The Representation of the Space of the Parties by Mamluk Chancery Secretaries in Documents and Works Concerning Relations between the Sultanate and Christian Powers
Rizzo, Alessandro ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de l'antiquité > Langue arabe et études islamiques - Histoire de l'art musulman
Language :
English
Title :
The Representation of the Space of the Parties by Mamluk Chancery Secretaries in Documents and Works Concerning Relations between the Sultanate and Christian Powers
By using the term “territoriality,” I refer to the strategy adopted by the Mamluk power to interpret and describe its dominion over “its” territory as well as the strategies implemented to define it in relation to external territories, on the basis of cultural parameters. The term “territoriality” is employed in this article according to this definition and –obviously– does not cover all the wide range of theoretical nuances that scholars have used over the years while using this concept. On this debate, see for instance, Raffestin 2012 and Elden 2013. Concerning the representation and perceptions of space and frontiers in Muslim-Christian Medieval relations, see, among many others, Ashtor 1969; König 2010 and 2013; Hiatt, ed. (2021), Cartography.
By way of significant example, see Lewis 1988, 73; Crone 2004, 359, 363.
Dekkiche 2019a, 115.
Heck 2004, 112–113.
Al-Dawoody 2011; Albrecht 2018; Bork 2020.
Pedani 1996; Calasso and Lancioni 2017.
Amari, ed. (1863), I diplomi arabi; Alarcón y Santón and Garcia de Linares, ed. (1940), Los documentos; Korkut, ed. (1969), Arapski dokumenti; Holt 1995.
These documents are preserved in the archival collections of European cities that had diplomatic and commercial relations with the sultanate of Cairo: Barcelona: Archivo de la Corona de Aragón (ACA), Colleciones, Cartas árabas; Dubrovnik (Ragusa): Državni Arhiv u Dubrovniku; Venice: Archivio di Stato di Venezia (ASV), Documenti Algeri, Egitto, Marocco; Libri Commemoriali; Florence: Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Orientali; Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASF), Diplomatico, Varie IV.
ACA, Cancillería Real; ASV, Libri Commemoriali; ASF, Signori, Carteggio, missive, I cancelleria; ASF, Diplomatico, cartaceo, Riformagioni Atti Pubblici.
Ibn al-Furāt, Ta͑rīkh (1936–1942); Ibn ͑Abd al-Zāhir, Tashrīf (1961); al-Qalqashandī, Subh (1913–1919, 21963).
To cite just one example among the numerous instances: al-Qalqashandī, Subh (1913–1919, 21963), vol. 14, 31, translated into English in Holt 1995, 34.
Biberstein-Kazimirski (1860), 1150–1152.
Miquel 1975, 525–540; Miquel 1991.
Lane 1968, 246.
Evidently, the diplomatic instruments concerning trade also mentioned a whole series of other spaces, in particular “micro-spaces” such as fundūq-s, ships, diplomatic meeting places, and so on, which, however, are not an object of study in this paper.
In this article, I employ terms related to the concept of “boundary” according to the definitions of Langer and Fernández-Götz 2020, 34: “Borderlands (territories or regions around or between political or cultural entities), borders (linear dividing lines fixed in a particular space), frontiers (loosely defined areas or transition zones that lie between political or administrative entities or between one such entity and hinterland), and boundaries (unspecific divides or separators that indicate limits of various kinds).”
Concerning the different uses of the term thaghr referring to the frontiers between the territories inhabited by Muslims and those inhabited by Christians, see Boissellier and Ferreira Fernandes, ed., (2015), Entre Islam et Chrétienté.
Udovitch 1993, 37.
For instance, the term mahrūs often accompanies the terms thaghr or Iskandariyyah (Alexandria) in the documents concerning the relations between Florence and the Mamluks: Rizzo, ed. 2024, Florence.
See, for instance, Sanuto, I diarii (1879–1903), vol. 1, 135; vol. 5, 887.
Concerning the protection granted by the sultan to the communities of Christian merchants, see, among others, Frantz-Murphy 2010; Rizzo 2021a.
In this respect, the journey of the first Florentine ambassadors to Cairo, Carlo Federighi and Felice Brancacci, in 1422 is exemplary since the two envoys had to learn all the rules of etiquette “on the ground”: Tripodi, 2010, 412–419; Yousefzadeh 2018; Rizzo 2021b.
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