^{page 503 note 1} See below, p. 505, n. 6; p. 507, n. 1.

^{page 503 note 2} The studies of Berdī by orientalists and historians include the following:

Schefer, C., Le voyage d'outremer de Jean Thenaud; suivi de la relation de l'ambassade de Domenico Trevisan, Paris, 1884.Google Scholar

Brüll, N., ‘Der ägyptische Vezir Tagri Berdi’, Jahrbücher für Jüdische Geschichte und Litteratur (Frankfurt), viii, 1887, 41–2Google Scholar.

de la Torre, A., ‘La embajada a Egipto de Pedro Martír de Angleria’, Homenatge a Antoni Rubió i Lluch, I, Barcelona, 1936, 433–50Google Scholar.

Combe, E., ‘Pierre Martyr d‘Anghiera et le drogman du Sultan Ghauri (1502)’, Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts, Cairo (Fouad I) University, VII, 2, 1944, 106–13Google Scholar (but see p. 505, n. 2).

Combe, E., ‘Notes de topographie et d'histoire alexandrine vi’, Bulletin de la Société Royale d'Archéologie-Alexandrine, XXXVI, 1943–4 (pub. 1945), 144–5Google Scholar.

[Ashtor-]Strauss, E., Toledoth ha-Yehudim be-Mitsrayim we-Suriyyah taḥath shilṭon ha-Mamlulcim, Jerusalem, 1944–51, II, 530–40Google Scholar.

Mayer, L., ‘The Christian origin of the Mamluks’ (in Hebrew), Gotthold E. Weil jubilee volume, Jerusalem, 1952, 81–4Google Scholar.

These studies are based largely upon four sources, three of them accounts by European travellers in Egypt: Meshullam da Volterra (1481), Felix Faber (1483), and Peter Martyr (1502), and fourth, the ‘Diaries’ of Marino Sanuto (1496–1533). Other accounts by European travellers are cited in the works of [Ashtor-]Strauss and Mayer, but these add no new information and in some cases appear to rely upon the accounts of the three travellers already mentioned.

^{page 503 note 3} Assumed by Brüll and [Ashtor-]Strauss in their studies. See also Roth, C., History of the Marranos, Philadelphia, 1932, 195–235 Google Scholar, esp. 197–8.

^{page 504 note 1} Mayer, op. cit., p. 83 and n. 9. I wish to thank Dr. M. Gertner for translating the relevant pages in the works of Mayer and [Ashtor-]Strauss cited here.

^{page 504 note 2} Mayer, loc. cit.; Faber, Felix, Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti peregrinationem, Stuttgart, 1843–9, iii, 19–107 Google Scholar. Faber's source of information was a goldsmith in Cairo called Franz of Mechelen (Malines), who appears to have borne Berdī a grudge. He went so far as to declare that the dragoman had been a rabbi, and subsequently a deacon in the Church.

^{page 504 note 3} Mayer, loc. cit.; Meshullam da Volterra, Masa‘ be-eretz Yisrael, ed. Yaari, Jerusalem, 1948, 53 (Eng. trans, in Adler, , Jewish travellers, London, 1930, cf. pp. 166–73Google Scholar).

^{page 504 note 4} Martyr, Peter, De Bdbylonica legatione, Cologne, 1574, 396–431 Google Scholar (Spanish trans., García, Luis García y, Una embajada de los Reyes Católicos a Egipto, Valladolid, 1947, 92–176 Google Scholar). See also Schefer, op. cit., xxi-xxxiii, esp. note, pp. xxiv-xxv; de la Torre, op. cit., 442–3; Mayer, op. cit., 84; [Ashtor-]Strauss, op. cit., n, p. 531, n. 6.

^{page 504 note 5} De la Torre, op. cit., 449, docs. 3 and 4.

^{page 504 note 6} Peter Martyr, op. cit., 396 (Span, trans., 94); [Ashtor-]Strauss, op. cit., ii, p. 532, n. 12.

^{page 504 note 7} Felix Faber, op. cit., in, 20; Mayer, op. cit., 83; [Ashtor-]Strauss, op. cit., n, 531.

^{page 504 note 8} Sanuto, Diarii, Venice, 1877–1902, vi, 420 (in 1506); Martin Baumgarten, Peregrinatio, p. 42–3, and George of Chemnitz, Ephemeris, 482 (both in 1507, cited [Ashtor-]Strauss, loc. cit., and see below, p. 518, n. 3); Giovio, Paolo, Historiarum sui temporis, Venice, 1558, xviiGoogle Scholar, fol. 198b; Knolles, Richard, General historie of the Turkes, London, 1603, 523 Google Scholar. Neither Giovio nor Knolles remarks whether Berdī was originally Jewish or Christian, but both declare that his father was a Spanish sailor (‘qui Hispani nautae filius’, and ‘the sonne of a Spanish mariner’), while Baumgarten and George of Chemnitz give even less information (‘ex Hispano Mamalucus factus’).

^{page 504 note 9} According to Meshullam da Volterra, Berdī knew seven languages: Jewish (Ladino ?), Italian, French, German, Greek, Turkish, and Arabic (cited Mayer, op. cit., 83; [Ashtor-]Strauss, op. cit., 530). Cf. also the accounts of Berdī by European pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem and Sinai, usually put up by the dragoman in Cairo, occasionally in his own house (listed Mayer, op. cit., 81–2; [Ashtor-]Strauss, op. cit., 531–2).

^{page 505 note 1} [Ashtor-]Strauss's remark that Berdī held office as dragoman for more than 30 years is probably accurate (op. cit., 530), while Mayer's choice of 1470 for the beginning of his service with the Mamluk sultans seems rather early (op. cit., p. 83, n. 8). Berdī appears to have served under at least six sultans: al-Malik al-Ashraf Saif al-Dīn Qāitbay (872–901/1468–96), al-Malik al-Nasir Nasir al-DIn Muhammad (901–4/1496–8), al-Malik al-Zahir Qansuh min Qansuh al-Ashrafi (904–5/1498–1500), al-Malik al-Ashraf Jan Bulat (905–6/1500), al-Malik al-‘Adil Tumanbay (906/1500–1), al-Malik al-Ashraf Qamjfih al- (906–22/1501–16).

^{page 505 note 2} According to E. Combe, ‘Notes’, 144–5, Berdī was not chief dragoman in 1481 when Meshullam da Volterra met him, first because one ‘Ganvardi’ [sic] is mentioned as dragoman in 1486 (the source for this information is not given here; it may have been included in Combe's first article ‘Pierre Martyr’, which, however, according to the authorities of Cairo University, was not published), second, because a Venetian source in 1490 (see below, p. 508, n. 3) calls him ‘spadier’, which Combe has translated ‘swordmaker’. This interpretation could be explained by the fact that Berdī's successor as chief dragoman in 1513 had been formerly employed in the armoury (; Ibn Iyas, Bada‘i’ al-zuhur, Istanbul, 1936, IV, 362; and see below, p. 513; for the term (warden of the armoury, an Amir of Forty), see Ibn Birdī, al-Nujum al-zahira, Leiden, 1909–29, vi, glossary). It is more likely that ‘spadier’ (sometimes ‘spadatier’) is a Venetian rendering of the Mamluk title ‘al-Saifl’, which was one of Berdī's titles throughout his official career, see below, p. 507, n. 1.

^{page 505 note 3} Ibn Iyas, iv, 32; the chronicler does not say for how long Berdi had held that rank.

^{page 505 note 4} Attached to the chancery as Berdi in fact was, he would appear to have occupied not a military but a civil post, for which the rank of amir would hardly have been appropriate. On the other hand, Berdi's functions seem to have combined those of a special scribe and host (mihmandar) for European visitors to Egypt, and might thus account for his rank (see Björkman, , Beitrage zur Oeschichte der Staatskanzlei im islamischen Agypten, Hamburg, 1928, 45 Google Scholar; and Popper, , Egypt and Syria under the Circassian sultans, Berkeley, 1955–7, I, 94 Google Scholar).

^{page 505 note 5} For example, Sanuto, Diarii, vi, 420; and Priuli, Diarii, in Muratori, , ‘Raccolta di Scrittori Italiani’, XXIV (Rome, 1932– ), II, 421–2Google Scholar, ascribe this rank to Taghri Berdi; both Schefer, op. cit., p. li, and [Ashtor-]Strauss, op. cit., n, 532, repeat Sanuto. On Mamluk ranks, see Ayalon, , ‘Studies on the structure of the Mamluk army-n’, BSOAS, xv, 3, 1953, 467–71Google Scholar.

^{page 505 note 6} N. Briill, in his study cited above, p. 503, II. 2, describes the encounter of Meshullam da Volterra with Berdi in 1481 as the result of a friendship between the dragoman and the head (nagid) of the Jewish community in Egypt. Although the author makes a point of mentioning the frequency with which the name Berdi appears in Mamluk history (op. cit., p. 42), he makes the mistake of identifying Berdi al-turjuman with Berdi al-Muhammadl, and declares that the dragoman became wazlr upon the death of the incumbent in 1483 (citing Weil, , Oeschichte der Chalifen, Stuttgart, 1862, v, 341–3Google Scholar). The problem is easily solved by reference to the published edition of Ibn Iyas (edd. Kahle-Mustafa, Istanbul, 1936), index and iv, 33, to which of course Brull did not have access. The author's assumption that the office of wazir was bestowed upon the dragoman owing to his favoured position with Sultan Qaitbay appears to be based upon the several favours which Berdi was able to do Meshullam, and a mistaken conception of the office of wazir under the late Mamluk sultans, for which see Ayalon, , ‘Structure-III’, BSOAS, XVI, 1, 1954, 61 Google Scholar. It is perhaps worth recalling that Berdi lived at a time when it was possible to achieve high rank in the Mamluk sultanate without having passed through the prescribed Mamluk training, though we are not justified in declaring without reservation that Berdi, who may have been captured from his ship at a very early age, did not in fact undergo the training. Cf. Ayalon, , L'esclavage du Mamelouk, Jerusalem, 1951, 18, 19, 24, 26, 55Google Scholar.

^{page 507 note 1} Berdi was a common Turkish name for Mamluks (Turk, tenri verdi, cf. Sauvaget, , ‘Noms et surnoms des mamelouks’, JA, CCXXXVIII, 1, 1950, 44 Google Scholar, meaning ‘God gave’); and Ibn 'Abdullah a frequent patronymic for Mamluks, recruits under the Ottomans, and for converts and renegades generally, whose fathers’ names were not Muslim (cf. Popper, Egypt and Syria, II, 20). The nisba ‘al-Saifi’ (‘spadier, spadatier’), which appears in all the examples but (2), may contain a reference to the laqab ‘Saif al-DIn’, a common surname for Mamluks (cf. Popper, loc. cit., Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Syrie, p. lxxxiv, II. 1; Ayalon, , ‘Structure-i’, BSOAS, xv, 2, 1953, p. 220 Google Scholar, II. 1). As such the reference could have been to Sultan Qaitbay, whose laqab it was, and might thus indicate that the dragoman had been bought and/or emancipated by him (see Ayalon, L'esclavage, 27–9). For Amari's similar deduction, see Diplomi, p. 445, n. 3–4, though it ought to be remarked that the nisba in such a case was based upon the laqab, not the Kunya, of the emancipator. But see also above, p. 505, II. 2, and Amari, p. 447, II. j.

^{page 507 note 2} Berchem, Van, Materiaux pour un Corpus inscriptionum Arabicarum, Cairo, 1894–1930 Google Scholar, Egypte, I, pt. 2, 447, 450–1; Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Syrie, pp. lxxxi-lxxxvi; Bjorkman, Staatshanzlei, 110–13. The elative and relative forms were reserved mostly for officials of the Mamluk administration (cf. especially CIA, loc. cit., and p. 444; but also Popper, Egypt and Syria, II, p. 21, n. 2).

^{page 508 note 1} ASV, Senato, Deliberazioni secrete, xxxiv, fol. 33, dated 10 September 1489. Published in Latrie, Mas, Histoire de Vile de Chypre sous le regne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, Paris, 1852–63Google Scholar, in, 472–8, and Iskandar, Tewfik, La mission de Piero Diedo et la cession de Chypre, Cairo, 1956 Google Scholar, Doc. I.

^{page 508 note 2} ASV, Archivio Proprio Egitto, I, fols. 13–14, published Iskandar, op. cit., Doc. II.

^{page 508 note 3} ASV, Egitto, I, fols. 68–9, dated 17 Rabi‘ II 895/9 March 1490, also ASV, Libri Commemoriali, XVII, fol. 123 (Regesti, xvn, no. 172), published Iskandar, op. cit., Doc. Ill, and Mas Latrie, Ioc. cit. See also Magnante, , ‘L'acquisita dell'isola di Cipro’, Archivio Veneto, 5 Ser., v, 1929 Google Scholar, and Hill, , History of Cyprus, Cambridge, 1940–52, III, 746–56Google Scholar.

^{page 508 note 4} Mas Latrie, op. cit., in, 481 (receipt dated 11 March 1490); ASV, Documenti turchi, b. 15, receipt dated 6 '–Hijja 895/21 October 1490.

^{page 509 note 1} ASV, Egitto, I, fols. 70–1, dated 27 Safar 895/19 January 1490, see below, p. 518, n. 4. The documents in this collection of Venetian, but not those of Mamluk provenance are listed in Rocca, Morozzo della, Dispacci degli ambasciatori al Senato, Archivio di Stato di Venezia, Rome, 1959 Google Scholar.

^{page 509 note 2} Sanuto, Diarii, II, 614–16, in, 476.

^{page 509 note 3} ASV, Duca di Candia, Q46, cf. Iorga, , Notes et extraits pour servir a I'histoire its croisades au XVe si'ecle, Paris-Bucarest, 1899–1915, v, 254 Google Scholar.

^{page 509 note 4} Sanuto, Diarii, III, 673, 1526.

^{page 509 note 5} See, for example, Schefer, Voyage, p. li, and Heyd, , Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen-age, Leipzig, 1885–6, II, 537–9Google Scholar.

^{page 509 note 6} ASV, Senato, Deliberazioni secrete, XXXIX, fols. 45–6, part published in Fulin, , ‘II Canale di Suez e Venezia’, Archivio Veneto, II, 1873, 175–213 Google Scholar.

^{page 509 note 7} Biblioteca Marciana, Cod. ital., cl. XI, no. lxvi, pp. 377–83.

^{page 509 note 8} Sanuto, Diarii, v, 975, vi, 195; Priuli, Diarii, II, 381.

^{page 509 note 9} Sanuto, Diarii, v, 825–7.

^{page 510 note 1} De la Torre, ‘Embajada’, 442, the envoy says of BerdI ‘sagacissimo et longa rerum experientia edoctus’.

^{page 510 note 2} Published in Amari, Diplomi, 218–20, 387, 388 (docs. 81, 80, 82 respectively). Heyd's brief description (Commerce, II, 490) is based entirely upon Amari, whose presentation of the evidence does not admit of an historical reconstruction of the event. The problem and the documents are treated in a forthcoming study entitled ‘A Mamluk safe-conduct granted to Florentine merchants in 913/1507’.

^{page 510 note 3} Giovio, , Historiarum, XVII, fol. 1986 Google Scholar, ‘ad Baiazetem senatumque Venetum missus gravissimarum legationum munere fungeretur’; and Knolles, Hislorie, 523, ‘being sent ambassador both to Baiazet and to the state of Venice about matters of great importance’. I should like to thank Mr. V. J. Parry for pointing out that Giovio was very likely Knolles's source of information. On Giovio as an historical writer, see Parry, ‘Renaissance historical literature in relation to the Near and Middle East (with special reference to Paolo Giovio)’, in Lewis, B. and Holt, P. M. (ed.): Historians of the Middle East, OUP, 1962, 277–89Google Scholar.

^{page 510 note 4} Ibn Iyas, IV, 120.

^{page 511 note 1} Sanuto, Diarii, VII, 596–7, 253, 603. The debt was for pepper, which the Venetians insisted on paying in copper, see below, p. 517. Da Molin's remark was ‘adata la cossa dil piper, lauda Tangavardin, si a ben portato’.

^{page 511 note 2} Amari, Diplomi, 219, 224; see above, p. 506, p. 510, II. 2.

^{page 511 note 3} The contents of the first letter, which arrived in Venice in August 1508, are not mentioned, but since it was forwarded by Lorenzo Zustignan, governor of Cyprus, it may have concerned the tribute; Sanuto, Diarii, VII, 607, see above, p. 509; for the second letter, Sanuto, Diarii, XI, 115–17.

^{page 511 note 4} Sanuto, Diarii, XII, 624–30.

^{page 511 note 5} Sanuto, Diarii, XII, 75 (dated 10 August 1510).

^{page 511 note 6} cf. the incident in Wansbrough, , ‘Mamluk letter’, BSOAS, XXIV, 2, 1961, p. 212 Google Scholar, n. 7.

^{page 511 note 7} See El, second ed., s.v. bahriyya II.

^{page 511 note 8} Ibn Iyas, rv, 191; Sanuto, Diarii, XI, 394; Priuli, Diarii (Archivio Veneto, II, 1873), 213–15, 220–32. For the background to these events, of interest here only in so far as they bear upon the career of Berdi, see Heyd, Commerce, II, 538–41, and [Ashtor-]Strauss, Toledoth, II, 538–40.

^{page 511 note 9} Ibn Iyas, rv, 195, 205 (‘alalisan Berdi); Sanuto, Diarii, XII, 237–8, 307–8, 625–30.

^{page 512 note 1} Sanuto, Diarii, XII, 210–12, 235, 237–8, 307–8 (letters dated April 1510-May 1511). Heyd, op. cit., II, 536–7, rejects the likelihood that the Signoria had promised arms to the sultan via Berdi. But the extraordinary concessions won by Venice in the treaty of 913/1507 might well have been the result of such a promise to the Mamluk envoy.

^{page 512 note 2} Sanuto, Diarii, XII, 307–8; Schefer, Voyage, p. Ivi; de la Torre, ‘Embajada’, 442–3. A Catalan merchant long resident in Alexandria, de Paredes later became consul for the French and Catalans. According to Priuli (Diarii, Archivio Veneto, II, 1873, 233), Berdi did not support de Paredes; they simply happened both to be anti-Venetian.

^{page 512 note 3} Sanuto, Diarii, XII, 307–8, 625–30; Priuli, Diarii (Archivio Veneto, II, 1873), 233, reports that the sultan thought he had been deceived by Berdi and de Paredes (‘perche li apareva essere stato deluxo da loro’), i.e. that they had lied to him about the Grand Master's message.

^{page 512 note 4} Ibn Iyas, iv, 210: ’alaihi fi ‘l-hadid wa-wahkala bihi wa-ahdara wastamarra fi ‘l-tarsim ila ‘l-ana.

[Ashtor-]Strauss, op. cit., II, 539, ascribes the charge of treason as related by Ibn Iyas, to Berdi's enemies at court, an interpretation which would obviate the need to identify the muluk al-firanj. Thus, also, Knolles, Historie, 523.

^{page 513 note 1} Trevisan was given two sets of instructions, by the Senate (published in Schefer, Voyage, 237–48), and by the Consiglio dei Dieci (published in Latrie, Mas, Traites de paix et de commerce et documents divers concernant les relations des Chretiens avec les Arahes de VAfrique septentrionale au moyen age, Paris, 1866, Documents, pp. 271–3Google Scholar), dated 30 December 1511. Berdi is described ‘che sempre ne e stato adverso, el qual e gia piu mesi incarcerato’ (Schefer, op. cit., 245; Mas Latrie, op. cit., 273).

^{page 513 note 2} Sanuto, Diarii, xv, 18, 200; Schefer, op. cit., p. Ixxxiii, n. 1; the Italian translation of Qansuh's designation of Berdi is ‘ribaldo’.

^{page 513 note 3} On 29 Rabi' II 919/4 July 1513; Ibn Iyas, iv, 316; Sanuto, Diarii, XVII, 156.

^{page 513 note 4} Schefer, op. cit., pp. lvi, lxxxvii, p. 180, n. 1. Ibn Iyas, iv, 361–2, dates Yunus's appointment as chief dragoman in Muharram 920/March 1514, remarking that that post had been vacant () since Berdi's arrest almost exactly three years earlier.

^{page 513 note 5} See Heyd, Commerce, n, p. 543, n. 1, and below, p. 518, n. 4. There are repeated references to Berdi's Venetian embassy in the opening articles of the treaty, for example ‘dal venir de Tangribardi fino al presente’.

^{page 514 note 1} Of which extracts were published by Fulin in Archivio Veneto, II, 1873, 175–213, XXII, 1881, 137–248; and a complete edition in progress, edd. Sagredo-Cessi, in Muratori, XXIV; see above, p. 505, n. 5. Vol. in of the manuscript, covering the period 9 August 1506–3 June 1509, is missing.

^{page 514 note 2} Edd. Kahle-Mustafa; see above, p. 505, n. 2.

^{page 514 note 3} By a treaty, unpublished, dated 27 909/27 February 1504, in ASV, Libri Commemmoriali, XIX, fols. 28–9 (Regesti, xix, nos. 46–7), see below, p. 518, n. 4.

^{page 514 note 4} In Heyd, , Commerce, II, 492–4, 520–4Google Scholar; Fulin, , ‘II Canale di Suez’, Archivio Veneto, II, 1873 Google Scholar; Schefer, Voyage, pp. xlvi ff.

^{page 514 note 5} Ibn Iyās, iv, 91; Sanuto, , Diarii, VI, 354, 356Google Scholar; Priuli, , Diarii, II, 421–2, 425, 429Google Scholar.

^{page 514 note 6} Priuli, loc. cit., reports a retinue of 25, of which two were mace-bearers (Arabic/Persian jumāqdār, see Popper, Egypt and Syria, i, 95). For ‘chaschi’ (Arabic ) see below, p. 525, n. 3. Later, Sanuto observed that there were also two qāḍīs in the party, Diarii, vi, 424, and see below, p. 520.

^{page 514 note 7} Sanuto, Diarii, vi, 356, xiv, 499; Priuli, Diarii, II, 429. Ibn Iyās, iv, 91, gives as the sole reason for Berdi's embassy the raids upon the Egyptian coast by ‘Franks’ (presumably the Knights), and reports that the envoy took with him a letter from the batrak (whose name is given as b. al-Safi, on p. 79, vol. III of the chronicle), which was very likely a letter of recommendation to the Grand Master from the Jacobite Patriarch of Alexandria.

^{page 515 note 1} Ibn Iyās, iv, 164; Sanuto, , Diarii, vII, 712 Google Scholar. Ibn Iyās reports that later (Rajab 915/ October-November 1509), the Sultan demanded reimbursement from living in Egypt; while Sanuto remarks that the Sultan objected to Berdi's having paid so much ransom, claiming that 10, 000 or 15, 000 dinars would have been enough.

^{page 515 note 2} According to Priuli, , Diarii, II, 429 Google Scholar, there was an attempt by Sicilian (Aragonese ?) corsairs to capture the galley and to kidnap Berdï, which was prevented by the Venetians, who were anxious for the welfare of the Mamluk envoy and who issued a general proclamation for his safe-conduct en route.

^{page 515 note 3} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 419–20Google Scholar (‘homo fedolo et cativo et di gran inzegno’), 425, 458, vII, 122. In fact the expenses of the embassy were paid by the Cotimi (see below, p. 525, n. 2) of Alexandria and Damascus, at the rate of 150–250 ducats per month, see ASV, Senato, Deliberazioni secrete, XL, fol. 185, and Priuli, , Diarii, II, 422 Google Scholar. Priuli, indeed (loc. cit.) remarks what an honour it was for Venice to receive an ambassador from so exalted a ruler as the Mamluk Sultan (‘Et apareva fusse de grande reputatione che uno tanto Signor, quale hera il Sultan de Babilonia, mandare uno suo ambasator ala Signoria de Venettia’). The difference of view between the two diarists, both patrician, the former an eminent historian, the latter a successful banker, is itself a problem of interest, but not entirely relevant here.

^{page 515 note 4} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 436 Google Scholar, and see below, p. 525, n. 2.

^{page 515 note 5} Ibid., vi, 430. Marco Malipiero and Berdi had met many years before during the Cyprus negotiations, when the former was representative for Caterina Cornaro, the Lusignan heiress. See above, p. 508, II. 3.

^{page 515 note 6} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 437.Google Scholar

^{page 515 note 7} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 451, 458Google Scholar.

^{page 515 note 8} Ibid., vi, 485.

^{page 515 note 9} Ibid., vi, 515.

^{page 515 note 10} Ibid., vi, 542.

^{page 516 note 1} Ibid., vII, 24.

^{page 516 note 2} Ibid., vII, 24. The demonstration took place on 3 March 1507, and Berdī made a formal complaint to the Doge.

^{page 516 note 3} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 424 Google Scholar–5, and the two letters appear in vII, 203–7, 207–10. The arrival of an embassy without gifts was unusual, as Priuli (Diarii, II, 385) had already remarked of Sagundino's embassy to Cairo: ‘Et questo secretario fu mandato senza prexenti, che molti anni fa non è stato uxitata a questo modo’. In the absence of instructions for the envoy the two letters provide the only information available on the exact nature of his mission.

^{page 516 note 4} The absence of certain traditional and hence expected elements in the documents might be ascribed to the Venetian translator, or to the lack of care with which Sanuto reproduced them in his ‘Diaries’ (on this point, see Mas Latrie, Traités, p. xvii). It seems unlikely, however, that the failure to mention the envoy Berdī can be so explained.

^{page 516 note 6} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 436 Google Scholar. The audience took place on 3 October 1506. For the Provedadori, see below, p. 525, n. 2.

^{page 516 note 7} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 458 Google Scholar. Subsequent events suggest that Berdī's predicament was genuine and not simply a ruse by which to gain time or other advantage.

^{page 517 note 1} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 458 Google Scholar, 476, 496; ASV, Senato, Deliberazioni secrete, XL, fol. 193; ASV, Libri Commemoriali, xix, fols. 92–3 (Regesti, xix, nos. 125, 126). How Francesco da Monte came into Venetian employ is not clear, though he appears to have been a renegade Mamluk (‘circasso, già dragomano a Damasco’). Another example of such was a member of Berdī's own retinue, one of the four ‘chaschi’: Jacomo Furlan (his Mamluk name is not given), originally from the Friuli, decided to remain in Venice and to become a Christian again. He was granted by the Senate a pension and maintenance (10 ducats per month, two horses, and a servant), and died honourably in Venetian service, buried at Santa Croce on the Giudecca, four years later ( Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 155 Google Scholar, xII, 463).

^{page 517 note 2} Sanuto, , Diarii, vII, 215 Google Scholar–20. These ‘comandamenti’, issued before the conclusion of the treaty in Venice, were still in effect in March 1508, see Sanuto, vII, 596–7, and above, p. 511, n. 1.

^{page 517 note 3} Sanuto, , Diarii, vi, 496 Google Scholar, 533, vII, 55, 79. They had left Venice on 21 November 1506.

^{page 517 note 4} Sanuto, , Diarii, vII, 85 Google Scholar–6.

^{page 517 note 5} See below, p. 521, the reference to a verbal message in art. 1.

^{page 503 note 1} See Heyd, , Commerce, II, 508 Google Scholar–52, especially 520–4; Fulin, , ‘II Canale di Suez e la Repubblica di Venezia’, Archivio Veneto, II, 1873, 175–213 Google Scholar; Fulin, , ‘Girolamo Priuli e i suoi diarii:i Portughesi nell'India e i Veneziani in Egitto’, Archivio Veneto, xxII, 1881, 137–248 Google Scholar. The preceding embassies of Beneto Sanuto (1502), Maurus (1504), Bernard Giova and Alvise Sagundino (1505) all had instructions with references to the Portuguese.

^{page 518 note 2} Sanuto, , Diarii, vII, 121 Google Scholar–2. Berdl's robe was of embroidered gold lined with ermine (restagno d'oro fodrà di zebelini) which Sanuto claims cost 300 ducats. Two ‘chaschi’ were given robes of green velvet, eight others of the retinue scarlet velvet, and six were given garments of green cloth. See Mayer, L., Mamluk costume, Geneva, 1952, 64 Google Scholar.

^{page 518 note 3} Sanuto, , Diarii, vII, 178 Google Scholar, 182; Ibn Iyās, IV, 120; Martin Baumgarten (Peregrinatio, 29–30, 34, 38–9, 42–3, 45–6) and George of Chemnitz (Ephemeris, 462, 471, 478, 482) were passengers in Berdī's galley for the return voyage to Egypt, see above, p. 504, n. 8.

^{page 518 note 4} The text of this document with commentary, but without English translation, is included in my thesis. submitted in October 1961 for the degree of Ph.D. in the University of London, and entitled Documents for the history of commercial relations between Egypt and Venice 1442–1512. It is the fifth of six Mamluk-Venetian commercial treaties reproduced and analysed there: 846/1442, 865/1461, 895/1490, 909/1504, 913/1507, and 918/1512, of which the third, fourth, and sixth have also been mentioned above, p. 509, n. 1, p. 514, n. 3, p. 513, n. 5. I should like here to thank Professor Bernard Lewis for many valuable suggestions in the analysis of the six treaties and in the preparation of the present study.

^{page 519 note 1} For the diplomatic analysis of a commercial treaty, see Wansbrough, , ‘A Moroccan amīr's commercial treaty with Venice of the year 913/1508’, BSOAS, xxv, 3, 1962, esp. pp. 463 Google Scholar–8.

^{page 519 note 2} The latter appears to have been copied from an earlier draft of the treaty, which in view of Sanuto's position in the Eepublic and his access to state papers would certainly have been possible. But see also above, p. 516, n. 4.

^{page 519 note 3} cf., however, Castries, de, ‘Les signes de validation des chérifs saadiens’, Hespéris, I, 3, 1921, 231 Google Scholar, where it is suggested that manu mea propria and yadinā do not prove an autograph. See also Bresslau, , Handbuch der Urkundenlehre, third ed., Berlin, 1958, II, 187, 208Google Scholar–11.

^{page 520 note 1} For the development of attestations on public as contrasted with private documents, see Bresslau, op. cit., II, 216, 218. Attestations (iuramenta) by representatives of the second party to peace and commercial treaties were customary in the Byzantine chancery (included verbatim or only mentioned), and may account for, a similar practice in Venice, see Dölger, , Byzantinische Diplomatik, Ettal, 1956, p. 239 Google Scholar, n. 101.

^{page 520 note 2} With the Crusaders in 665/1267 and 682/1283, Ṣubḥ, al-a‘ Cairo, 1920, xiv, 31–9, 51–63; with Byzantium in 680/1281, op. cit., xiv, 72–9, Canard, , ‘Le traité de 1281 entre Michel Paléologue et le Sultan Qalā'un’, Byzantion, x, 1935, 669–80Google Scholar, Canard, , ‘Un traité entre Byzance et l'Egypte au xIIIe siècle’, Mélanges Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Cairo, 1937, 197–224 Google Scholar, Dölger, , Byzamtinische Diplomatik, 225 Google Scholar–44; with Genoa in 689/1290, Sacy, Silvestre de, Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la bibliothèque du roi et autres, xi, Paris, 1827, 33–52 Google Scholar, Amari, , ‘Nuovi ricordi arabici sulla storia di Genova’, Atti della Società Ligure per la Storia Patria, 1867, 606 Google Scholar–14, suppl. pp. 11–19; and with Aragon in 689/1290, Amari, , Biblioteca Arabo-Sicula, Leipzig, 1857 (Ital. trans., Rome, 1880), 441 Google Scholar–52.

^{page 520 note 3} The oath is lā ilāha illā ’llāh, see Ruiz-Orsatti in Alarcón y Santon and Garcia de Linares, Los documentos arabes diplomàticos del Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Madrid-Granada, 1940, 372–90 (and in Andalus, iv, 2, 1939, 333–89: ‘Tratado de Paz entre Alfonso V de Aragón y el sultan de Egipto Al-malik al-ashraf Barsbay’).

^{page 520 note 4} The sultan's authentication was his sign manual ( or ‘alāma) which could of course have been affixed by a chancery official.

^{page 521 note 1} See Grohmann, , Einführvmg und Chrestomathie zur arabische Papyruskunde, Prague, 1954, 111–13, 117–24Google Scholar; Juynboll, , Handbuch des islamischen Oesetzes, Leiden, 1910, 315 Google Scholar–19. According to Sanuto there were in fact two qāḍīs among Berdl's retinue, see above, p. 514, n. 6, whose names, on our document, appear to be (right side) Ḥamza b. Muhḥammad ‘Abd al-Ḥamīd al- al-Nu'aimī al-Azharī, and (left side) Aḥmad ‘Abd(ullāh) al-Ḥanafī.

^{page 521 note 2} See Grohmann, op. cit., 119, and Wansbrough, , ‘A Moroccan amīr's commercial treaty’, BSOAS, xxv, 3, 1962, 468 Google Scholar. The stroke before the signature appears to be a sigla for katabahu.

^{page 521 note 3} Probably the three Provedadori di Cotimo, see above, p. 515, n. 4. Had the Doge affixed his seal there would have been a reference (corroboratio) to it in the text.

^{page 521 note 4} See above, p. 520, n. 2, and for the diplomatic form, which entailed reciprocal embassies and authenticated texts of the document in two languages, cf. Dölger, Byzantinische Diplomatik, 239, 240, n. 104, 242, n. 107, 243.

^{page 521 note 5} For Venetian orthography, see Boerio, , Dizionario del dialetto veneziano, Venice, 1829 Google Scholar, and Mutinelli, , Lessico veneto, Venice, 1851 Google Scholar.

^{page 525 note 1} The commentary contained in the notes to the English translation of the treaty is limited to an explanation of technical terms. A more detailed discussion of the language and significance of the articles in a commercial treaty will be included in a general study of Mamluk-Florentine treaties now in preparation.

^{page 525 note 2} Cotimo: (Latin quotimus) a tax levied by Venice on all goods belonging to Venetian or foreign merchants which were handled by Venetian authorities in foreign ports; and by extension the term refers to the consular exchequer in that port. The cotimo was administered by the Cinque Savi alia Mercantia at Venice, who sent out annually a committee of Provedadori to examine the books. See Wilken, ‘Über die venetianischen Consulen zu Alexandrien in den 15. und 16. Jh.’, Abh. Kön. Preuss. Akad. Wiss., Hist-Phil. Kl., 1831, 29–46, esp. 34, 4.

^{page 525 note 3} See above, pp. 517–18. The chaschi (Arabic or ) were the pages, or select guard of the Mamluk sultan, and were frequently sent on foreign embassies, among other activities and posts of special honour. See Ayalon, , ‘Structure—I’, BSOAS, xv, 2, 1953, 213–16Google Scholar. Four members of Berdī's retinue were chaschi, see above, p. 514, n. 6. Sultan QānsŪh. al- pages are reported to have numbered 800–1, 200 (Ayalon, loo. cit.).

^{page 525 note 4} Sporta: a dry measure (‘basket’) for spices which weighed according to Heyd (Commerce, II, 545) from 700 to 720 light Venetian pounds; calculated with information given by Pegolotti ( Pratica delta mercatura, ed. Evans, , Cambridge, Mass., 1935, 71, 74Google Scholar) it would be about 536 pounds; or possibly 480 pounds ( Lopez, R., in Cambridge economic history, II, 341)Google Scholar.

^{page 526 note 1} Muda: the period during which business was transacted while Venetian galleys were in foreign ports, often called simply ‘ tempo de galie ’. Heyd (Commerce, II, 453) suggests a derivation from mutare, but the explanation offered by B. Moritz, ‘ Ein Firman des Sultans Selim I fur die Venezianer ’, Festschrift E. Sachau, Berlin, 1915, p. 443, n. 52, proposing the Arabic mudda ‘ period ’ seems more likely. The point is discussed in the study mentioned above, p. 525, n. 1.

^{page 526 note 2} Licentia: here specifically ‘ clearance to sail’, but implying generally that all business had been properly concluded. In the sense of a financial or administrative discharge, it is a translation of Arabic al-barā'a, which was in the Maghrib frequently transcribed rather than translated. See Mas Latrie, Traites, Documents, 137, 213, 225, 234; El, second ed., s.v. and Berāth, and Pegolotti, Pratica, 274, 276.

^{page 526 note 3} Zoroi (Arabic zāhīn), a dirham struck by the Mamluk sultan al-Malik al-Zāhir Jaqmaq in 1440, weighing 2–975 grams (Ibn Birdī, NujŪm, VII, 111). See below, p. 527, n. 1.

^{page 526 note 4} Nader: inspector (Arabic nāẓir), see below, p. 528, n. 1.

^{page 526 note 5} Coza: Persian , a title for a merchant in Mamluk usage, according to , see Ayalon, L'esclavage, 1–2, 37, n. 2, though here and in other Mamluk-Venetian documents the coza appears to have been a representative of the Sultan for commercial negotiations in general and commercial treaties in particular (e.g. the treaty of 918/1512 in which one such figured prominently, see above, p. 518, n. 4, and Sanuto, Diarii, xv, 193–208).

^{page 526 note 6} Sansaria: brokerage and broker's fee (Arabic samsara, Ottoman simsariyye). See Amari, Diplomi, 197, and Mantran-Sauvaget, , Réglements fiscaux ottomans, Paris, 1951, p. 30 Google Scholar, n. 2. The ‘lesser sansaria’ mentioned in the article is very likely a reference to the nisf al-samsara, which was the amount added to the traditional fee of two per cent by the brokers as a result of a tax levied upon them by the sultan. The Venetians are seeking here a return to the original rate. See El, seconded., s.v. dallāl, and Amari, Diplomi, p. Ixii, n. 1.

^{page 526 note 7} Doana del gaban: weigh-house (Arabic dīwān al-qabbān, ultimately from Latin campana, see Dozy, Supplément), where the scales (qabbān) were kept and where transactions were witnessed and recorded. See Moritz, ‘Ein Firman’, p. 443, n. 57, and Lewis, , Notes and documents from the Turkish archives, Jerusalem, 1952, p. 41 Google Scholar, n. 40.

^{page 527 note 1} Maydini: (Arabic mu'ayyadī), a dirham struck by the Mamluk sultan al-Mu'ayyad in 1415, containing 95 per centsilver (NujŪm, VI, 351, 357, 537) as did the ẓāhirī dirham of Jaqmaq (see above, p. 526, n. 3). Despite subsequent minting of silver currency both these dirhams evidently remained in circulation until some time in the sixteenth century, see Popper, Egypt and Syria, II, 56–60.

^{page 527 note 2} cortesia: a fee identical here with that of the broker (sansaria, see above, p. 526, n. 6), see Pegolotti, Pratica, 28, 44. Its use as a special rather than generic term is suggested by its appearance in Arabic as kartajīa (Moritz, ‘Ein Firman’, p. 434, art. 24); cf. French courtage.

^{page 527 note 3} Schibe (sing, schiba): a sack (Arabic zakība) whose weight varied with its contents, which explains the inclusion of this article. See Popper, Egypt and Syria, II, 39.

^{page 527 note 4} Rotoli (Arabic ratl): in Mamluk Egypt equivalent to 15 98 oz./450 gr. See Popper, loc. cit., and Hinz, , Islamische Masse und Gewichte, Leiden, 1955, 29 Google Scholar.

^{page 527 note 5} See above, p. 526, n. 1.

^{page 527 note 6} Fardo (Arabic fard}; see Lokotsch, Etymoloqisches Worterbuch, no. 588): a bundle or load, made in this article equivalent to a bale (collo) the weight of which is not given.

^{page 528 note 1} Nadracas ne nader: the former is probably the Arabic nazir al-, or inspector of the privy purse, who would have been charged with the collection of those customs-fees destined for the sultan's treasury, such as revenues derived from regalian monopolies (e.g., pepper), see Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Syria, pp. Jxvii, lxxi, 156; Popper, Egypt and Syria, I, 97, 107. Nader (Arabic nāzir) without further specification is simply ‘inspector’, of which several are mentioned in the treaty, e.g. for the mint in art. 4, and below art. XII.

^{page 528 note 2} cf. ‘A Mamluk letter’, BSOAS, XXIV, 2, 1961, 212 Google Scholar.

^{page 528 note 3} Ibid. 211. Dachieri is the Arabic , which appears to designate a kind of Royal Stores and probably the control-point for the regalian monopolies.

^{page 528 note 4} Romper pretio, cf. ‘sub specie rumpendi vocem piperis’ (ASV, Senato Misti, LVII, fol. 184) and the Arabic gata'a si'r fi'l-bahār (Amari, Diplomi, 192).

^{page 528 note 5} Vari: (Latin varius; Italian vaic) ‘vair’ in the sense of ‘mottled’ is generally used of the fur of the ermine (Arabic qāqum) or grey squirrel (Arabic sinjāb), employed as lining or trimming of expensive garments, see Mayer, Mamluk costume, pp. 18, n. 4, 23, 25, 57, 59. In Venetian usage vaio could refer to furs in general (cf. Lorenzetti, Venezia e il suo estuario, Venice, 1956: ‘ Scuola dei varotari ’), though the generic use of peleterie in art. XIII would appear to restrict the meaning of vari here.

^{page 528 note 6} Garbellate: (Latin cribrum, crivellum), and cf. garbetti ‘ sieves ’ and garbelladori ‘ sifters ’ in the same article. The term appears in Arabic as , participle (Amari, Diplomi, 198).

^{page 529 note 1} Fontego: (Arabic funduq) usually refers to the warehouse/residence of foreign merchants; its application to Egyptian warehouses would probably not have occurred in an Arabic document (see Heyd, Commerce, I, 152–1; n, 430–3).

^{page 529 note 2} Machademi: (Arabic muqaddam), a reference here to the muqaddam al-. assistant to the nāzir al- (see Gaudefroy-Demombynes, Syrie, p. lxxi, n. 3, and above, p. 528, n. 1 ). The ‘mnachademi of the sifters’, on the other hand, is simply their leader (muqaddam), and very likely not a recognized office in the Mamluk administration.

^{page 529 note 3} tome: (Arabic tu'ma), a gratification in kind on certain foodstuffs, such as fruit and nuts, see Amari, Diplomi, 93, 103, 492; Moritz, ‘ Ein Firman ’, p. 434, art. 20; Mantran- Sauvaget, Règlements, 14, 18, 24, 45.

^{page 529 note 4} Zemichia: (Arabic jāmakīya, see references in El, second ed., s.v. ). Its use for the sultan's contribution to the consular salary is also attested in Moritz, ‘ Ein Firman’, p. 438, n. 16.

^{page 530 note 1} cf. ‘A Mamluk letter’, BSOAS, xxiv, 2, 1961, p. 204 Google Scholar, para. III.

^{page 530 note 2} 31 May 1507 was in fact 19 Muharram 913.

^{page 530 note 3} The names are not pointed, see above, p. 521, n. 1.