+ ?o+

%zsz. €,1">-,*a/

SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIESUNIVERSITY oF LoNDoN, VII.C.I

MUSEUM 2029.4

16. THE USE BY MUSLIM HISTORIANS OF NON-MUSLIMSO URCES

BERNARD LEWIS

Prdessor of the History of the Near and Mi.ddle East in the UniaersiE of London

Herodotus, the father of history, wrote of the 'great and wonderful actions'of both Greeks and Barbarians, and pursued his study into the past ofalien lands and remote times. Though excluded by the hierophantic mys-teries from access to oriental writings, he tried to make good the deficiencyby travel and personal enquiry in Eastern lands. Some fifteen centurieslater another European, William, Archbishop of Tyre in the states ofOutremer, wrote a history of the Islamic Empires. He too sought hisinformation from oriental sources, and, better placed than Herodotus, waseven able to read them in the original.l

These first European students of oriental history were, however, ex-ceptional. Herodotus, though acclaimed as the father of history, was notaccorded the respect of classical historians, most of whom preferred to fol-low the precept and practice of Thucydides, and limit their concern to thedeeds of their contemporaries and compatriots. The medieval Europeanchroniclers were for the most part content to follow their example, and it isno accident that while William of Tyre's history of the Crusaders in theEast-the Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum-was widely readand even translated into French, his Gesta orientalium principum has not, asfar as is known, survived in a single manuscript. It was not until theRenaissance had awakened a new European curiosity and the Discoverieshad whetted it with the sight of remote and alien peoples, that Europeanhistorians began to show interest in other lands and societies, and to seekout and pass on information and opinions about them.z This universalhistorical curiosity is still a distinguishing, almost an exclusive, characteris-tic of Europe and her daughters. Oriental societies study their own history;

1 'Accessit praeterea domini Almarici regis (cujus anima sancta requie perfruatur) illustrismemotiae, et inclyptae in Domino recordationis jrssio, non facile negligenda, et instantia multi-plex, quae ad id ipsum nos maxime impulit, cujus etiam rogatu, ipso Arabica exemplaria minis-trante, aliam Historiam a tempore seductoris Mahumeth, usque in hunc annum, qui est nobisab Incarnatione Domini rr84, per annos quingentos septuaginta decurrentem conscripsimus:auctorem maxime secutivirum venerabilem Seith, filium Patricii, Alexandrinum patriarcham.'William of Tyre, Prologue.

2 Cf. A. Momigliano, 'The Place of Herodotus in the History of Historiography', History(1958), xliii, r-r3, for an illuminating discussion ofthese questions.

The(Jseb2MuslimHistoriansofnon-MuslimSourcesr8rnerforce thev also study the history of the West which has influenced or

ilil;;J;ir.-. ''n"i

still show tittle interest in one another.3

The medievur rvr"rii*, tit" tt " citizens of most other societies that have

appearedamong*.",*ttptofoundlyconvincedofthefinality'complete-;:il;;;;ai ,.iir"ma.ncy of his civitization. rslam was the one true

faith, beyond which ;;;;;;"'only unbelievers-the Muslim equivalent

of the Greek ,.r.n fu'U-ians' Ttre Islamic state was the one divinely

ordained order, beyond which there were only tyranny and anarchy'

universal history *.*",ii. hirb;y of the rslamic community, outside which

were lands tna p.opit' *ho'" o"ly i"tt"'t was as the settings and objects

of Muslim action.TheselesserbreedswerenotunknowntoMuslimhistoriography.Some.

times there were intrlpiJi""tllt's who ventured among'h"T'With many

there were th. ,tormui"*"ttu"gt* of commerce' war? and diplomacy' From

some there *"r" u"t io;il;; b"rrowings of useful klo.wlgdqe and crafts.

But none of these l.; ;-;;;inierest in-itre history of the infidel pgoplgl'

To fight the Greeks i.;";;;"rsary to have political and military intelli-

gence; to learn from the Greeks it was ""ftl to have philosophic and

scientific training. Po,-""ittt"t was there any need 1o.g1quire into the

irrr"ary-.rirr" G;"k ou* r,ot centuries the Muslim caliphate stood face

to face with the B;,;;;"; Empire-tht House of War par excellence of

medievalIslam.Th.M"sli*chroniclershavemuchtosayofthewaronthe frontiers; the Mlsiim f"ogrupt.rr-have ample information, probably

drawn ultimately fro- t""i"t i""'i"" files' on the topography' administra-

tion, and strength ;ffi; ;;;*y n99i1o and even of the scandals of its

court and capital. B;;;; no time did they attempt to consult Greek his-

toricalsoufces,ortodealinaconnectedformwittr.thehistoryoftheGreekEmpire.

Siill more striking is the case 9f.th9 Crusades' For two centuries the

Muslims of the Middle East were in intimate if hostile contact with groups

of Franks establishlJ among them-yet at no time do they seem to have

developed tr," r.urt-i"t.r.ri io tt "*. As Professor Gabrieli has pointed

out,4 the Muslims, ""iiftt the Christians' did not regard the Crusades as

something separate and distinctive, nor did they single out the Crusaders

from the long ,.ri.*-oi i"fidtt enemies whom from time to time they

6"Sh,. Th. irronicl.r, ,"port in detail the smallest skirmishes between

Muslim urra rrur,t irrr[;;:-t"; they have 1ittle to say about the internal

affairs of the Fr";i;i*h -st'ates

in the Levant, and even less about their

countries or origirr. ih" omission is the more remarkable in that the geo-

graphers arrd cos*ographers have some information' mostly derived {rom

sltisnoteworthythatthefirsteffortstodevelopSanskritandChinesestudiesintheMiddleEast were made in Ankara and Jerusalem'

a See above, P. 98 ff'

rB2 Arabic, persian, and Turkislt Historiograplrywestern Muslim sources, about the Franks and their countries. yet withone or two minor exceptions, the historians of Islam ;;;;, artempt torelate their narrative of the sy.iu" *u^ to this information, to trace theinvaders back to their counrri; ;i;.i;;, or to, enquire into the mighty yetinvisible movement that had lu"";h;";'them.5

The crusades opened tt. -uy-io .lor., diplomatic and commercialrelations between the Musrim u"i ct rirtiur, ,,i,", oi th.Jva.ait.rranean.These are reflected in the -u"rrlt, oiciv' service usage of the Mamrukperiod' In the encycropaedic b.rr.u.r*ati.,rud.-m.."ri"#q"lqashandi,and similar works. we fincl rists orth. Er.opean sovereigns with whom theSultans of Egypt'rtua .or..rpo"i"a, iJi,rr'tt. .or..Jr"rru-.r, titles, andIbrms of address for each, and,o_. utt,rrior* to .urti..;;;h;;g., of lettersor embassies' we find nothing uno"t it. history of those countries.All this does not mean thi Muslim histo.ians ne;;;;rr"ed them_selves with non-Muslim history. r"t ,rr. Muslim, the Isramic reveration isnot a beginning but a completion, the finul link in a chain of reveration_and the Islamic r.mmrniiy ir trr"r

"o ,'ew creation, but a revival andimprovemenr of something that rr.a^."irr.a r""g t.r"iJ fhe history ofIslam rherefore did not belin *irrr ntJlmmad; it incl,rdeJih. hirtory ofthe earlier prophets and tdeir -irri."ri"d.r.rr1.r]ri;;;i-

"f the peoplesto whom they were sent. This earrier rrirtory i, .hi.flt;ibilll"a Arabian,within a framework defined uv,rr. rur,"iiial a'usiJn;;^rh.?2"r,in. Thedevelopment of this histo_ry, ;"J ,h.;; made of biblical sources and ofJewish and christian.informa",r, ut.-aircussed in professor Rosenthal,spaper' The Prophet also speakt of Cu.ru, and of Chosroes, and here toosome historical eraboralion y1 p..*rrJnr"'-*u, .rr.r l.q*.ra for theexplanation of the sacred traditiori. F;;;;;;-;, iffi#tJTrlr r" hand_Persian converts to Isram, *itrr -.^ories of and access to persian historicarwritings, Easrern christians *ith k;;;i.dge of tr.. rrirt.ri.r"oi-trr. paganand Christian Roman Empires. rr.r""si them s'me accounts of persianand Roman historv found tfr.i, *"v iriio tn. Arabic fu,r.quu,q., and, ro_gether with the 3r,r'au.o-cnr**"" rrinii.ut -ur..iut, u..u--.'part o[ thecommon stock of Muslim universal history.

This stock' acouirecl in the .u.ry auft #rren the Isramic community wasstill malleani" una receptive, ,...irrJJ few later .....ri""r.^'rt appearschiefly in the generar introg"gtgty -utli t.uai,rg up to the estabrishmentof the Islamic oecumene; it ir i"i.r.r;i;; a note that it is not normanysupplemented bv any discussio" or trr. .Snditions in any specific countryprior to the Islamic conquest. The Islamrc community as a whore has5 A possible exception is the.account (sira) ,oftheEuropean crrristians who in those years hadcome to the Muslim countries', -"".i"ri"J riiu" li"r";*, (p. 70) an; "i"a'r"

p. Rosenthal,l:!;',:j!!&{:",'{^!,:f,::"::!!;l;*::jlii:i :,"';;

,, i, r,r."i,",;;;;#i or,,,e generaiMuslim oi..o,,..f oro,,.p.,, rsozs i,gt;;;;;;:irluotarion.

see further, B. Lewis", ,The

Tlte Use b2 Muslim Historians of non-Muslim Sources r83

some earlier history; the individual Islamic countries begin theirs with theadvent of Islam.6

The external interests of Islamic historiography were thus limited to theprehistory of the Islamic community itself, and were moreover confined tothe earlier period. With few and rare exceptions, they did not extend tothe history of alien peoples or cultures, or even to the pre-Islamic history ofthe peoples and countries brought into Islam. In other words, Muslimhistorians were concerned only with their own civilization and its im-mediate ancestors-and in this they resembled the historians of most otherhuman communities, including, until comparatively recent times, our own.

There were some exceptions. The universal curiosity of Mas'fldi ledhim even to Frankish history, and enabled him to give a list of the Frankishkings from Clovis to Louis IV, based, he tells us, on a book prepared by aFrankish bishop for the Andalusian Caliph al-Fakam in 3zB/939.7 Thetranscendent genius of al-Birini carried him across the impenetrablereligious barrier of an alien script, to study Sanskrit and learn somethingof India-though his interests were philosophical and scientific rather thanhistorical. These were however few and unrepresentative; even as great ahistorian as Ibn Khald[n, in his universal history, does not go north ofSpain or east of Persia.8 Within that area he tried very hard to deal withnon-Muslim as well as Muslim history, and made use of such non-Islamicsources as were available to him-as Orosius on Rome andJosippon on the

Jews.e But he did not go beyond the limits of his own civilization and itsknown and recognizable predecessors-like the authors of most of theso-called universal histories written in Europe until very recently.

The first genuine universal history of Islam-probably in the world-isthat of Rashid al-Din. The Mongol conquests, by uniting for the first timeunder one dynasty the civilizations of South-West Asia and the Far East,created new opportunities for social and cultural contacts between societiespreviously separated by political and religious barriers. At the same timethey opened the door to new contacts with Europe, as a number of Euro-peans availed themselves of the opportunity offered by the presence of non-Muslim rulers in the Middle East to explore the overland routes to China.

6 The Persian sagas ofthe mythical emperors ofancient fran, and the Egyptian legends wovenaround the broken, massive remnants of the Pharaohs, threw into relief the lack of real historicalknowledge about the pre-Islamic past.

7 Murii, iii, 66-7, 69-72. See also B. Lewis, Mas'tdi on the Kings of the'Frants,' Al-Mas'udiMillenary Commzmoration Volume (Aligarh, 196o), pp. 7-Io.

8 Ibn Khaldin does indeed discuss the Mongols at some length, but this is preliminary to anaccount of their invasion of the lands of Islam. Cf. W. J. Fischel, 'Ibn I{haldffn's Sources for theHistory ofJenghiz Khin and the Tatars', JAOS (1956),76, pp. 9I-9.

e Cf. G. Levi Della Vida, 'La Traduzione araba delle storie di Orosio', Al-Andalus Qg54),xix, 257-93; W. J. Fischel, 'Ibn Khaldin and Josippon', Homenaje a Millas-Vallicrosa (Barcelona,1954), i,587-gB; idem,'Ibn I(haldin: on the Bible,Judaism and the Jews', Ignan GoldziherMernorial Volume II (Jerusalem, 1956), pp. ,47-7r.

rB+ Arabic, Persian, and Turkislt Historiograph2The Jami' al-tauarzkh-a universal history prepared by Rashid ar-Din forthe Mongol Gh-az-an $Jral-is a produci of tn.r" ,r.* .orrtu"ts. To carryout his task, he assembred a team-of colraborators, irr.l,rJirrf two chinesescholars, a Buddhist hermit from Kashmir, a Mo.rgor ,f".irirt on tribaltradition, and a Frankish traveler, p.obatly u -o.rk i'rro L.a come asenvoy from the Papal curia. Through him Rashid ar-Din made theacquaintance of a European chronicre *rri.n has recently been identifiedas that of the thirteenth-century chronicler Martin oi Troppurr, arsoknown as Martin Polonus. From this sorrrce, brought up to date by hisinformant, Rashid al-Din was able to include a brieichroiricle of the HolyRoman Emperors as far as Arbert I and the popes u, ru, u, n.nedict Xr.Both are correctly described as living atthat time.10

Rashid al-Din's venture into occid"entar and orientar scholarship, madepossible by the brief interlude of Mongol power, found few imitators. Hisaccount.of European history, the firsi since Mas'frdi,s king-rist, was thelast until the sixteenth century, when the ottoman .,..i for' politicalintelligence about Europe began to grow into an interest-albeit stin afaint and disdainfirl one-in E.rrop.ui, history.

rn the saxon Landbibliothek in Dresden, there is a Turkish manuscriptcontaining a history of France from the regendary Frru*rrrrJ to the year156o. It was made by ord.er of Feridun"Bey-compil., Jthe famousMunslte'at-i selaym and Reis Efendi from r57o to tsTz-a,'d was the workof two men, the terjuman Hasan b. Hamza and the \'ai;o ,eti b. sinan. Thebook was completed in g}olr5Tz.ri

This work may well have been the first translation of a European his-torical work into Turkish. It was folowed by an account or trr. iir.orr.ryof the New world, adapted from European sources, which reflected. thegrowing Turkish concern at the vast expansion oi western maritimepower. r2

_ During the seventeenth century several other Turkish historians show

signs of an interest in European history and an acquaintance with Euro-pean sources. rbrdhim Mrilhemi (d. 1650) is said to have written aTarlkh-i Mutuk-i Rum ue-Ifrani, of wiichuifortunately;" ;;;; appears tohave survived.ls His more famous contemporary flajji f<nuiiiu (d. r657)was also interested in Europe. Hajji Khalifu,r ..r.ui".Lr.iinto EuropJangeography are well known, and followed a line of enquiry opened, forpractical reasons, by ottoman map-makers and navigut*, ri, the previous

10K'Jahn, 'Les l6gendes_de Ioccident,chez Ragid.ar-Din-, Mlranges Fuad Kt;prtirii (Istanbur,rgsa), pp. e55-7; idem, His.toire uniae,rselle de Ra;id ai-Din . . . r. uxro;i au prorrril.id.rr, r95r;.ll 91. F, Babinger, Geschichxyhreiber der Osmanen . f t,.rprlg,"r";;;;,";:;;';: ,'72 The Ta'rikh al-Hind at-cha.rbz,written c. r58o for u".ag u!, "ia fiiiiJii the Miiteferriqapress in rr4zlrTzg. The same interest is reflec-ted in other Turkish *iti"gi

"","Hy in the geo_graphical section of.Ali,s Kiinh al_akhbdr.13 Babiriger, p, r7o.

The (Jse b2 Muslim Historians of non-Muslim Sources I85

century. Hajji Khalifa incorporated European material in his world geo-graphy, tl'e Jihdnntimd, and, with the assistance of a French priest, con-verted to Islam and known as Sheykh Mellmed Ikhlasi, prepared aTurkish version of the Atlas Minor of Mercator and Hondius. Probablywith the help of this same Frenchman, Hajji Khalifa also prepared aTurkish translation of a history of the Franks-Tarzhh-i FirengT. Mordt-mann, who believed this work to be lost, guessed that it was a translationof the Byzantine history of Chalcocondyles.la At least one copy, however,was preserved in private possession in Turkey, and parts of it were actuallypublished, in serial form, in the newspap er Tasuir-i Efkar,in tzTg l1862-3.t5According to the preamble with which the editors of the journal introducedthese excerpts, the work deals with European history, and is translatedfrom the chronicle of the German historianJohann Carion (r+gg-tSS7).This work, which ended in 1532, was revised ancl in fact rewritten byPhilip Melanchthon Q4g7-r56o), and continued by Caspar Peucer orBeutzer (1525*16oz); it was translated into French by Simon Goulart(1543-16z8).tu It is possible that it was one of these latter versions thatformed the basis of Hajji Khalifa's Turkish text. The choice of a Lutheranwork, much used in Protestant propaganda, would seem to suggest thattrajji Khalifa's French collaborator, though described as a priest, had aProtestant and not a Catholic background.

Of quite a different character was the use made of European sourcesby another Ottoman historian of the early seventeenth century, Ibrahim-iPechevi (t572-t65o). Pechevi was not concerned with universal history;stilll ess was he interested in writing or translating the history of the infidelkings. His concern, like that of most Ottoman historians, was with thehistory of the Empire of which he was a subject, and more especially ofthe wars fought by the Ottoman armies in Europe. His history covers theevents of the years 1520-1639. For the later period he relied to a largeextent on his own knowledge or on the reports of old soldiers; for the earlierperiod he seems to have made use of the writings of his predecessors inOttoman historiography. But in addition to those Pechevi had the revolu-tionary idea of consulting the historians of the enemy. IIe was interestedabove all in military history, and seems to have been fascinated by thestories of the great battles fought by the Ottoman Sultans and otherMuslim rulers, dwelling with loving attention on every detail. But some-times the Muslim chronicles were sadly lacking in details-and so Pechevihad recourse to the accounts written by the enemy. 'In our country', he

la EI1 s.v. Haddi Khalifa, followed by Babinger, p. zoo.16 Adnan Adrvar, La Science chcz les Turcs Ottomans (Paris, rg39), p. rrB, repeated with some

modification in idem, Osmanh Tiirklerinde ilim (Istanbul, rg43), p. rzg. For the best and mostrecent discussion see Orhan $aik Gokyay, in KAfib Qelebi, hayh ae eserleri hakkznda incelemeler(Ankara, r957), pp. 54-6.

16 My thanks are due to Professor A. T. Hatto for this information.

I86 Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Historiograplrysays, 'there are men without number able to read and write Hung artan., r7It was therefore a simple matter to have Hungarian chronicles read to himand to translate some of them into Turkisl.te A number of passages,feghevi says, he thought fit to incorporate in his own chronicle. Theseinclude an account of the battle of N.tohacs, and other narratives of thewars in

-Hungary. Though pechevi does not name his Hungarian sources,two of them have been identified by Kraertrz as Kaspar HJttai and N. v.Istvanfy, whose histories were published in r575 and i613 ,.rp.rtively.re

Pedevi was not, as has sometimes been stated,lhe first o"ttoman historianto use western sources. He does however seem to have been the first tocompare foreign accounts with native accounts of the same events, and toweave them into a single narrative. In this he can have had but few pre_decessors anywhere. He certainly had few successors.

Meanwhile, however, the more general interest in western history con-tinued. An outstanding historian of the late seventeenth century wastTuseyn Hezdrfenn (d. r69i), most of whose works are unfortunately stillunpublished. Like flajji Khalifa, whom he cites with admiration, he wasa rnan-of wide-ranging curiosity, and seems to have been especially in-terested in the geography and history of remote countries, as wel as in theearlier history of his own. To an extent rare if not ,rniq,r. u-ong Musrimsof his day, he sought the acquaintance of European rihorurr-urrd men ofletters, not a few of whom ,risited Istanbul. He is known to have beenacquainted with count Ferdinand Marsigli and Antoine Galland. rt seemsukely that he also knew Prince Demetriui cantemir and p6tis de la croix.It was no doubt through the good offices of these and other Europeanfriends that $useyn Hezirfenn was able to gain access to the contents ofEuropean books, and incorporate them in hi"s own works.

The most important ?f lh.:.",. for- our purpose, is his Tenqth al_teuarThh,

completed in 1673. This is divided into nine parts, of *hi;i the sixth,seventh, eighth, and ninth deal with history outiide ihe Islamic oecumene3"9 iT. accepted predecessors. part 6 deals with Greek and. Roman history,including some account of the Greek philosophers; part 7 *iirr rr,, historyof corrstan_tinople since its foundation, incruding it, nyruitine period;part B with Asia-china,.the philippines, the East Inhies, India, aniCeylon; palt 9 with the discovery of e-.ri.u. Oddly .rro,rgfr, FrseynHezirfenn does not seem to have included Europe i" ii, ,"ri.y, but hisaccounts of both Asia and America are based almtst entirely or b.rrop.u'sources, probably on French travel literature. His accounts of Greek,

r7 TartN[-i Petheut, i, to6.18 'okuttuk ve nidesin ttirkiye terjrime ettik.' The implication would seem to be that peshevi

had the chronicles read to him and ihen himself turned so-e of th.r. irt" *"i*ri r".tish prose*a procedure reminiscent of the Toledo school of translators. I owe tnir .u."*utl"" to professorP. Wittek.

1e F" v. Kraelitz. 'Der osmanische Historiker Ibrahim pedewi,, Der Isram (r9rB), viii, z5z_6o.

I

The [Jse @ Muslim Historians of non-Muslim Sources t87

Roman, and Byzantine history are also based on European works-

orobably the first time that these were used to augment the meagre stock

5;il;#" tnowledge of classical antiquitv'20

With the *"rf. .f".ifrl,'"a U. f,rltf.iluh, k.ro*n as Miinejjimbasht

(d. rToz), *. ,"arr,,'i-""i"t"ul history in the grand manner' His great

Jami' al-duwal-the.iitf"- i' an obvious t"tto o? Rashid al-Din's Jdmi'

al-tauar\kh-i, . """'"*ut tti"o'y of mankind from Adam to the year

rcBq,lt67z,based, so ihe-author tells 9l' ot some seventy'sources' The

Arabic original of tfi *"tft t "iff unpubllhed' but a Turkish translation'

prepared under-the ii"tti"","f the poerNedim' has been printed'21 The

bulk of the work, as one would e*peit' is concerned with Islamic history'

A large part of th" fi;;;;;l"*e' is' however' devoted to the history of the

ore-Islamic urra "o"-i't""i" "^t"t' Tht fo'mtr' as is usual' included the

'P.rriuts and A,ubiu"-s";;ht;"" hand' and the Israelites and Egyptians

on the other, di,";;;;; *o" o't"" t'uaitional lines' Miinejjimbashi's

ancient history, il;;; s"* gw"-"d A; common Islamic stock' His

accounts of the R";;;;Jd-ortrreS*r-"t"utty derive from.Roman and

Tewish sources, ,fr."Ty"i"'pl" .".iilffr io him in the adaptation of Ibn,r:il;H;. il;fti*u.or has however much fuller information than rbn

Khaldirn, and is ;bi;-; deal with *""t'- f"opt"s-as Jh: Assyrians and

Babylonianr, th. Sti;;J;t;; tne ptolemii" pt".''iott*ly barely unknown

to Islamic nirto'io!ffiV' no' these a Europcan source must have been

used. This becomti cert'in when we come to Miinejjimbagli's chapter on

Europe, which i""i";;;;;'io"' o" tr'" al"itio"s ofihe oFrankish' peoples

and on the kings #f'u""t, of Germany' oi Spui"''lld.of England' The

source of these would appear tg harle ui.tr trt" tuikish translation of the

chronicre or Sorruri, CJfon, though,_.i""" vri;'*::iryb1si continues his

narrative down to the reigns of Louis Xfii of ntuttc{ th. E-mperor Leopold

in Germany, "*d il;;;ii oin"ghnd' he must have had later supplemen-

tarv material at his disposal' H"-'"po't'-the English civil war and the

execution or rirrg Ahu;i.s. ,After rri* tir" p"opr" Jf England (Anglia) did

not appoint anoth; ki;g o""' them; *"-ttui" no furtherlnformation about

"'r;ffiittl#3?;r,.e interests were not limited to Europe-' For his

account of the fti"g' ;fet*enia' he ttfft "t ft" made use of translations of

Armenian "h-*i:i;t.^oiri.'il,ir';;;;;"t history of the Jews, he had

recourse to H"u'"ti 'J;t;;; *;e available to him by Jewish informants

20 The MSS. are listed in Babinger, pp' zz9^9o' r was able to consult one belonging to the

Hunterian Museum t"'tlti';'* A]fti3 ttg"oj' ;; 6* tr't: lt was ma^de'at the French Em-

bassy in Co,,,tu"ti"op'li;; tht S;;;;n'F-rancis'5a[bi' and was at one time the propertv of

P6tis de la croix' - Lq -^^ D^Li-nar nn qe^-6..and Brockelma nn, GAL rr' 4+g' ?n{ s II' 937

,r'l ?l,ill;'*l**:ffi Bf iffit,f\'l1trii,T;-";*t J;; i" i *r""'i" in Istanb ur in

*e57teO8-9. References are to the Turkish edrtron'

r88 Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Historiograplry(i' 6Ba)' From his accounts ofhis dealings with rhese informants, and of hisf:::"1t^rA,1:,.*pu to verify und .or pure material in languages un_Known to hlm, we may get some idea of_the far_ranging cuiiosi"ty andmeticulous schorarship of Mrinejjimbashi. Even chi";;;? Hindu Indiaare included in the hlstory, thoigh rrete vrrine.yji-uurt i;rlrr{brmation ismeagre and poor.

During the eighteenthcentury the nature of ottoman interest in Europeunderwent a radical change. The peace- teaty of carrowitz, signedzG January 1699, marked the end oi an epoch and the beginning ofanother' For a long time. the growing internal crisis of Islamic civilizationhad been masked by. the impoiing mi"litary faEade ortn. otto-an Empire,protecting the Musrim heaitlands both from'for.rg" ut1*k"urra rro* r.r_realization at home.

, Now this faEade was, for the first time, dangerously shaken. There hadbeen unsuccessful campaigns and inconclusive wars before now. But thedisastrous retreat that followed the second ottoman failure at vienna, inr683, was the first clear and unmistakable defeat. At carlowitz the otto-man Sultan, for the first time since the foundation of the Empire, wascompelled. to accept terms dictated by a victorious irfia.i.n.-y.A Turkish document,.written shorily before trr. trl.iy of purru.o*it,(t7'B), records an imaginary conversation between a christian and anottoman officer, in which they discuss the miritary."J p;Iil;"Isituation.The purpose of rhe writer seems to have been a pr.p.[ o;;;*u' rulingcircles to ac_cept defeat, bytepicting as darkly u, porribl. tnl.rrrfurrorrruft.situation of the Empire.-The conriersation aho lnakes a comparison be-tween the Austrian ind ottoma' armies, to the great disadvantage of thelatter, and would appear to embody apleafo, riititary r.for*.r,

The impact of military defeat, and the resulting desire ,o ,1.r. out andmake use of the talisman that had brought victor| tr irr. ;;;;y, opened.a -"..y phase in the relations between IsLm and the western world-onewhich, with some important modifications, has continued.,rrriit roauy. rrr.new interest was at first limited to the weapons and military science ofEulope, but it was inevitable that it shourd u.i-."""a.a ;;j;;;J,o as muchof European culture as seemed.ryc-e-ssa-ry for their "tr .tirre-upplication.rn r7zr, when the famous yirmi Sekiz Mehmed sa,id Efendi was sent asambassado-r to Paris, his instructions were 'to makea ir."-"sh,rudy of themeans of civilization and ed,ucation, and report on those capable of appli-cation'in Turkey.zB One of these ,means oi civilizaii""; *i, pri"ting, theestablishment of which among the Turks owed much to the initiative andenthusiasmof the ambassadoJs son, Sa'rd cherebi. cr"r.lyusro.iated withhim in this work was Ibrahim Mtiteferriqa, u u'nguriu" .f.rrrl.i to Islam.

22 Faik Regit Unat' 'Ahmet rlr devrinde bir rsrahat Takriri,, Tarih aesikararz (rg4r), i, ro7.23 Cited by Selim Nrizhet Gerqek, rurf *trrto*rfrgrir.,""ri ;;;;;,"';';;'.-' ,

The [Jse b1t Muslim Historians of non-Muslim Sources IB9

The first book appeared in February r7zg. By the time the press was

closed in 1742, r"rritrt""n books had been printed, most of them dealing

with history, geography, and language. They included an account byMehmed Sa,id Efendi of his embassy to France, a treatise by IbrahimMiiieferriqa on the science of tactics as applied in European armies, and

a translation of a European account of the wars in Persia. Editions ofearlier works included the sixteenth-century history of the discovery of the

new world-TAr'kk al-Hind al-Gharbt-and part of the geographical

treatise of [Iajji Khalifa.The new interest in Europe was primarily concerned with military

matters. But once the barrier separating the two civilizations had been

breached, it was no longer possible to keep a strict control over the trafficpassing through. An interest in military science on the one hand, and aneed for political and military intelligence on the other, led to an interest

in recent European history which, desultory and sporadic at first, became

more urgent as the realization spread that the very survival of the Empiremight depend on an accurate understanding of European developments.

Besides the books printed at the Mtiteferriqa press, a small number ofmanuscripts in Istanbul collections testify to this new interest in Europeanhistory. A manuscript of r ry5lr7zz, entitled Nemclte Tar|khi, gives an out-line history of Austiia from Boo to r66z e.o., and was translated from the

German by the interpreter 'Oqmdn b. Ahmed. Of rather a different kindis a survey of the historical conditions of the states of Etrope-Aurupadeuletlerinin ba'zi. ahual-i tdrikfuiytesi. This report, dated tr46lr73g-+, was

made by the fbmous Ahmed Pasha Bonneval, a French nobleman whojoined the Ottoman service and was converted to Islam. It discusses events

in Austria, Hungary, Spain, and France, and was translated into Turkishfrom the authofs presumably French original. An outline survey of th9

major dynasties-ihe pihris-i Diiuel of 'Abd al-Rabman Miinif Efendi

(d.- t74z)-.includes the pagan and Christian Roman emperors, theByzawiitr" .*p.rors, the kingi of France in Paris, and the kings of Austria inVienna. Towards the end of the century a sulvey of European affairs-Ijmat-i ahual-i Aarupa-discuss Prussia under Frederick William II and

Frurr". in the revolutionary period, and in tTgg arunknown Greek authorcalled Kosmo Komidas prepared, in Turkish, a handlist of reigning Euro-pean sovereigns, with their dates of birth and accession, their capitals,

titles, heirs, and other useful information.2aThese works, or others of the same kind, became known to Ottoman

historians, and some of the information they contained found its way into

2a For descriptions of these works see Istabut Kiitiiphaneleri tari'h-colraf1a lazmalarz kataloglart.

t. Ti)rlqe tarih lazmalari fasc. r, (Jmumi tarihler (Istanbul, rg43), and fasc. 3, Arab tarihi, Iran

tarihi, Diger .ittrtb, tarihleri (Istanbul, rg45). on 'ogmdn b. Ahmed see R. F. Kreutel and

Otto Spiis, Leben und Abenteuer des Dolmetschers Osman Aga (Bonn, 1954), especially p' xxv'

r9o Arabic, Persian, and Turkish Historiographlt

the main stream of Ottoman historiography. The first of the ImperialHistoriographers who himself learnt a Western language and made use ofWestern sources was 'Atl'ullah Mehmed, known as Shinizlde (1769-18z6) . By education one of the '(Jlema' , he was a mar' of encyclopaedicknowledge, and became Imperial Historiographer in r8r9. He seems tohave learnt several European languages, and made a study of Europeanmedicine and other sciences. His maior work was a Turkish translation,probably made from an Italian version, of an Austrian medical textbook.He also made a translation, in Iezo/IBo5, of the Instructions of Frederickthe Great to his commanders-Visaltaname-i seferi22e. It was thereforenatural that, when called upon to write the history of the Empire for theyears rBoB-2c,he shouid make some use of European sources.

The vast, swift campaigns of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic warsdrove the lessons of the new warfare deep into the lands of Islam, whilethe new, secular ideas of the Revolution, untainted in Muslim eyes withany recognizably Christian origin, could for the first time penetrate thebarrier that had hitherto excluded every movement of ideas from Europe,and thus provide the Muslim peoples, in their new liberalism and national-ism, with the ideological foundations of Westernization.

In the first half of the nineteenth century there were two main centresof westernizing reform in the Middle East-Turkey and Egypt. In bothof them the preparation and publication of translations of Western booksplayed an important part. In Egypt under Muhammad 'Ali Pasha therewas an organized, state-sponsored programme of translation, for the likeof which we must go back to medieval times. Between r9zz and r94z243 books were printed at the Bulaq press, the greater part ofthem transla-tions. Of these, rather more than half were in Turkish, most of the re-mainder in Arabic. Under Mullammad 'Ali's rule Turkish was still thelanguage of the ruling 6lite in Egypt, and we are therefore not surprised tofind that works on military and naval subjects are almost all in Turkish.The same is to a large extent true of pure and applied mathematics, whichwere chiefly needed for military purposes. Works on medicine, veterinaryscience, agriculture, and grammar, on the other hand, are mostly inArabic. History would seem to have been regarded as a matter for theTurkish-speaking rulers, since the few historical books issued from the pressin the early period are all in Turkish. The first was a translation ofCastera's Histoire de I'impdratrice Catherine II de Russie, translated by theGreek Yakovaki Argyropoulo, and published in n44lr9zg. It was re-printed in Istanbul in rz971fi7o. Another early translation was an extractfrom the Mdmorial de Sainte Hlldne, published in n47lr\gz under the titleTdrtkh-i NapoQon Bonapart. It is also known as Napol2on sergiig;hti. Thencame versions of Botta's Histoire d'Italie and of the memoirs of the Ducde Rovigo, both published in n4glrB34. These four books complete the

The [Jse b1 Mustim Historians of non-Muslim Sources I9I

historical translations from Western langrrages in the early period' though

there were also one ;i; ;;;;;it'i""t"ao'i-etauic into Turkish' There-

after there was an i";;';;iti'everal y"u"'""tiiitt" next historical transla-

don appear"a-u ""'li";^;v;I;; i"l' axiti"-d'-Cho'ttt x/1' published in

n,;fi i*'*:Hl.tilffi*ft i*'+'";;1;'a:q63.1:li:|""t**In Turkey the movement began *"'" i;;i' ittt ttu"ttations made in

Egypt scem to h""t';;;i;;-;n- a1d 'i"ait6' but it was not until the

middre of the ."rr,rrri"inui trunrlutio*,-li n*opean historical writings

beEin to appear h i:J;;;i' i"- 'e6o t T;ki'h danslation'apoeared' bv

Ahmed t{iimi, "r "i't;sil i- ini'u*t 'hi'';;:;;;*"Y tt" h"t world

historv in modern T;#;tit"'u1*' rn"t"uritt iht ttutttlation movement

developed quicklv, il;"ry i; T"rktv u'iJi*tot and rapidlv altered

the world picture t'"itT;;;;tti to lr"iim 'tt'tdittls and readers'26

25 On the productions. of rhe Bulaq. 0,":. .":,1',T6;::',;?[:i Y Y:li:::"nqu1i+;m*:$1iru*s{*# jffi i*!+j',t;;;:r;:'n!'i}t"'ri'l#.tffi^;;;d;-is that a p:r:::9:]:Ttj:ii':'l;tf iiil .ip"nri"atio"ns' see arso berow'

E)ii1;'"1""*' Mu4o*^od 'Atr (cairo' re5r)' wrth

;;:{{::;,r;. ". ".**,

'Historv-writin'l'9^Iutio'ul Revival i' Turkev" MEA (rs5{'

iv, ztL-z7,and Dr' r<"t'?" f"ftt' btto*' pp' 4zz ff'