen, descendencia y sucession de los reyes de Persia, y de Harmuz, y de un viage hecho por el mismo autor dende la India Oriental hasta Italia por tierra (Antwerp: Hyeronimo Verdussen, 1610) (for modern editions, see supra, note 43). Teixeira mentions he had an authorization to print his book, but that was only valid for the least dangerous part of his work, up until the Arab/Islamic conquest of Persia. 118
  20. Teixeira, Relaciones, pp. 3-4.
  21. Itinerários, p. 9.
  22. S. Bernardino, Itinerário da Índia, p. 145.
  23. Cf. Carreira, Do Prestes João às ruínas da Babilónia, pp. 143-158.
  24. Godinho, Relação, ch. XIII, pp. 109-120.
  25. Itinerários, p. 148.
  26. Matthee, 'Between Aloofness and Fascination: Safavid Views of the West', Iranian Studies 31:2 (1998), pp. 219-246.
  27. Gouveia, Relaçam, f. 40v.
  28. Itinerários, pp. 137, 141-142.
  29. Correia, Lendas, t. II, pp. 413-415.
  30. Cartas, vol. II, pp. 237-239.
  31. Aubin, L'ambassade de Gregório Pereira Fidalgo, p. 76.
  32. Yusuf's loyalty to Albuquerque survived the death of his employer in 1515, but upon his return to India Alexandre de Ataíde went to Cairo, where he returned to Judaism;
  33. Correia, Lendas, t. II, pp. 134-135. 143 'Instructions given to Rui Gomes and Fr. João', n. pl., n. d. [1510], in Cartas, vol. II, pp. 79-83; and 'Instructions given to Fernão Gomes de Lemos and Gil Simões', n. pl. [Hormuz], n. d. [April-May 1515], in Cartas, vol. I, pp. 389-390.
  34. Cf. 'Instructions given to Rui Gomes and Fr. João', n. pl., n. d. [1510], in Cartas, vol. II, pp. 79-83. 145 Itinerários, pp. 34-40.
  35. Afonso de Albuquerque only took notice of Isma'il's defeat in 1515 through a Persian source, possibly a Qezelbash officer; cf. Albuquerque, Comentários, pt. IV, ch. XLII, pp. 213-215.
  36. Vide Francis Richard, 'Un Augustin portugais renégat, apologiste de l'islam chiite au début du XVIII e siècle', Moyen Orient & Océan Indien XVI e -XIX e siècles 1 (1984), pp. 73-85. 152 'Instructions for the factor Lino de Faria Rodrigues', Kong, 30 October 1719, in
  37. Esparteiro, O general dos galeões do Estado da Índia, doc. 49, pp. 160-161. 'Aliqoli Beg's material interest came from the fact that all Safavid officials' stipends had been frozen in 1715 by order of the E'temad od-Dowleh Fath 'Ali Khan Daghestani, and infla- tion had eaten away part of his income. 153 See inter alia Serge Gruzinski and Rui Manuel Loureiro (eds.), Passar as fron- teiras: 2º colóquio internacional sobre mediadores culturais, séculos XV a XVIII (Lagos: Centro de Estudos Gil Eanes, 1999).
  38. For a summary of his works see Richard, 'Un Augustin portugais', pp. 75-81.
  39. See Norman Daniel, The Arabs and Medieval Europe (London and Beirut: Long- man and Librairie du Liban, 1975), pp. 230-262.
  40. 'Estado da Índia and where it has its beginning', in DUP, vol. I, pp. 197-263. The material on Hormuz is in pp. 201-217, Persia in pp. 217-218. Another copy of Fr. Azevedo's manuscript is published in DUP, vol. II, pp. 79-97.
  41. Couto, Décadas da Ásia, V/10-1. It is debatable whether it was the chronicler who incorporated the material in India, or if it was his brother-in-law Fr. Adeodato back in Portugal, which could have been possible since the latter was Fr. Azevedo's colleague in Lisbon's Graça monastery; cf. C. R. Boxer, 'An Introduction to the «História Trágico- Marítima» (1957): Some Corrections and Clarifications', Quaderni Portoghesi, 5 (Spring 1979), p. 104. 162 See the opinion expressed in 'Report of the mission in Persia', Versevé, 13 Decem- ber 1719, in Esparteiro, O general dos galeões do Estado da Índia, doc. 52, p. 164.