Interpreters, translators, mediators. Dragomans and their role in the relations between Venice and Cairo, 15th-early 16th century

Sources have often highlighted the importance of the dragomans (from the Arabic tarjumān), that is, the translators or interpreters who were present in the political, diplomatic, and commercial exchanges between the Republic of Venice and the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria during the late Middle Ages. These agents were fundamental figures in linguistic, economic, and cultural mediation between the Christian and Islamic worlds. As a result, the role of these agents is often taken for granted and has not been sufficiently investigated in the scholarship. This paper aims to fill this gap by illustrating the figures and functions of the dragomans as a point of contact and mediation between two worlds with different languages, cultures, and religions. In fact, precisely because of their linguistic and mediating skills, interpreters were often sent on diplomatic missions across the Mediterranean, fulfilling multiple functions. To this end, I will analyse the functions of dragomans within the context of the internal and external dynamics of the Republic of Venice and the Sultanate of Cairo between the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, a period marked by intense political and commercial activity between Europe and the Mediterranean Levant. Through the study of chronicles—both Venetian and Arabic—and, from the Christian side, travel accounts, merchant letters, and official documents from Venetian institutions, it will be possible to outline the backgrounds, and potential training, of the dragomans (who were often Christian renegades), their linguistic skills, and finally the tasks entrusted to them.