Saracens’ Heart And Life: the Mamluk Sultanate as Seen by the 14th Century Venetian Intellectual

Vozchikov, Dmitry

doi:10.18254/S0002394-2-1

English

Home>Issue 10 (74)>“Saracens’ Heart And Life”: the Mamluk Sultanate as Seen by the 14th Century Venetian Intellectual

“Saracens’ Heart And Life”: the Mamluk Sultanate as Seen by the 14th Century Venetian Intellectual

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“Saracens’ Heart And Life”: the Mamluk Sultanate as Seen by the 14th Century Venetian Intellectual

Annotation

PII

S207987840002394-2-1

DOI

10.18254/S0002394-2-1

Publication type

Article

Status

Published

Authors

Dmitry Vozchikov Send message

ORCID: 0000-0003-1110-0501

Occupation: Associate Professor of the Departmnent of Oriental Studies
Affiliation: Ural Federal University
Address: Russian Federation, Ekaterinburg

Edition

Volume 9 Issue 10 (74)

Abstract

This article observes the image of the Bahri Mamluk Empire in the “Book of the Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross” (1306—1321), which was written by Marino Sanudo Torsello (ca. 1270—1343), a Venetian merchant, traveller, diplomat and historian. This Latin treatise contains a detailed project of a new crusade against the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria with the support of Christian Nubia and the Ilkhanate. This research is based on the imagological approach, which can detect the basic mechanisms of perception of one human culture as seen by another one. The “Book of the Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross” is a multi-genre source, it embraces a complex geographical and historical description of all the Oriental ecumene, which was known to the Venetian intellectual. The project was based on a vast amount of sources and the author’s solid personal experience in the Levantine commerce. Sanudo thought that the trade blockade against the Sultanate should precede the new crusade. In his description of Egypt Sanudo payed primary attention to its diverse trade relations and evaluated the Sultanate as the richest state in the world. The Venetian underlined the crucial dependence of Egypt on the foreign commerce, without which the Sultanate would lose not only a revenue from the commercial tolls, but also such important resources as wood and iron. The Venetian supposed that it would be much easier to win the Holy Land back after the conquest of Egypt. In his treatise, Sanudo described the most important directions of the Mamluks’ foreign policy: alliance with the Golden Horde, desperate rivalry with the Ikhanate, expansion towards Nubia, and trade and political relations with the Byzantine Empire. Sanudo ascribed the conversion of the Ilkhans and Uzbeg to Islam to the political influence of the Mamluk Empire. In general, Marino Sanudo Torsello’s “Book of the Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross” placed the Mamluk Egypt in the center of the Muslim world, which was correct in many aspects then. The Mamluk Sultanate in the treatise was a constitutive Other for Venice and all the Latin West.

Keywords

Republic of Venice, Mamluk Sultanate, Islamic Egypt, Mamluks, Image of Islam in Medieval Europe, Crusades, Medieval Voyages, Marino Sanudo Torsello

Received

30.07.2018

Publication date

30.11.2018

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48084

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GOST	Vozchikov D. “Saracens’ Heart And Life”: the Mamluk Sultanate as Seen by the 14th Century Venetian Intellectual // ISTORIYA. – 2018. – V. 9. – Issue 10 (74). URL: https://history.jes.su/s207987840002394-2-1/. DOI: 10.18254/S0002394-2-1
MLA	Vozchikov, Dmitry "“Saracens’ Heart And Life”: the Mamluk Sultanate as Seen by the 14th Century Venetian Intellectual." ISTORIYA. 9.10 (74) (2018). DOI: 10.18254/S0002394-2-1
APA	Vozchikov D. (2018). “Saracens’ Heart And Life”: the Mamluk Sultanate as Seen by the 14th Century Venetian Intellectual. ISTORIYA. vol. 9, no. 10 (74) DOI: 10.18254/S0002394-2-1

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