The Mission of an Ottoman Secret Agent in France in 1486

V. L. Ménage

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00124219

The Mission of an Ottoman Secret Agent in France in 1486

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

V. L. Ménage

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Upon the sudden death of Meḥemmed II in May, 1481, his two surviving sons, each hastily summoned from his provincial governorate by his own partisans among the Ottoman statesmen, set out with all speed to Istanbul. The race was won by the elder, Bāyezīd; but the younger son Jem had so strong and numerous a following that it was not until July, 1482, that he was finally obliged to admit defeat and take refuge at Rhodes with the Knights of St. John. The Grand Master, Pierre d'Aubusson, with a lively appreciation of the value of his guest as a hostage to insure Christendom against aggression by the new sultan—it was only two years since the Knights had beaten off a determined Ottoman siege—lost no time in removing him to France, where he would be less exposed to the danger of assassination by one of Bayezld's agents. For six years, well-treated but strictly guarded, Jem was confined in various houses of the Order in Savoy and France, his last prison, from whence he was handed into the custody of the Pope at the end of 1488, being the castle of Bourganeuf, in the present department of La Creuse, some 40 km. west of the Grand Master's native Aubusson. Jem's subsequent detention in Rome was brought to an end when he fell as a prize of war to Charles VIII of France in 1495, only to die at Naples a few weeks later.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 97 , Issue 2 , April 1965 , pp. 112 - 132

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00124219 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1965

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References

^{page 112 note 1} The most recent surveys of Jem's life are the articles of M. Cavid Baysun in Islâm Ansiklopedisi, s.v. Cem, and of Halil Inalcik in Encyclopaedia of Islam, ² s.v. Djem.

^{page 112 note 2} Thuasne, L., Djem-Sultan: étude sur la Question d'Orient à la fin du XV^e siècle, Paris, 1892Google Scholar (cited as Thuasne).

^{page 112 note 3} Arsiv Kilavuzu (published by the Kültür Bakanhgi for the Topkapi Sarayi Müzesi), 1st fasc, Istanbul, 1938Google Scholar, index s.v. Cem Sultan.

^{page 112 note 4} Wittek, P., “Les archives de Turquie,” in Byzantion, XIII (1938), 691–9Google Scholar, with a discussion (pp. 697–8) of the Arsiv Kilavuzu's document XIV.

^{page 112 note 5} Ertaylan, I. H., Sultan Cem, Istanbul, 1951 (cited as Ertaylan)Google Scholar.

^{page 112 note 6} Uzunçarṣih, I. Hakki, “Cem Sultan'a dair beṣ orijinal vesika,” in Belleten, XXIV/95 (1960), 457–83Google Scholar (cited as Uzunçarṣih). In fact six documents are reproduced in facsimile though only five are discussed, and one of these (no. 3286, Uzunçarṣih, 464 and 478) had earlier been published by Ertaylan (184).

^{page 113 note 1} Turan, Ṣerafettin, “Barak Reis'in, sehzade Cem mes'elesiyle ilgili olarak Savoie'ya gönderilmesi,” in Belleten, XXVI/103 (1962), 539–55Google Scholar (cited as Turan).

^{page 113 note 2} Turan, 544.

^{page 113 note 3} It presents some peculiarities of orthography: ondan (so spelt passim, with wāw) for andan, is an interesting indication of contemporary pronunciation; khwāndkār (p. 547, n. 20) represents a pronunciation (?khondkār) midway between Persian khudāwandgār and later Ottoman khunkār; but the clerk's propensity to write kāf, gāf, where qāf, ghayn are expected—vardugum, olduguna, olduguma, bulumayijak (all on p. 552)—is merely a solecism.

^{page 113 note 4} E.g. (end of §3) “…went with him to the Duke of Savoy”. (“How did you travel?”) “This Iskender gave me a horse…” (“What about a passport?”) “I got beforehand…”; (§9) “…went again to the Duke of Savoy”. (“Where did you meet him?”) “An officer of his… came there” (“Where?”) “… the companion they had given me” (“What was his name?”).

^{page 113 note 5} As Dr. Turan points out (539–41), he was little more than a name until the appearance of this document with its autobiographical hints (§§2, 3, 4).

^{page 114 note 1} beglijek, diminutive of beglik (cf. Deny, , Grammaire, §509Google Scholar; Kononov, , Grammatika, §270Google Scholar), a (rare?) form attested elsewhere in this document: yoldashlijak (§2) “a short journey”, eyliijek (§16) “a small mark of favour”.

^{page 114 note 2} fīlūrī, which in §6 also I render “ducats”, while f.r.ntī (§§6,11) I render “florins”; see p. 115, n. 2 below.

^{page 114 note 3} khatun kishiler, attested in Tamklariyle Tarama Sözlüğü, II, 485 and IV, 382, in contexts which demonstrate that it is not a term of respect—“ladies”—but means merely “women”.

^{page 114 note 4} yoldashlijak (see n. 1 above), perhaps “a short voyage”.

^{page 114 note 5} kul, literally “slave”, a word for which it is impossible to find an English rendering which is not misleading; here and elsewhere I render kul “servant” (and khidmetkār [§8] “attendant”).

^{page 114 note 6} See preceding note.

^{page 114 note 7} buyurdughuηuz gibidür, a respectful address.

^{page 114 note 8} nishān, not necessarily “firman”, as Barak uses the same term immediately afterwards for the document which he proposes to obtain in Genoa.

^{page 115 note 1} seni anda bilürler, perhaps “they know about you there”, but citations in Tarama Sözlüğü, I (A–B), 1963Google Scholar, s.vv. biliṣ, biliṣlik, biliṣmek, show that bilmek had at this period the force “to recognize” (now regularly tammak).

^{page 115 note 2} Here, as in §§3 and 11 (see n. 2, p. 114 above) Barak seems to be distinguishing the actual currencies involved: Venetian gold ducats (filūri, which in Ottoman sources, in spite of the “Florentine” etymology, usually means the Venetian coin) and Florentine gold florins; the fact that 50 “fīlūrī” were insufficient to meet an obligation of 150 ”f.r.ntl” shows that the latter term must refer to the gold, and not to the silver, florin.

^{page 115 note 3} ishitdüm sōyleshürlerdi.

^{page 115 note 4} kh^wāndkāruη khidmetin ayakda komayuz: for the expression ayakda komak see Tarama Sözlüğü, I, s.v., with the definition “garip, avare, meydanda birakmak”.

^{page 115 note 5} üsh seni öldürdelüm.

^{page 115 note 6} mālumiz rizḳumiz.

^{page 115 note 7} Tūine is squeezed in above anda as an afterthought: see n. 4, p. 113 above.

^{page 116 note 1} derbendjiler. This is a term of Ottoman administration for peasantry exempted from various imposts in return for the service of keeping passes free from bandits, see Barkan, Ö. L., Kanunlar, Istanbul, 1943Google Scholar, index s.v. derbend, and Inalcik, H., Fatih devri üzerinde tetkikler ve vesikalar, I, Ankara, 1954, p. 169Google Scholar, n. 121, pp. 223–4, pl. ix.

^{page 116 note 2} čam yapraghindan kizak, literally “sledges of pine-leaves”.

^{page 116 note 3} khurānda, evidently for Persian khuranda, “eater” and hence “family, domestics, household” (Steingass). The word seems to be rare in Ottoman with the extended meaning (neither Meninski nor Redhouse notes it) but I find it in Barkan's, Ö. L.Kanunlar, p. 93Google Scholar, §14, in a code of regulations, dated 904/1498, for peasantry living on Imperial domains; it is there laid down that those incapable of work may get others to work a little land for them “khurendelerine göre”, i.e. in proportion to the “number of mouths they have to feed”. In the form horanta, and with the meaning “unmarried woman”, it is attested for southern Anatolia (see CaǦatay, S., in Türk dili araṣtirmalart yilhği: Belleten, 1962, 23)Google Scholar, and it must lie behind the provincial Anatolian word horan = “woman” (Söoz derleme dergisi, s.v.).

^{page 116 note 4} yapilmish mīl: yapilmish means “built up (of masonry)”, i.e. not monolithic (which is yekpāre, cf. Evliyā, , I, 62)Google Scholar.

^{page 116 note 5} ḥujjet.

^{page 118 note 1} adlariyie sordi, corrected from adlarin sordi, “asked their names.”

^{page 118 note 2} dülbendlüler.

^{page 118 note 3} shehirlüye beŋzer.

^{page 118 note 4} ughurlatmish.

^{page 118 note 5} begüηe biz gerek olursavuz.

^{page 118 note 6} bir barmak kāghid, for which I can find no parallel: my rendering is conjectural.

^{page 118 note 7} siz khod bundasiz.

^{page 119 note 1} The meaning is doubtful, see commentary.

^{page 119 note 2} The loss of a barely-audible “dark” l is attested in ūtrī = Voltri (§1) and gharīmādū = ?Grimaldo, (§3)Google Scholar.

^{page 119 note 3} In view of the confusion of r/l characteristic of the Turkish languages (see commentary to §2), Professor Wittek tentatively suggests to me “Paul” (in the French form, rather than Italian Paolo, which appears in §5 as Pāvlū; for other apparently French forms in a North Italian context cf. Tūrīn (§9) for Turin, , Sālūs (§14)Google Scholar for Saluces/Saluzzo).

^{page 119 note 4} Piri Reis, Kitabi Bahriye, Istanbul, 1935Google Scholar (facsimile of MS Aya Sofya 2612), 368, lines 3–4 (cited hereafter as Baḥriyye).

^{page 119 note 5} Baḥriyye, 432 and (map) 433.

^{page 119 note 6} Dr. Turan reads Seteravala, and certainly there seems to be between s and r a “tooth”, with what might be two dots over it; but even if the writer of the document intended sat.rā-, this must have arisen from Barak's misreading of his note sarrā- (with a tashdīd).

^{page 119 note 7} Deny, , Grammaire, §70Google Scholar; Philologiae turcicae fundamenta, I, 1959, p. 254, §2329Google Scholar.

^{page 119 note 8} Except perhaps pūr for “Paul”, see n. 3 above.

^{page 119 note 9} The VāḲi'āt-i Sulṭan Jem, published by Meḥmed 'Ārif as a supplement to TOEM, parts 22–5, is a short but remarkably detailed biography of the prince. It was used by Sa'deddīn, so that many of its data were indirectly available to Thuasne. The unnamed author was a close companion of Jem, probably his defterdar Ḥaydar Beg (see M. 'Ārif, introd., 3; two other possible candidates, Sinān and Ayās, have been suggested, but for a reason set out on p. 129 below they seem to be excluded).

^{page 120 note 1} Boerio, G., Dizionario del dialetto Veneziano², Venice, 1856, s.vGoogle Scholar.

^{page 120 note 2} See Encyclopedia Italiana, s.vv. del Carretto, Finale. The name Fabrizio may have become distorted to Firābīrīs because Barak, hearing this knight's name in its French form “Fabrice”, interpreted it as Fra Brice.

^{page 120 note 3} Thus, for example, Sa'deddīn calls the Adriatic deryā-i Firenk (I, 496) and says that Muṣṭafā Pasha (on an embassy to Rome) went Firenk diyārina (II, 220); cf. Leunclavius, , Historiae musulmanae.…, Frankfort, 1591, 38Google Scholar: Franci (sic nominare Turcipopulos occidentales et Italos in primis solent….), 193: a Frankis (hoc est Italis), 575: copiae Francorum, hoc est, Italorum; Čelebi, Evliyā, Seyāhat-nāme, VIII, 339Google Scholar: lisān-i Firenkde “lonka” uzun olan sheye derler; Travels of Peter Mundy (Hakluyt), I, 25: “The francks or Italians…”.

^{page 120 note 4} So he begins one of two “interim reports” which he sent to Istanbul before leaving Piedmont for France (Ertaylan, 204).

^{page 120 note 5} See Uzunçarṣili, I. H., Kapikulu ocaklan, I, Ankara, 1943, 273Google Scholar and n. 2, and cf. Ḳānūnnāme-i sultānl…., ed. Anhegger, R. and Inalcik, H., Ankara, 1956, 57Google Scholar (= Beldiceanu, N., Les actes des premiers Sultans… I, Paris and The Hague, 1960, 127Google Scholar, with further references).

^{page 120 note 6} Text: ghaspā da gharīmādū. Professor Ertaylan, having before him the translation of a letter of his to the Porte (see p. 128 below), read “Gaspar Grimaldo” (204). Here again possibly Barak misread his note, and ghaspā da stands for ghaspāra, “Gaspare”.

^{page 120 note 7} See Ménage, V. L., “Seven Ottoman documents from the reign of Meḥemmed II,” in Documents from Islamic Chanceries, ed. Stern, S. M., Oxford, 1965, at p. 98Google Scholar.

^{page 120 note 8} Thuasne, 107–10; Vāḳi'āt-i Sulṭān Jem, supplement to TOEM, 12.

^{page 121 note 1} See the report of Ismā'īl, in Uzunçarşih, 460–3 (which I hope to discuss in a later article).

^{page 121 note 2} Turkish sakiz (attested already in Kāshgharī's, MaḥmūdDīwān lughāt al-Turk, ed. Rif'at, K., I, 305Google Scholar = tr. B. Atalay, I, 365), whence the Turkish name for the island, Sakiz Adasi.

^{page 121 note 3} Ertaylan, 204; according to the summary there given, Ya'ḳūb had been recruited by Paolo da Colle, for whom see below.

^{page 121 note 4} Babinger, F., Spātmittelalterliche fränkische Briefschaften aus dem grossherrlichen Seraj zu Stambul [Südosteuropäische Arbeiten 61], Munich, 1963, 1–53Google Scholar (“Erstes Stück: Lorenzo dei Medici und der Osmanenhof”); the document in question is a report which Paolo da Colle sent to Bāyezīd II after visiting Jem in the summer of 1483 (see below, and the excursus at pp. 130–2). Paolo da Colle is the “Pavlo kulu” of Ertaylan, 204, where it is noted that Ya'ḳüb, in his letter to the Porte, calls him a merchant.

^{page 121 note 5} Müller, G., Documenti sulle relazioni delle città Toscane coll'Oriente christiano e coi Turchi, Florence, 1879, 232Google Scholar; Babinger, , Briefschaften, 17Google Scholar.

^{page 121 note 6} Protocolli del carteggio di Lorenzo Magnifico… ed. Piazzo, Marcello del, Florence, 1956, 150Google Scholar; Babinger, , Briefschaften, 18Google Scholar.

^{page 121 note 7} Babinger, , Briefschaften, 22–37Google Scholar.

^{page 121 note 8} Protocolli, 277; Babinger, , Briefschaften, 37Google Scholar. The letters were to Leonardo's agent at Lyons and to “Fra Merlo, amiraglio di Rodi in Francia”, i.e. Merlo di Piozzasco, Prior of Lombardy (Thuasne, 58), one of the knights who had escorted Jem to France (Thuasne, 75).

^{page 121 note 9} Müller, G., Documenti…, 237Google Scholar; Babinger, , Briefschaften, 29Google Scholar.

^{page 121 note 10} Protocolli, 346; Babinger, , Briefschaften, 43Google Scholar.

^{page 122 note 1} Thuasne, 117, referring to the inscription in a copy of the Geographia of Francesco Berlinghieri, which theauthor (a fellow-Florentine) presented to Jem; it has now been discussed and reproduced by Babinger, F., Briefschaften, 38–42Google Scholar and plates 10–12.

^{page 122 note 2} Ertaylan, 204, referring to one of the two interim reports which Barak sent shortly afterwards.

^{page 122 note 3} Text: Islāmbol, a very early attestation of this punning name, “full of Islam,” for Istanbul: it is found also in the headings of Ja'fer Čelebi's Heves-nāme, composed in 899/1493 (see Levend, Agâh Sirri, Türk edebiyatinda ṣehr-engizler…, Istanbul, 1958, 68, 70)Google Scholar; occasionally in the Oxford MS (Marsh, 313, undated) of the History of the Ottomans attributed to Rūḥī, composed ca. 1485; and in a firman of 901/1496 (Kraelitz, F., Osmanische Urkunden in türkischer Sprache…; [SBAkWien, 197/3], Vienna, 1922, p. 101, line 12)Google Scholar.

^{page 122 note 4} Text: maghālū māystūr (cf., inter alia, Vāḳi'āt, 7, and ḳüseyn's report [Uzunçarṣili, 464 and 478]: mīghlā māstūri; Ferīdūn, , Munsha'āt², I, 525Google Scholar: m.ghāl māstūrī; I, 537: m.ghālī māstūrī) for the Greek μγας μαιστορας, gen. μεγλου μαîστορος(cf. Miklosisch, and Müller, , Acta et diplomata…, III, 286, etc.)Google Scholar. In his “interim report” (Ertaylan, 204) Barak writes “Büyük Masturi”.

^{page 122 note 5} Those of Ismā'īl and Muṣṭafā Agha (Uzunçarṣih, 462, 472). In his “interim report” (Ertaylan, 204) Barak calls Jem ol dost, “our friend”.

^{page 122 note 6} Ertaylan, 204.

^{page 122 note 7} Vāḳi'āt, 15. The chronology of Jem's stay in France is reviewed below (p. 129).

^{page 122 note 8} He had been leader of the party conducting Jem to France in 1482 (Vāḳi'āt, 8; Bosio, G., Dell' istoria della sacra religione…, Rome, 1594–1602, II, 384)Google Scholar; he was still in France in 1485 when he was elected Prior of Auvergne (Bosio, II, 402); he wrote to the Pope from Bourganeuf in September, 1488 (Thuasne, 410); and, with his brother Antoine, he escorted Jem to Rome in 1488–89 (Thuasne, 211, 213, 226–30).

^{page 122 note 9} When, on his appointment as Bailli of the Morea, he was succeeded as Treasurer by Fra Rinaldo di San Simone (Bosio, II, 403).

^{page 122 note 10} Thuasne, 137–40, following Lamansky, V., Secrets d'état de Venise, St. Petersburg, 1884, 263–9Google Scholar. Jem, while still at Boislamy, was informed of this agreement (Vāḳi’āt, 15–6, and see below p. 129).

^{page 123 note 1} Thuasne, 208–9 and 226.

^{page 123 note 2} In 1510 a joint Papal and Venetian fleet attacked the Ligurian coast; the Papal commander is called “Biassa” by Marino Sanuto (see Manfroni, C., Storia della marina Italiana della caduta di Costantinopoli alia battaglia di Lepanto, Rome, 1897, 246Google Scholar, referring to Diarii, XI [sic, not IX], col. 13 f.), and “Joannes Blaxia” in Bartholomaei Senaregae Genovensis de rebus Genovensibus commentaria … (Muratori, , Scriptores …., XXIV)Google Scholar, Milan, 1738, col. 602.

^{page 123 note 3} Thuasne, 141–2. The Genoese, by letters dated 1 September and 1 December, 1486 (Bosio, II, 405), thanked the Grand Master for interceding on their behalf with the Porte.

^{pgae 123 note 4} See Dauzat, A., Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de famille et prénoms de France, Paris, 1951, s.vGoogle Scholar.

^{page 123 noet 5} Gabotto, F., Lo Stato Sabaudo da Amadeo VIII ad Emanuele Filiberto, II, Turin and Rome, 1893, 328, 393Google Scholar. He had been dismissed in February, 1482 (op. cit., 291) in favour of his rival Claudio di Racconigi (who is mentioned by Barak in §14).

^{page 124 note 1} See for example Possot, D., Le voyage de la Terre Sainte (1532), ed. Schefer, Ch., Paris, 1890Google Scholar (= Recueil de voyages … XI), 44–5 and 223, and also the works of Bruchet and Bonnerot cited in n. 3 below.

^{page 124 note 2} ṭolayidan, confirming the otherwise doubtful reading dolayidan of Barak's report (which has elsewhere also—e.g. (§9) dur, “stay”—initial dāl where ṭā would be expected); cf. also TTS, II, s.v. dolay, where the ablative dolayidan is attested.

^{page 124 note 3} Quoted from British Museum MS Landsdowne 720, in The Travels of Peter Mundy (Hakluyt, series II, XVII), I, Cambridge, 1907, 114, n. 1Google Scholar; other accounts by early travellers are conveniently assembled in Bruchet, M., La Savoie d'aprēs les anciens voyageurs, Annecy, 1908, 36–40Google Scholar (Jacques Lesage, 1518, who descended on “un fagot de genêts”), 84, 127–8, 146–52, etc.; for further references see La guide des chemins de France de 1553 par Charles Estienne, ed. Bonnerot, J., I (= Bibl. de l'École des Hautes Études, fasc. 265), Paris, 1936, p. 357, n. 582Google Scholar.

^{page 124 note 4} Guide, Blue, Southern France, 1954, 22Google Scholar.

^{page 124 note 5} See Pauly-Wissowa, s.w. Labisco and Sapaudia (at col. 2316).

^{page 124 note 6} The “commendatore des Eschelles” had been one of the defenders of Rhodes during the siege of 1480 (Bosio, II, 342).

^{page 125 note 1} The same misunderstanding would explain some of the deformations in the VāḲi'āt, e.g. alat.r.shkūn = Tarascon, gh.b.lye = Aiguebelle, v.rsa = Aversa.

^{page 125 note 2} Two places with similar names are recorded in the VāḲi'āt, r.j.lye and r.sh.lye. The first of these stands, I believe, like zečelez here, for Les Échelles. My reasons are set out in an excursus, pp. 130–2 below.

^{page 125 note 3} Les recherches du Sieur Chorier sur les antiquitez de la ville de Vienne, Lyons, 1659, 346Google Scholar: “Deux monumens célèbres nous appellent à eux; I'un est un massif de pierres cimentées, et l'autre [this is the Aiguille] une Pyramide…. Le premier est dans une vigne…. II est rond, et a environ douze pas de diamètre mais sa hauteur est diminuée de beaucoup…. D'autres croyent que ç'a esté autres-fois un Tombeau.”

^{page 125 note 4} Schneyder, P., Histoire des antiquités de la ville de Vienne, Vienne, 1880, 108Google Scholar: “Il ne reste plus rien…hors de terre, que le cenotaphe [i.e. the Aiguille]…. Le massif dont Chorier parle… qui portait le colosse de Mars, n'a été détruit que I'an VI. de la République française.”

^{page 125 note 5} op. cit., 359: “… c'a esté une ignorance des derniers siècles, d'attribuer aux Sarrazins la plus part des Ouvrages des Romains…'.

^{page 125 note 6} Dr. Turan suggests the village (Le) Vernet, south-east of Clermont, but Barak usually describes towns as “—nām shehir” and walled towns as “—nām ḥiṣār”; here he says simply “Vernāya vardik”, implying that he is speaking of a district.

^{page 126 note 1} Gybal, A., L'Auvergne, berceau de l'art roman, Clermont-Ferrand, 1957, 342Google Scholar.

^{page 126 note 2} From a tuzji, which I translate “salt-merchant”, though Barak may mean an officer of the gabelle. In Ottoman terminology the word usually means “a worker on a salt-pan” (cf. Ḳānūnnāme-i sulṭānī…., ed. Anhegger, R. and Inalcik, H., 28, 29Google Scholar, and Ö. L. Barkan, Kanunlar, index, s.v. tuzcu).

^{page 126 note 3} Barak having transposed the letters -j.b- (cf. in §1 rzwyfor rzyw, “Reggio”).

^{page 126 note 4} Barak's tendency to hear r as n has appeared in §9 with māničāl for “marechal”.

^{page 126 note 5} Barak seems to have confused the name with “Bourgogne”, Burgundy (spelt Barghūñā in Ismā'īl's report [see Uzunçarṣili, in, 462], where too triply-dotted kāf stands for -ñ-). Bourganeuf, in contemporary sources “Bourgue neuf” (Thuasne, 158), “Borgonovo” (Latin abl., Thuasne, 410), “Bourguet-Neuf,” “Burguet-Nou” (A. Vayssière, op. cit. in n. 8 below, 22), appears in the Vāḳi'āt (14–9) as b.rgh-n.v, b.rghūn.v.

^{page 126 note 6} A calvary is still marked on Cassini's map, just over half a kilometre short of Bourganeuf.

^{pgae 126 note 7} Thuasne, 157–60.

^{page 126 note 8} Reproduced from Vayssière, A., L'ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem ou de Malte en Limousin et dans l'ancien diocèse de Limoges, Tulle-Limoges, 1884, frontispieceGoogle Scholar.

^{page 126 note 9} Messrs. Estel (Blois) have kindly permitted me to reproduce their post-card. I am grateful also to my friends, Mr. John Goulden and Mr. D. G. Luxon, for making détours while motoring through France in order to visit Bourganeuf for me.

^{page 126 note 10} The author of the Vāḳi'āt was much struck by the artificial fish-ponds and lawns (ekme čayir) attached to castles in France and describes both at some length (pp. 14–5).

^{page 127 noet 1} In the Vāḳi'āt, 16, owing to a slight corruption ghrūs ṭūr is glossed as yorghun kule, “the weary tower”; the Ghūrbet-nāme (see Fatih ve Istanbul, II/7–12 (1954), 223)Google Scholar has preserved the correct reading: yoghun kule, “the thick tower”.

^{page 127 note 2} Thuasne, 158.

^{page 127 note 3} For a description see Lacrocq, L., Les Églises de France: Creuse, Paris, 1934, 25–6Google Scholar, with a plan of the church and bibliography.

^{page 127 note 4} Jem was at this time only 26 years old (he was born in December, 1459). That he kept his beard trimmed very short was noted by Caoursin in 1482: “…la barbe rare et courte, il la taille au ras du visage avec des ciseaux” (Thuasne, 78).

^{page 127 note 5} Dr. Turan reads the first syllable as “don”, but the first letter looks more like mim: with the document's rendering of “monseigneur” compare Vāḳi'āt, 19: m.nsh.nyūr. Jem's party had passed through Racconigi, noted in the Vāḳi'āt (11) with the same spelling r.ḳūnīsh.

^{pgae 127 note 6} Gabotto, F., Lo stato Sabaudo… II, 346ffGoogle Scholar.

^{pgae 127 note 7} Barak had noticed—with a seaman's eye—that “the morning star was rising” when he changed horses on the last stage of his journey (§12). By the tables in Neugebauer's, P. V.Tafeln zur astronomischen Chronologic III, Leipzig, 1925, §25Google Scholar, October, 1486, fell in the middle of one of the periods of 252 days (out of a cycle of 584) in which Venus is visible as a morning-star.

^{page 127 note 8} The Duke of Savoy had spent the previous winter in his Transalpine domains, returning to North Italy in April, 1486 (Gabotto, F., Lo stato Sabaudo… II, 335–7)Google Scholar, so that Barak's first interview with him (§4), in Turin (§9), cannot have taken place before that. In one of his interim reports, Barak explained that he had been held up in Savoy because the roads were closed “as the Duke of Lorraine was passing through on his way to Apulia” (Ertaylan, 204); this is presumably connected with the Duke of Savoy's closing the Alpine passes against the Duke of Lorraine in the early summer of 1486 (Gabotto, F., Lo stato Sabaudo… II, 339)Google Scholar.

^{page 128 note 1} Ertaylan, 204.

^{page 128 note 2} In the spring of the following year two Ottoman agents, sent to poison Jem, were arrested at Ancona (Thuasne, 156 f.).

^{page 128 note 3} The translation of it may well survive in the Topkapi Archives, so that it is rash to hazard a guess as to the subject. But just at this time—November and December, 1486—an elaborate plot was on hand to enable Jem to escape to the court of Mathias Corvinus of Hungary (Thuasne, 146–8): the moving spirit was the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole d'Este; the agents were two Genoese, one of them named Battista Spinola. The coincidences of time, the name Spinola, and Barak's reference to a prince (the Duke of Ferrara?) tempt one to link Barak s message with this plot, but this must remain a speculation. The “Ferrara plot” certainly seems, however, to be linked with the plot recorded in the Vāḳi'āt (pp. 16–7), which was seton foot shortly after Jem was lodged in the “Grosse Tour”.

^{page 128 note 4} The Bosphorus village now Sanyer was formerly Sari yar, “yellow cliff”, so named from a cupriferous outcrop (Islâm Ansiklopedisi, art. Boğaziçi, by M. Tayyib Gökbilgin, col. 681b).

^{page 128 note 5} For pirnallik Redhouse gives also the more general definition: “a region grown with holly-bushes and the like, used as a pasturage for goats.”

^{page 129 note 1} Jem was removed “after two months” to Rochechinard, i.e. November, 1483; “after a month or two” to Sassenage, and “after a month or two” to Bourganeuf, say February, 1484; “after three weeks” to Monteil (March, 1484); “after two months” to Morterolles (May, 1484); “after two months” to Boislamy (July, 1484); “after two years” to the Grosse Tour (July, 1486).

^{page 129 note 2} His reasons (pp. 116–7, 121) were that this date is given in Guy Allard's novel, Zizimi, prince ottoman…., of 1673, which contains, together with much romantic nonsense, some local traditions (Thuasne, Avantpropos, XI), and that in early 1484 the political situation in France was uneasy.

^{page 129 note 3} His reason (p. 122) was that in a dispatch dated 17th May, 1485, Venice informed the Porte that Jem was “inquodam castello noncupato Borgo Calamith” (= Boislamy, which appears as Bocalamy in contemporary Western sources [Thuasne, 122, 421], and in the Vāḳi'āt [15, 16] as būḳ.līmīk, būḳ.līm.ḳa); but it does not follow that Jem's arrival there was recent: Venice had either newly acquired the information or decided that it was now politic toreveal it to the Porte.

^{page 129 note 1} See p. 122 and n. 10 above.

^{page 130 note 1} Bosio, II, 506.

^{page 130 note 2} Baḥriyye, 308, 312.

^{page 131 note 1} Thuasne (108–9) represents the Duke as coming out from Chambéry to visit Jem, but the Vāḳi'āt states unequivocally that the Duke was in the middle of his journey.

^{page 131 note 2} mi mandorono in compagnia dello amiraglio di Rodi doue era Giemme; el sesto giorno fu' con lui ch'era mezza giornata fuori del chammino ua nel paese di Francia (Babinger, p. 33)Google Scholar.

^{page 131 note 3} delta sua compagnia di morsimanni restono uentotto (p. 34). Early in September, 1483, after Jem had been moved to Le Pouët, most of his followers were taken away and sent to Rhodes (Vāi'āt, 12–3; Thuasne, 114–15). Morsimanni is a metathesized form of musromani, attested in an Italian document issued by Meḥemmed II in 1478 (see Documents from Islamic chanceries, ed. Stern, S. M., 94)Google Scholar; a similar metathesis, but without the change 1 > r, yields the form mulsomani, found in a Mamlūk-Venetian treaty of 1507 (Wansbrough, J., “A Mamluk ambassador to Venice in 913/1507,” in BSOAS, XXVI, 1963, 503–30CrossRef Google Scholar, at p. 524, §22).

^{page 131 note 4} El castello doue habita è un timaro di questi di Rodi luogo forte et a piè una fiumara doue si danno piacere (p. 35).

^{page 131 note 5} Sommi ritornato da detto two fratello che è oggi giorni uenti el quale si parti da questo castello et ando meza giornata con cauagli centocinquanta poi entro in naue et discostossi dim giornate in uno altro castello pure di questi di Rodi presso alla fiumara che è la fiumara che diuide el reame di Francia da questo di Sauoiaperche questo luogo doue I'anno messo è fuori di cammino che non ui capita nessuno senon chi ua a posta (p. 36). Although there is a discrepancy between the date Thursday 21 Jumādā I 888 = Thursday, 27th June, 1483, given in the Vāḳi'āt and the date 6th August to be inferred from Paolo's report (written on 26th August), the almost identical accounts of the journey show that the same move is being described in each.

^{page 131 note 6} La guide des chemins de France de 1553 par Charles Estienne, ed. Bonnerot, J., I (= Bibl. de l'Éicole des Hautes Etudes, fasc. 265), Paris, 1936, p. 167Google Scholar.

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The Mission of an Ottoman Secret Agent in France in 1486

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