Global politics in the 1580s: One canal, twenty thousand cannibals, and an Ottoman plot to rule the world

Journal of World History

Volumn 18, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 267-296

  Casale, Giancarlo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

OTTOMAN EMPIRE; POLITICAL HISTORY; WAR;

ASIA; EURASIA; INDIAN OCEAN; MIDDLE EAST; YEMEN;

EID: 36048929253     PISSN: 10456007     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jwh.2007.0020     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. For an elaboration of this point, albeit from a slightly different global orientation, see Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "Connected Histories: Notes Towards and Reconfiguration of Early Modern Eurasia," Modern Asian Studies 31 (1997): 735-762;
2. for an example of a recent reworking of early modern Spanish political history from an international perspective, see Geoffrey Parker, The Grand Strategy of Philip II (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998).
3. The story of Mir Ali's expedition has been told and retold many times, albeit in a strictly cursory fashion. See for example Charles R. Boxer and Carlos de Azevedo, Fort Jesus and the Portuguese in Mombasa 1593-1729 (London: Hollis & Carter, 1960), pp. 16-23;
4. and Michael N. Pearson, Port Cities and Intruders: The Swahili Coast, India, and Portugal in the Early Modern Era (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), pp. 46-47.
5. Like these works, the present reconstruction is based primarily on the early seventeenth-century chronicle of João dos Santos, Etiópia Oriental, ed. Luis de Albequerque, 2 vols. (Lisbon. Alfa, 1989).
6. In addition, the tenth decade of the contemporary historian Diogo do Couto's multi-volume Da Ásia (1786; repr., Lisbon, 1974), has a very detailed original account of an earlier expedition of Mir Ali's from 1585 to 1586, although the account of his second expedition in 1588-1589 in the uncompleted eleventh decade is copied directly from dos Santos. There is also another version of events in the later chronicle of Manuel de Farya y Souza, but it is based for the most part on these earlier sources. Here I have used the Portuguese translation of the Spanish original, Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Ásia Portuguesa, trans. Maria Vitória Garcia Santos Ferreira, 6 vols. (Lisbon, 11945); Ottoman chronicles, for reasons that will be discussed below, make no mention of either Mir Ali Beg or his expeditions.
7. According to Couto, already in 1585 Mir Ali had been sent to the Swahili Coast at the instruction of the Ottoman Governor of the Yemen, Hasan Pasha, who gave him orders "que fosse notar os sitios e portos de toda a costa de Melinde, e qual delle seria melhor pera se nelle fazer hum forte, e que apalpasse todos aquelles reys, e trabalhasse pelos fazer ao seu serviço com promessas grandes, e que lhes affirmasse que logo havia de mandar cabedal bastante pera lançar os Portuguezes fóra dalli, e ainda de Moçambique e das Minas de Cuamá." Couto, Da Ásia, vol. 10, book 7, chap. 8.
8. See Jean-Louis Bacqué-Grammont and Anne Kroell, "Mamluks et Portugais en Mer Rouge: L'affaire de Djedda en 1517," Supplément aux Annales Islamologique 12 (1988): 21-25.
9. See John Francis Guilmartin, Gunpowder and Galleys: Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the 16th Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), p. 13.
10. On the veracity of reports of Zimba cannibalism, see the extended discussion in the following section.
11. "Nao me espanto de minha adversa fortuna, porque são sucessos de guerra, e mais quero ser cativo de cristãos, de quem, já outra vez fui em Espanha, que ser comido dos Zimbas bárbaros e desumanos." dos Santos, Etiópia Oriental, 1:37.
12. "Mirale Beque foi mandado para Portugal, onde se converteu e se fez cristão, no que restaurou para a sua alma todas as perdas e quebras que tinha recebido no corpo." dos Santos, Etiópia Oriental, 1:242.
13. Joseph Miller, "Requiem for the Jaga," Cahiers d'études africaines 49 (1973): 121.
14. Miller, "Requiem for the Jaga," p. 125;
15. on the Zimba as a catch-all phrase for marauding bellicose groups, see Edward Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa: Changing Patterns of International Trade in the Later Nineteenth Century (London: Heinemann, 1975), p. 21.
16. See William Ariens, The Man-Eating Myth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980);
17. for a more recent reworking of Ariens's argument, see Gananath Obeyesekere, Cannibal Talk: The Man-Eating Myth and Human Sacrifice in the South Seas (Berkeley: University of California, 2005).
18. See, for example, the almost embarrassed tone of Francisco de Monteclaro in describing the armaments of the Portuguese during their first expedition to Monomotapa: "Here the men landed well-appointed and in readiness, more inclined to fight against the Turks and other worthy people than against the Kaffirs." A. da Silva Rego and T. W. Baxter, eds., Documentos sobre os portugueses em Moçambique e na Africa central, 1497-1840 (Lisbon, 1962-1989), 8:371.
19. In a slightly different context, relating to his description of Portuguese encounters with the Zimba along the Zambezi, Matthew Schoffeleers has also used evidence from local oral histories to verify certain aspects of dos Santos's chronicle. See "The Zimba and the Lundu State in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries," Journal of African History 28, no. 3 (1987): 345-351.
20. For the document, see Filmoteca Ultramarina Portuguesa no. 16, p. 692,
21. quoted in Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, 2 vols., trans. Siǎn Reynolds (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 2:760.
22. "Minha yda foy forçada porquee se o nom fyzera toda a dicta costa se levantara por eles." Da Silva Rego and Baxter, Documentos sobre os portugueses, 7:132.
23. See, for example, Corpo Diplomatico Portuguez (Paris, 1846), 9:111.
24. On relations between Istanbul and Aceh, see Giancarlo Casale, "His Majesty's Servant Lutfi: The Career of a Previously Unknown Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Envoy to Sumatra Based on an Account of His Travels from the Topkapι Palace Archives," Turcica 37 (2005): 43-81;
25. see also Anthony Reid, "Sixteenth-Century Turkish Influence in Western Indonesia," Journal of Southeast Asian History 10, no. 3 (December 1969): 395-414.
26. On the role of "Rumi" elites in India, see Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "The Trading World of the Western Indian Ocean, 1546-1565:
27. A Political Interpretation," in A Carreira da India e as Rotas dos Estreitos: Actas do VIII Seminário Internacional de História Indo-Portuguesa, ed. Artur Teodoro, dos Maros and Luis Filipe Thomaz (Angra do Heroismo, 1998), pp. 207-229.
28. For a contemporary description of this "secret" Ottoman trading network, see Maria Augusta Lima Cruz, Diogo do Couto e a década 8a da Asia (Lisbon, 1994), ed. and trans., 2:205-207;
29. more generally, see Giancarlo Casale, "The Ottoman Administration of the Spice Trade in the Sixteenth,Century Red Sea and Persian Gulf," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49, no. 2 (May 2006): 170-198.
30. See for example Istanbul, Başbakanlιk Deviet Arşivi, Mühimme Defterleri 28, no. 331, p. 139.
31. On the Ottoman institution of the "Caliphate," although with little discussion of its implications for the Indian Ocean, see Colin Imber, "Suleyman as Caliph of the Muslims: Ebu's-Suud's Formulation of Ottoman Dynastic Ideology" in Soliman le Magnifique et son Temps, ed. Gilles Veinstein (Paris, 1992), pp. 179-184.
32. On the end of the Portuguese blockade of the Red Sea, see Michael Pearson, Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat: The Response to the Portuguese in the Sixteenth Century (Berkeley, 1976), p. 113.
33. Casale, "His Majesty's Servant Lutfι," pp. 55-61.
34. The emperor Humayun, for example, at one point sent a letter to Suleyman the Magnificent in which he openly addressed him with the lofty titles of "Padishah" and "Caliph of the World." See Naimur Rahman Farooqi, Mughal-Ottoman Relations: A Study of Political and Diplomatic Relations between Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire 1556-1749 (Delhi, 1989), p. 17.
35. Gilles Veinstein, "Sokollu Mehmed Pasha," The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed. (Leiden, 1954-), 9:706-711.
36. Jorge Manuel de Santos Alves, O Domínio do Norte de Sumatra (Lisbon, 1999), p. 174.
37. B. Diffie and G. D. Winius, Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580 (Minneapolis, 1977), pp. 427-428.
38. Cengiz Orhonlu, Osmanlι İmperatorluǧunun Güney Siyaseti: Habeş Eyaleti (Istanbul, 1996), p. 61.
39. Farooqi, Mughal-Ottoman Relations, pp. 18-21.
40. Ibid., pp. 114-116.
41. On religion under Akbar, see John F. Richards, The New Cambridge History of India: The Mughal Empire (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 34-40.
42. Sanjay Subrahmanyam, "A Matter of Alignment: Mughal Gujarat and the Iberian World in the Transition of 1580-81," Mare Liberum 9 (July 1995): 467.
43. There is anecdotal evidence in Mughal literary sources alluding to doubts among orthodox Muslims at Akbar's own court about the direction of his policies, and particularly about the response his din-i ilahi might provoke from Istanbul. See Harbans Mukhia, The Mughals of India (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), p. 99.
44. For a translation of the main Ottoman archival sources surrounding this incident, see Naimur Rahman Farooqi, "Six Ottoman Documents on Mughal-Ottoman Relations during the Reign of Akbar," Journal of Islamic Studies 7, no. 1 (1996): 32-48.
45. Chantal. de la Veronne, "Giovanni Margliani et la Trève de 1580 entre l'Espagne et la Turquie," Arab Historical Review for Ottoman Studies 3-4 (1990): 72-73.
46. See the letter of Ruy Vicente from Goa, 13 Nov 1579, in Joseph Wicki, ed., Documenta Indica (Rome, 1948-1994), 11:704.
47. Orhonlu, Habeş Eyaleti, pp. 61-63.
48. On the construction of these forts, see Mühimme Defterleri 43, no. 339, p. 186.
49. For a detailed account of this assault on Muscat, see Couto, Da Ásia, vol. 10, book 1, chap. 11.
50. For a local Muslim account see R. B. Serjeant, The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast: Hadrami Chronicles with Yemeni and European Accounts of Dutch Pirates off Mocha in the Seventeenth Century (Oxford, 1963), p. 111.
51. A document in the Ottoman archives also makes reference to the incident. Mühimme Defterleri 35, no. 743, p. 293.
52. "Quasi num abrir e fechar de olhos entrou arrebetado e saiu rico." Faria e Sousa, Ásia Portuguesa, 4:204.
53. "... des Indes orientales, du Royaume d'Ormuz, isles et ports du levant despendans du Royaume de Portugal, à venir trafiquer aux ports et échelles de sa Hautesse, en Egypte et Sorie, leur offrant tout ban traitement et accueil où it consentiraient." Quoted in F. Charles-Roux, "L'isthme du Suez et les Rivalités Européenes au XVIe siècle," Revue de l'Histoire des Colonies Français (1924): 173.
54. Father Monserrate, The Commentary of Father Monserrate on His Journey to the Court of Akbar, trans. J. S. Hoyland and S. N. Banerjee (Calcutta, 1922), p. 205.
55. See also Farooqi, Mughal-Ottoman Relations, pp. 20-21.
56. Farooqi, Mughal-Ottoman Relations, p. 21.
57. Pearson, Merchants and Rulers in Gujarat, p. 57.
58. Ibid., pp. 57-58.
59. Couto, Da Ásia, vol. 10, book 3, chap. 3.
60. Charles-Roux, "L'isthme du Suez," p. 172.
61. Mühimme Defterleri 7, no. 721, p. 258.
62. For a general discussion of Koja Sinan's politically motivated artistic patronage, see Emine Fetvacι, "Viziers to Eunuchs: Transitions in Ottoman Patronage, 1566-1617" (PhD diss., Harvard University, 2005), pp. 140-202.
63. For a modern translation and critical analysis of this text, see Thomas Goodrich, The Ottoman Turks and the New World: A Study of Tarih-i Hind-i Garbi and Sixteenth Century Ottoman Americana (Wiesbaden, 1990).
64. Goodrich, Tarih-i Hind-i Garbi, p. 100.
65. Mühimme Defterleri 48, no. 877, p. 333.
66. Ibid., 49, no. 86, p. 23, and 52, no. 461, p. 181.
67. Couto, Da Ásia, vol. 10, book 7, chaps. 15 and 16.
68. Charles-Roux, "L'isthme du Suez," p. 174.
69. Selaniki Mustafa Efendi, Tārïhl-i Selānikī, ed. Mehmed İpşirli (Istanbul, 1989), 1:171.
70. dos Santos, 1:221-222;
71. Couto, Da Ásia, vol. 10, book 7, chap. 16;
72. Faria e Sousa, Ásia Portuguesa, 5:64-66.
73. Mühimme Defterleri 61, no. 239, p. 99, and no. 240, pp. 99-100; the Portuguese captives were subsequently handed over to the custody of Kilich Ali Pasha, who also seems to have been an accomplice in this affair.
74. See Selaniki, Tārïh-i Seln̄ikī, 1:185.
75. See the report of Lorenzo Bernardo, dated 23 July 1586 in Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts Relating to English Affairs Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, and in Other Libraries of Northern Italy (Great Britain, 1939-1947), vol. 8, no. 385.
76. Charles-Roux, "L'isthme du Suez," p. 181.
77. Kilich Ali Pasha had his own history of manipulating intelligence for personal projects. Shortly after Sokollu Mehmed's death, he had used falsified documents relating to the impending Spanish takeover of Portugal to convince the sultan of the need to maintain a large fleet in the Mediterranean despite the Habsburgs,Ottoman armistice. See Andrew Hess, The Forgotten Frontier: A History of the Sixteenth-Century Ibero-African Frontier (Chicago, 1978), p. 101.
78. "Le beau dessein leur a déjà tellement enflé leur vanité accoutumée, et attisé leur ambition et avarice, qu'il leur semble qu'ils ont déja les trésors et pierreries de l'Inde, et qu'ils ont mis dans un rets le Perzien; il ne mettent en aucun compte l'Espagnol, car ils disent qu'ils n'y a que 4,000 hommes. A la vérité, si leur désir et espérance réunissait à faire ce canal, y mettant deux cent galères armées, qu'ils disent, ayant l'Arabie comme ils ont e y tournant la tête sans être empêchés d'ailleurs, ils fermeront la porte à Lisbonne et Espagne de ce côté, e seront pour agrandir et enrichir grandement cet empire." Charles-Roux, "L'isthme du Suez," pp. 176-177.
79. Charles-Roux, "L'isthme du Suez," p. 181.
80. This is confirmed by Ottoman archival documents. See Mühimme Defterleri 60, no. 363, p. 165.
81. Ibid., 61, no. 239, p. 99, and no. 240, pp. 99-100.
82. Ibid., 62, no. 304, p. 137.
83. Ibid., 62, no. 393, p. 177.
84. Ibid., 62, no. 457, p. 205.
85. The report's only possible basis was Akbar's establishment of a permanent embassy in Goa in 1584. Farooqi, Mughal-Ottoman Relations, p. 22.
86. Mühimme Defterleri 62, no. 393, p. 177, and no. 457, p. 205.
87. Ibid., 64, no. 499, p. 195.
88. Dos Santos, 1:222-228; Couto, Da Ásia, Vol. 10, book 9, chap. 1.
89. Couto, Da Ásia, Vol. 10, book 9, chap. 2.
90. See, for example, Subrahmanyam, "A Matter of Alignment," p. 476.
91. Anthony Reid, "Islamization and Christianization in Southeast Asia: The Critical Phase 1550-1650," in Southeast Asia in the Early Modern Era: Trade, Power and Belief, ed. Anthony Reid (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell, 1993), pp. 151-179;
92. also Reid, "Turkish Influence in Western Indonesia," pp. 395-414.
93. G. Bouchon, "Sixteenth-Century Malabar and the Indian Ocean," in India and the Indian Ocean 1500-1800, ed. Ashin das Gupta and Michael Pearson (Calcutta, 1987), pp. 162-184.
94. Orhonlu, Habeş Eyaleti, pp. 15-82.
95. For the subsequent history of Portuguese involvement in the Swahili Coast, see Pearson, Port Cities and Intruders.
96. All of these possibilities have been speculated upon by modern scholars, although not always with explicit reference to the appearance of the "Zimba" at Mombasa. On the Zimba as a mercenary army from the Zambezi region, see Schoffeleers, "The Zimba and the Lundu State," pp. 337-355;
97. on the identification of the "Zimba" as a band of Maravi warriors, see M. D. D. Newitt, "The Early History of the Maravi," The Journal of African History 23, no. 2 (1982): 145-162;
98. and for a more local interpretation of events, based on the historical Pattern of relations between Mombasan and other Swahili factions and the mainland polities of the immediate hinterland, see Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson, and Jan Vansina, African History (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1978), pp. 176-1178.