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Ludovico di Varthema

Bologna

1503

He shall pass into strange countries, he shall try good and evil in all things.

—Ecclesiastes

When Ludovico di Varthema reached Damascus in 1502, he found a well-established European presence. Venetians had been active in the region since the thirteenth century, monopolizing the western end of the India trade. There were Greek merchants as well, and many European soldiers: Mamluk military slaves from Georgia and Circassia in the pay of the Sultan, the occasional Austrian or Russian prisoner captured in battle, and quite a number of Western renegados. Varthema soon met a lot of these, including a European captain in charge of a cavalry unit assigned to guard the Meccan caravan. By befriending this man, by paying him money and becoming a nominal Muslim, Varthema managed to join the Mamluk army, draw a wage, and under its protection further his fascination with new scenes. He seems to have had no trouble picking up Arabic. He went off to Mecca as a mercenary soldier.

This start as a Mamluk is not surprising. A slave soldiery introduced into Egypt in 1169, the Mamluks solved the need for a reliable military class in a state riven by factions. Like the Seljuks of Naser-e Khosraw’s day, they began as a private guard attached to the ruler, then grew into an urban-based elite. When the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258, then pillaged westward, it was the Mamluks who stopped them. After their victory, they settled down to rule a sizable sultanate in Egypt and Syria. From their capital, Cairo, they installed a political agent in the Hijaz and a cavalry in Mecca. They took charge of the Jidda customs, too, sharing its revenues with the Sharif. Mamluks were numerous enough in the Hijaz by Varthema’s time to provide a Christian adventurer like Varthema with a credible disguise.

Varthema’s experience in Arabia is certainly firsthand. Three hundred fifty years later, Richard Burton could write that “for correctness of observation . . . [he] stands in the foremost rank of the old Oriental travelers.” On the other hand, he is hardly representative of Hajj authors. The change of tone we encounter in his pages reflects a radical alteration in point of view. With Khosraw, Ibn Jubayr, and Ibn Battuta, we were guided into Mecca by believers. With Varthema, we are suddenly in forbidden territory, confronting the Haram through the eyes of a trespasser. This man is not fulfilling a religious duty with his visit. He is performing the unimaginable. Why?

Varthema traveled in the East for about five years. At the start, in Damascus, he was already “desirous of beholding various scenes” but had no way to set about it until he hit upon the plan to go to Mecca. If his own book is anything to go by, the “various scenes” he longed to behold were all located in the Indian Ocean area, in the vicinity of an enormously lucrative spice trade, which the Portuguese navy was busy capturing in Muslim harbors and sea-lanes across the region. Varthema passed through Arabia in a few months; he traveled in India and the Spice Islands for four years. These adventures took place during the second wave of Portuguese expansion. Vasco da Gama had given Europe a navigable sea route from Lisbon to India in 1498. Now, a consolidation of the Spice Islands was under way. Varthema, by masquerading as a Muslim, was able to travel to the farthest reach of this new empire at a time when life was dangerous there for Westerners.

Varthema seems perfectly disposed to the spy’s profession. He was a young man drunk on travel, insatiably curious, and his natural duplicity was boundless. He hoodwinked so many strangers on the way that a suggestion of Iago runs through the narrative. The whole book is laced with narrow escapes and the double-crossing of innocent figures whom Varthema bests (and sometimes cuckolds). How much of this audacity is window dressing devised to attract Renaissance readers? No one can say. He appears to have been a cat with nine lives, a self-serving rascal who entertained a passion for travel and dreamed of great rewards awaiting him at home. Yet despite his tricks, something about Varthema made Muslims like him. In Mecca, a local trader helped him desert the Mamluk army. In Aden, the Sultan’s wife arranged his release from jail. Varthema was definitely a rogue, but he must have been likable.

As an author, Varthema straddles the divide between ancient and modern travel writing in the West. On the one hand, where crowds and battles are concerned, he consistently exaggerates their numbers. With a nod to the wonder-book market, he even includes an “eyewitness” report of unicorns in the Haram Mosque. At moments like these, he appears to be mired in a superstitious age. Yet he could be “scientific,” too, concerned with accuracy to a degree that sets him apart from the travel liars. He rightly locates the Prophet’s tomb in Medina, not Mecca, and deflates other myths. His book as a whole is freighted with cultural distortions, yet he kept his prejudices well enough in check to present the rites of the Hajj without invention.

Varthema’s account is a curious prelude to Western writing about the Hajj. After centuries of sharp-eyed reporting by Muslims, we have these first few pages by an impostor. For better or worse, however, the man was in the Sacred Territory. He wrote with interest and relative restraint, and he went some way to dispelling old confusions about the East. In this sense, Varthema’s work marks the beginning of an arduous development in Western travel writing, away from fantasy, toward more accurate reporting. His account was one of the first printed books to gain wide popularity in Europe. The first edition (Rome, 1510) attracted immediate attention. A Latin translation appeared six months later, followed by editions in German, Spanish, French, Dutch, and English. Keeping in mind, as he says himself, “that one eyewitness is worth more than ten rumors,” I have started this section with some excerpts from his Travels.

from The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema

HOW MECCA IS CONSTRUCTED, AND WHY THE MOORS GO THERE We will now speak of the very noble city of Mecca, what it is, its state, and who governs it. The city is most beautiful, and is very well inhabited, and contains about six thousand families. The houses are extremely good, like our own, and there are houses worth three or four thousand ducats each. This city is not surrounded by walls. A quarter of a mile distant from the city we found a mountain where there was a road cut by human labor. And then we descended into the plain. The walls of the city are the mountains, and it has four entrances. The governor of this city is a sultan, that is, one of four brothers, and is of the family of Muhammad, and is subject to the Grand Sultan of Cairo. His three brothers are always at war with him. On the eighteenth of May we entered into the city of Mecca; we entered from the north, and afterward we descended into the plain. On the side toward the south there are two mountains which almost touch each other, where lies the pass to the gate of Mecca. On the other side, where the sun rises, there is another mountain pass, like a valley,48 through which is the road to the mountain where they celebrate the [near] sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham,49 distant from the city about eight or ten miles.50 The height of this mountain is two or three casts of a stone by hand, and it is of some kind of stone, not marble, but of another color. On the top of this mountain there is a mosque according to their custom, which has three doors. At the foot of the mountain there are two very beautiful reservoirs of water. One is for the caravan from Cairo, and the other for the caravan from Damascus; which water is collected there from the rain and comes from a great distance.

Now, let us return to the city. (At the proper time we will speak of the sacrifice which they make at the foot of the said mountain.) When we entered into the city, we found the caravan from Cairo, which had arrived eight days before us because they had not traveled by the same route as ourselves. In the caravan there were sixty-four thousand camels and one hundred Mamluks. You must know that, in my opinion, the curse of God has been laid upon the city, for the country produces neither grass nor trees, nor any one thing. And they suffer from so great a dearth of water that if everyone were to drink as much as he might wish, four quattrini51 worth of water daily would not suffice them.

I will tell you in what manner they live. A great part of their provisions comes from Cairo, that is, from the Red Sea. There is a port called Jidda, which is distant from the city forty miles. A great quantity of food also comes there from Arabia Felix [Yemen], and also a great part comes from Ethiopia. We found a great number of pilgrims, of whom some came from Ethiopia, some from India Major, some from India Minor, some from Persia, and some from Syria. Truly I never saw so many people collected in one spot as during the twenty days I remained there. Of these people some had come for the purposes of trade, and some on pilgrimage for their pardon, in which pardon you shall [soon] understand what they do.

THE MERCHANDISE IN MECCA First we will speak of the merchandise, which comes from many parts. From India Major there come a great many jewels and all sorts of spices, and part comes from Ethiopia; and there also comes from India Major, from a city called Bangehella [Bengal], a very large quantity of stuffs of cotton and of silk, so that in Mecca there is carried on a very extensive traffic of merchandise, that is, of jewels, spices of every kind in abundance, cotton in large quantities, wax and odoriferous substances in the greatest abundance.

CONCERNING THE PARDONING IN MECCA Now let us turn to the pardoning of the pilgrims. In the midst of the city there is a very beautiful temple, similar to the Colosseum of Rome, but not made of such large stones, but of burned bricks, and it is round in the same manner; it has ninety or one hundred doors around it and is arched.52 On entering the temple, you descend ten or twelve steps of marble, and here and there about the entrance there stand men who sell jewels, and nothing else. And when you have descended the steps, you find the temple all around, and everything, that is, the walls, covered with gold. And under the arches there stand about four thousand or five thousand persons, men and women, which persons sell all kinds of odoriferous things; the greater part are powders for preserving human bodies,53 because pagans come there from all parts of the world. Truly, it would not be possible to describe the sweetness and the odors which are smelled within this temple. It appears like a spicery full of musk, and of other most delicious odors.

On the twenty-third of May the pardon commenced in the temple. The pardon is this: Within the temple, and uncovered, and in the center, there is a tower, the size of which is about five or six paces on every side,54 around which there is a cloth of black silk.55 And there is a door all of silver, of the height of a man, by which you enter into the tower. On each side of the door there is a jar, which they say is full of balsam, and which is shown on the day of Pentecost.56 And they say that that balsam is part of the treasures of the Sultan. On each side of the said tower there is a large ring at the corner.57 On the twenty-fourth of May all the people begin, before day, to go seven times around the tower, always touching and kissing each corner. And at about ten or twelve paces distant from the tower there is another tower, like one of your chapels, with three or four doors. In the center of this tower there is a very beautiful well, which is seventy fathoms deep, and the water is brackish.58 At this well there stand six or eight men appointed to draw water for the people. And when the people have gone seven times around the first tower, they go to this well and place themselves with their backs toward the brink of the well, saying: “Bismillah al-Rahman, al-Rahlm. Istaghfir lana,” which means, In the name of God, the Pitiful, the Compassionate. Pardon us. And those who draw the water throw three bucketsful over each person, from the crown of their heads to their feet, and all bathe, even though their dress be made of silk. And they say in this wise that all their sins remain there after this washing. And they say that the first tower which they walked round was the first house that Abraham built.59 And all having thus bathed, they go by way of the valley to the mountain of which we have before spoken and remain there two days and one night. And when they are all at the foot of the mountain, they make the sacrifice there.60

THE MANNER OF THE SACRIFICES IN MECCA Every generous mind is the most readily delighted and incited to great deeds by novel events. Wherefore, in order to satisfy many of this disposition, I will add concisely the custom which is observed in their sacrifices. Every man and woman kills at least two or three, and some four and some six sheep;61 so that I really believe that on the first day more than thirty thousand sheep are killed by cutting their throats, facing the east. Each person gives them to the poor for the love of God, for there were about thirty thousand poor people there, who made a very large hole in the earth, and then put in it camels’ dung, and thus they made a little fire, and warmed the flesh a little, and then ate it. And truly, it is my opinion, that these poor men came more on account of their hunger than for the sake of the pardon; and as a proof that it was so, we had a great number of cucumbers, which came from Arabia Felix, and we ate them all but the rind, which we afterward threw away outside our tent. And about forty or fifty poor people stood before our tent and made a great scrambling among themselves in order to pick up the rinds, which were full of sand. By this it appeared to us that they came rather to satisfy their hunger than to wash away their sins.62 On the second day a qadi of their faith, like one of our preachers, ascended to the top of the mountain and made a discourse to all the people, which discourse lasted for about an hour;63 and he made in their language a sort of lamentation and besought the people that they should weep for their sins. And he said to them in a loud voice: “Oh, Abraham, well-wished for and well-loved of God!” And then he said: “Oh, Isaac [Ishmael], chosen of God, friend of God, beseech God for the people of the Prophet!” and then were heard very great lamentations.

And when he had finished his sermon, the whole caravan rushed back into Mecca with the greatest haste, for at the distance of six miles there were more than twenty thousand Arabs64 who wanted to rob the caravan, and we [the Mamluk guard] arrived for the defense of Mecca.65

But when we had gone halfway, that is, between Mecca and the mountain where the sacrifice is made, we found a certain little wall four fathoms high, and at the foot of the said wall a very great quantity of small stones, which stones are thrown there by all the people when they pass that way, for the objects which you shall hear.

They say that when God commanded Abraham that he should go and sacrifice his son, he went before him, and he said to his son that he must follow after him, because it was necessary to fulfill the commandments of God. The son answered him: “I am well pleased to fulfill the commandment of God.” And when Isaac66 arrived at the above-mentioned little wall, they say that the devil appeared to him in the form of one of his friends and said to him: “My friend Isaac, where art thou going?” He answered him: “I am going to my father, who is waiting for me in such a place.” The devil answered him: “Do not go, my son, for thy father will sacrifice thee to God and will put thee to death.” And Isaac replied: “Let it be so; if such be the will of God, so let it be.” The devil then disappeared, and a little farther on he appeared in the form of another dear friend of Isaac, and said to him the above-mentioned words. They relate that Isaac answered with anger: “Let it be so”; and took a stone and threw it in the devil’s face: and for this reason, when the people arrive at the said place, each one throws a stone at the said wall, and then they go to the city.67

THE DOVES OF MECCA We found in the street of the said city fifteen thousand or twenty thousand doves, which they say are of the stock of that dove which spoke to Muhammad in the form of the Holy Spirit,68 which doves fly about the whole district at their pleasure, that is, in the shops where they sell grain, millet, rice, and other vegetable productions. And the owners of the said articles are not at liberty to kill them or catch them. And if anyone were to strike any of those doves, they would fear that the country would be ruined. And you must know that they cause very great expense within the temple.

CONCERNING THE UNICORNS IN THE TEMPLE OF MECCA In another part of the said temple is an enclosed place in which there are two live unicorns,69 and these are shown as very remarkable objects, which they certainly are. I will tell you how they are made. The elder is formed like a colt of thirty months old, and he has a horn in the forehead, which horn is about three braccia in length. The other unicorn is like a colt of one year old, and he has a horn of about four palmi long.70 The color of the animal resembles that of a dark bay horse, and his head resembles that of a stag; his neck is not very long, and he has some thin and short hair which hangs on one side; his legs are slender and lean like those of a goat; the foot is a little cloven in the fore part, and long and goatlike, and there are some hairs on the hind part of the legs. Truly this monster must be a very fierce and solitary animal. These two animals were presented to the Sultan of Mecca as the finest things that could be found in the world at the present day, and as the richest treasure ever sent by a king of Ethiopia, that is, by a Moorish king. He made this present in order to secure an alliance with the Sultan of Mecca.

SOME OCCURRENCES BETWEEN MECCA AND JIDDA I must here show how the human intellect manifests itself under certain circumstances, insofar as it became necessary for me to exercise it in order to escape from the caravan of Mecca. Having gone to make some purchases for my captain, I was recognized by a Moor who looked me in the face and said to me: “Anta min ain?” that is, “Where are you from?” I answered: “I am a Moor.” He replied: “Anta kadh-dhab,” that is, “You are not telling the truth.” I said to him: “Wa-ras en-Nabi ana Muslim,” that is, “By the head of Muhammad, I am a Muslim.” He answered: “Taal ila beitana,” that is, “Come to my house”; and I went with him. When I had arrived at his house, he spoke to me in Italian and told me where I had come from and that he knew that I was not a Moor, and he told me that he had been in Genoa and in Venice and gave me proofs of it. When I heard this, I told him that I was a Roman and that I had become a Mamluk at Cairo. When he heard this, he was much pleased and treated me with very great honor. As it was my intention to proceed further, I began to say to him if this was the city of Mecca which was so renowned through all the world, where were the jewels and spices, and where were all the various kinds of merchandise which it was reported were brought there. I asked him this only that he might tell me why they had not arrived as usual, and in order not to ask him if the king of Portugal was the cause, he being Lord of the Atlantic and of the Persian and Arabian Gulfs. Then he began to tell me by degrees why the said articles had not come as they were accustomed to do. And when he told me that the king of Portugal was the cause, I pretended to be much grieved, and spoke great ill of the said king, merely that he might not think that I was pleased that the Christians should make such a journey.71 When he saw that I displayed hostility to the Christians, he showed me yet greater honour, and told me everything point by point.

And when I was well informed, I said to him: “O, my friend, I beg you to tell me some mode or way by which I may escape from the caravan, because my intention is to go to find those beings who are hostile to the Christians; for I assure you that, if they knew what I am capable of, they would send to find me even to Mecca.” He answered me: “By the faith of our prophet what can you do?” I answered him that I was the most skilful maker of large mortars in the world. Hearing this he said: “Muhammad be ever praised, who has sent us such a man to serve the Moors and God.” So he concealed me in his house with his wife. And he begged me that I would induce our captain to drive out from Mecca fifteen camels laden with spices, and this he did in order not to pay thirty seraphim72 to the Sultan for the toll. I replied that if he would save me in this house, I would enable him to carry off a hundred camels if he had so many, for the Mamluks have this privilege. And when he heard this, he was much pleased. Afterward, he instructed me in the manner in which I should conduct myself and directed me to a king who is in the parts of India Major and who is called the King of Deccan. When the time comes, we will speak of that king.

The day before the caravan set out, he concealed me in his house in a secret place. In the morning, two hours before day, there went through the city a great quantity of instruments and trumpets, sounding according to their custom, and making proclamation that all the Mamluks, under pain of death, should mount their horses and commence their journey toward Syria. Whereupon, my heart was seized with a great perturbation when I heard this proclamation, and I earnestly recommended myself with tears to the wife of the said merchant, and besought God that he would save me from such violence.

On Tuesday morning the said caravan departed, and the merchant left me in his house with his wife; and he went with the caravan and told his wife that on the following Friday she must send me away in company with the caravan of India, which was going to Jidda, which is a port of Mecca, forty miles distant. I cannot express the kindness I received from this lady, and especially from her niece of fifteen years old, they promising me that if I would remain there, they would make me rich. But I declined all their offers on account of the present danger. When Friday came, I set out with the caravan at noon, to the no small regret of the said ladies, who made great lamentations, and at midnight we arrived at a certain city of Arabia, and remained there all night and until noon of the following day. On Saturday we departed and traveled until midnight, when we entered into the said port of the city of Jidda.

48 “This is the open ground leading to the Mina Pass.” (Sir Richard Francis Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to al-Madinah and Meccah, II:362n)

49 Varthema mistakenly transposes the biblical version of Abraham’s trial to the Meccan rite. In the Islamic story, the son God asks him to sacrifice is Ishmael, not Isaac. [Ed.]

50 “An error. The sacrifice is performed at Mina not at Arafat, the mountain here alluded to.” (Burton, Personal Narrative, II:362n)

51 quattrini: a Venetian liquid measure. [Ed.]

52 Burton says: “The principal gates are seventeen in number. In the old building they were more numerous.” The latter fact, coupled with Burckhardt’s description of the double and triple division in each gate, may account for Varthema’s approximate estimate and might have spared him Burton’s remark thereon, who calls it “a prodigious exaggeration.”

53 “I saw nothing of the kind, though constantly in the Haram at Mecca.” (Burton, Personal Narrative)

54 The Kaʿba is described here.

55 The kiswa, or curtain covering the Kaʿba. Burton says that the material now is a mixture of silk and cotton. It is renewed annually at the time of the Hajj.

56 Varthema was probably thinking of Good Friday and the Easter which follows, and connecting in his mind the Muslim sacrifices at Mina with the solemnities of those Christian seasons, when he spoke of “the day of Pentecost.”

57 “These are the brazen rings which serve to fasten the lower edge of the kiswa, or covering.” (Burton, Personal Narrative)

58 The building which encloses the well (Varthema’s “chapel”) was erected, according to Burckhardt, A.D. 1072.

59 “Muslim mythology affirms that the Kaʿba was constructed in heaven two thousand years before the creation of this world and that it was then adored by the angels, whom the Almighty ordered to perform the tawaf, or walk round it. Adam, who was the first true believer, erected the Kaʿba on earth on its present site, which is directly below the spot it occupied in heaven. . . . The sons of Adam repaired the Kaʿba, and after the deluge Ibrahim [Abraham], when he abandoned the idolatry of his forefathers, was ordered by the Almighty to reconstruct it. His son Ishmael, who from his infancy resided with his mother, Hagar, near the site of Mecca, assisted his father, who had come from Syria to obey the commands of Allah.” (John Lewis Burckhardt, Travels in Arabia, 297)

60 Burton justly observes that there is great confusion in this part of Varthema’s narrative.

61 The numbers cited so far exceed the ritual requirement (one victim per adult pilgrim) that they are suspect. [Ed.]

62 Burton remarks that “this well describes the wretched state of the poor Takruri and other Africans, but it attributes to them an unworthy motive.” (Burton, Personal Narrative, III:7, 8)

63 The Qutba al-Wukuf, or Sermon of the Standing, usually preached by the Qadi of Mecca from Arafat, the orator taking his stand on the stone platform near the top.

64 Varthema invariably exaggerates the strength of the attacker. [Ed.]

65 On this particular occasion the return of the pilgrims may have been hastened by fear of an apprehended attack from the Bedouin; but the same rush, often attended with fatal results, occurs at every Hajj and has given to that part of the ceremonies the name of the Rush from Arafat. The cause is that, in accordance with the example of Muhammad, the prayer shortly after sunset should be said at the mosque of Muzdalifa, about three hours distant.

66 Here Varthema is [again] in error. According to Muslim theology it was Ishmael and not Isaac who was ordered to be sacrificed.

67 “[V]arthema alludes to the Shaytan al-Kabir, the Great Devil, as the buttress at Mina is called. His account of Satan’s appearance is not strictly correct. Most Muslims believe that Abraham threw the stone at the Rajim—the lapidated one; but there are various traditions on the subject.” (Burton, Personal Narrative)

This custom of maledictory lapidation prevails elsewhere in the East. See also Joshua 8:29; 2 Samuel 18:17.

68 ”A Christian version of an obscure Muslim legend about a white dove alighting on the Prophet’s shoulder, and appearing to whisper in his ear whilst he was addressing a congregation.” (Burton, Personal Narrative)

69 Burton remarks that these animals “might possibly have been African antelopes, which a lusus naturae had deprived of their second horn,” adding, “but the suspicion of fable remains.”

70 Varthema’s scale of measurements was probably Venetian. The modern braccia at Venice varies from 25.08 to 26.87 inches. The palmo is 3.937 inches.

71 The Portuguese had seized seven Muslim ships between India and the Persian Gulf, and massacred their crews, prior to Varthema’s visit to Mecca.

72 seraphim: a coin of some value in sixteenth-century Mecca.