^{page 200 note 1} Archivio di Stato di Venezia (ASV), Documenti turchi, busta 15. The letter is mentioned by A. Bombaci, ‘La collezione di documenti turchi dell'Archivio di Stato di Venezia’, Rivista degli Studi Orientali, xxiv, 1949, 97Google Scholar; and summarized by him in his ‘Regesti dei documenti turchi’ still in typescript at the Archives. The letter was also briefly described and partly translated into German by Subhi Labib, ‘Ein Brief des Mamluken Sultans Qā'itbey’, Der Islam, XXXII, 3, 1957, 324–9Google Scholar.

^{page 200 note 2} ASV, Libri Commemoriali, xvi, fol. 74. For the contents of this register and the nature of the documents of which its entries are copies, see Predelli's, R. introductory chapter to vol. I of his Regesti dei Libri Commemoriali, Venice, 1876Google Scholar (these are brief summaries of the entries). Bombaci refers to the translation in his ‘Regesti’. Labib does not mention it.

^{page 200 note 3} Such as, for example, are the Italian translations of the Mamluk-Venetian treaties of 1442 and 1512, of which I am preparing an edition.

^{page 200 note 4} I have been informed by the Venetian archivists that this receptacle must have been destroyed by fire, probably in 1574 when the archives were still housed in the Ducal Palace. See Bombaci, A., ‘Collezione’, RSO, xxiv, 1949, 98Google Scholar.

^{page 200 note 5} See the inscriptions collected in van Berchem, M., Materiaux pour un Corpus inscriptionum Arabicarum, Cairo, 1894–1930Google Scholar (especially I, pt. 2, pp. 326–7, 431–9, 460–4, 469–89, 492–501, 514–26, 673–8, 748–50; in Combe, E., Sauvaget, J., and Wiet, G., Repertoire chronologique d'épigraphie arabe, Cairo, 1931–1956Google Scholar (Mamluk inscriptions begin vol. xi, p. 212); in Sauvaget, J., ‘Décrets mamelouks’, Bulletin d'Études Orientates (Paris), ii, 1932, 1–52, iii, 1933, 1–29, xii, 1947–8, 5–60Google Scholar; the treaties and letters addressed to the Republic of Florence in Amari, M., I diplomi arabi nel R. Archivio Fiorentino, Florence, 1863, pp. 165, 181, 184, 221–2Google Scholar; to the kings of Castile and Aragon in Santón, M. Alarcón y and de Linares, Ramón García, Los documentos arabes diplomáticos del Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Madrid-Granada, 1940, pp. 335, 350, 355, 360, 365Google Scholar; to the Republic of Ragusa in Elezovic, G., Turshi spomenici (Belgrade), I, pt. 2, 1952, pp. 168, 175–6Google Scholar; and in the 72 decrees edited by Ernst, H., Die mamlukischen Sultansurkunden des Sinai-Klosters, Wiesbaden, 1960Google Scholar; an example for general use in correspondence with Christian rulers in Qalqashandi, , Ṣubh al-a'shā, Cairo, 1920, viii, p. 25Google Scholar (French translation in Lammens, H., ‘Correspondence diplomatiques entre les mamelouks et les puissances Chretiens’, Revue de l'Orient Chrétien, ix, 1904)Google Scholar.

^{page 201 note 1} See W. Björkman; Beiträge zur Geschichte der Staatskanzlei im islamischen Ägypten, Hamburg, 1928, 95Google Scholar. Facsimiles of Qāitbāy's 'aldma are published in Moritz, B., Beiträge zur Geschichte des Sinai-Klosters im Mittelalter, Berlin, 1918, pl. IGoogle Scholar (reproduced in Wittek, P., ‘Notes sur la tughra ottomane’, Byzantion, xx, 1950, pl. ii, fig. 8)Google Scholar; and Atiya, A. S., The Arabic manuscripts of Mount Sinai, Baltimore, 1955, pi. xvcGoogle Scholar.

^{page 201 note 2} For a discussion of some European translations of Ottoman Turkish documents see Wittek, P., ‘The Turkish documents in Hakluyt's “Voyages”’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xix, 1943, 121–39Google Scholar.

^{page 201 note 3} ASV, Senato deliberazioni secrete, xxv, fol. 142.

^{page 201 note 4} Iyās, Ibn, Badā'i' al-zuhūr (ed. Kahle-Mustafa, ), Cairo, 1936, iii, p. 84Google Scholar. For an extensive discussion of Venetian-Āq Qōyūnlū relations, see Berchet, G., La repubblica di Venezia e la Persia, Turin, 1865Google Scholar. A similar incident occurred in 1510 when the Mamluk Sultan learned of an alliance between Venice and Shāh Isma'īl see Iyās, Ibn, Badā'i', iv, 191, 205Google Scholar.

^{page 202 note 1} The roman numerals refer to the paragraphs into which I have divided the text of the letter.

^{page 202 note 2} ASV, Senato deliberazioni secrete, xxvi, fol. 22.

^{page 202 note 3} In addition to the references in Heyd, W., Histoire du commerce du Levant au moyen ăge, Leipzig, 1885, ii, 679, n. 7Google Scholar, see Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, pp. 346, 361–2Google Scholar, and Atiya, A. S., Egypt and Aragon, Leipzig, 1938, 26–34Google Scholar.

^{page 203 note 1} An example of such a phrase with its contemporary Italian translation occurs in a letter from the Mamluk Sultan to the Republic of Florence in 915/1509 (Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 222, 389)Google Scholar. This practice was common in the Ottoman chancery, the phrase employed being usually khvtiinat ‘awāqibuhu bil-khair ‘May his end be good’; see Kraelitz, F., Osmanische Urkunden, Wien, 1921, 24Google Scholar, and Wittek, P., ‘The Turkish documents in Hakluyt's “Voyages”’, 138Google Scholar. I should like here to thank Professor Wittek and Professor Bernard Lewis for much helpful advice.

^{page 203 note 2} ASV, Senate deliberazioni secrete, xxvi, fol. 13.

^{page 203 note 3} For the various scripts used in the Mamluk chancery, of which thuluth was the most common, see Björkman, , Staatskanzlei, 95Google Scholar.

^{page 204 note 1} A tentative reconstruction of the Arabic titles is contained in the notes to the Italian text below. The inversion in the translation of the Sultan's titles and the salutation to the Doge may have been due to the repetition of the salutation on the outside of the document (the missing portion) after it had been folded. After translating the salutation on the outside, the Venetian translator could have ignored the salutation in the text of the letter. For examples of dual salutations see Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 182–3, 211–13, 222–5Google Scholar.

^{page 204 note 2} in text (see plate i (a), 1. 2).

^{page 204 note 3} in text (see plate i (a), 1. 4, and below, p. 210, n. 3).

^{page 204 note 21} Qasīm amīr al-mu'minīn. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 222Google Scholar.

^{page 204 note 22} The full name of the Sultan was Al-malik al-ashraf abū'l-naṣr saif al-dīn Qāitbāy. See Ibn Iyas, Bada'i', in, 2.

^{page 204 note 23} Khallada allah sultanahu. See Alarcón-Garcia, Documentos, p. 355.

^{page 204 note 24} Wa naṣara junūdahu wa-a'wānahu. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 165Google Scholar.

^{page 204 note 25} Wa afāda ‘alā'l-'ibād wal-bilād jūdahu wa iḥsānahu. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 165Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 1} The translator appears to have supplied without thinking a rendering of the more common expression 'imād banī al-ma'mūdīya; see Qalqashandī, , Ṣubḥ, viii, 47Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 2} Al-sulṭān al-a'ẓam al-malik al-ashrafal-sayyid al-'alim al-'dil al-ajall al-mujāhid al-muẓaffar. The titles in the first line usually appear in this order. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 181Google Scholar. In a forth-coming study on Mamluk commercial treaties I shall include an extensive discussion of the titles used by the Mamluk sultans. In this tentative reconstruction I have given only one of the many possible references for each title, and have employed documents exclusively as comparative material.

^{page 205 note 3} Saif al-adunyā wal-dīn. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 221Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 4} Sultān al-islām wal-muslimīn. See Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, p. 365Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 5} Muhyi'l-'adl fi'l-'ālamain. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 165Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 6} Munṣif al-maẓlūmīn (min al-ẓalimīn). See Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, p. 365Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 7} Sultān al-mulūk. See Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, p. 355Google Scholar. Possibly shāhanshāh, which is rare in Mamluk documents. See Elezovié, , Turslci spomenici, I, pt. 2, p. 168Google Scholar. I have not found the isolated phrase malik al-mulūk; malik mulūk al-'arab occurs in Amari, , Diplomi, p. 165Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 8} Sultān al-'arab wal-'ajam wal-turk. See Elezovié, , Turshi spomenici, I, pt. 2, p. 168Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 9} Qāmi' al-khawārij wal-mutamarridīn. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 165Google Scholar. ‘Patarini’ is an Italian word for ‘heretic’. See Zingarelli, , Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna, 1958Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 10} Wahib al-mamalik wal-aqalim. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 165Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 11} Iskandar al-zamān. See Elezovié, , Turslci spomenici, I, pt. 2, p. 168Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 12} Maulā al-iḥsān. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 181Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 13} Malik aṣiāb al-manābir wal-tukhūt wal-tijān. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 165Google Scholar. This is the more common form, though mumallik aṣhāb al-manābir wal-asirra wal-tukhūt wal-tījān also occurs See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 221Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 14} Malik al-baḥrain. See Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, p. 355Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 15} Musallik subul al-qiblatain. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 181Google Scholar. As in several of these reconstructed titles, the Italian and Arabic are not identical, but because of the order in which they appear as well as their approximate meanings, there can be but little doubt that the Italian was meant to translate the Arabic. The invocations (n. 23–25, opposite) because less stereotyped are less certain.

^{page 205 note 16} Khādim al-ḥaramain al-sharifain. See Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, p. 360Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 17} Ẓ;ill allāh fī arḍihi. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 181Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 18} Al-qā'im bi-sunanihi wa farḍihi. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 165Google Scholar.

^{page 205 note 19} Sulṭān al-basīta mu'min al-arḍ al-muḥīṭa. See Elezovié, , Turski spomenici, i, pt. 2, p. 168Google Scholar; and also Silvestre de Sacy, Notices et extraits, xi, Paris, 1827, 43Google Scholar: sulṭān al-sharq wal-gharb.

^{page 205 note 20} Sayyid al-mulūk wal-salāṭīn. See Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, p. 360Google Scholar.

^{page 206 note 1} in text (see plate 1 (6), 1. 2); cf. Moritz, , ‘Ein Firman des Sultans Selim I. für die Venezianer’, in Festschrift Eduard Sachau, Berlin, 1915, 429Google Scholar, (bottom line).

^{page 206 note 2} in text (see plate 11 (a), 1. 1, and p. 211, n. 7).

^{page 206 note 3} Commonly used for , see Moritz, , ‘Ein Firman’, 429 and 437, n. 2Google Scholar.

^{page 206 note 4} sic (see plate 11 (c), 1. 2).

^{page 207 note 1} Debased or false money, from Arabic: zaghal, especially interesting as a translation of the Arabic ghashsh or maghshūsh.

^{page 207 note 2} The ‘pico ‘or ‘picco ‘was apparently a cubit (Arabic: dhira'), which was 22–73 inches. See Popper, W., Egypt and Syria under the Circassian sultans, Berkeley, 1955–1957, ii, 35Google Scholar. It was an expression common in Levantine commerce, see Pegolotti, B., La pratica della mercatura (ed. Evans, ), Cambridge, Mass., 1936, 18Google Scholar: ‘Picco in grechesco e in peresesco e in piu linguaggi’ (in listing cloth measures). Cf. French pic (Littré, E., Dictionnaire de la langue française, Paris, 1957, v, p. 1844, no. 5)Google Scholar.

^{page 208 note 1} in text (see plate iv (a), 1. 2).

^{page 209 note 1} Twenty pieces of china. Heyd, , Commerce, ii, 678–80Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 2} Two cantars of crystallized sugar. Pegolotti, , Pratica, 70Google Scholar. ‘Gentole ‘(Italian: quintale), like ‘canteri’ below, is derived from Arabic qinṭār, a weight containing 100 raṭls. See Popper, , Egypt and Syria, ii, 39Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 3} Five (pieces of) muslin. ‘Sesse’ is Arabic shāsh, see Quatremére, , Histoire des sultans mamelouks, Paris, 1837,i, pt. 1, 137Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 4} Fifteen raṭls of wood of aloes. Heyd, , Commerce, ii, 581–5Google Scholar. The Egyptian raṭl contained 15–98 ounces. Popper, , Egypt and Syria, ii, 39Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 5} Thirty raṭh of benzoin. Heyd, , Commerce, II, 580–1Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 6} One vase of balsam. Heyd, , Commerce, ii, 575–80Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 7} Ten wooden containers of theriac or ‘Venice treacle’. Pegolotti, , Pratica, 78, 297Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 8} One horn of musk (Arabic zabad ‘foam’). Heyd, , Commerce, ii, 636Google Scholar.

^{page 209 note 9} Two cantars of sugar. For the various kinds of sugar see Heyd, , Commerce, ii, 690—2Google Scholar.

^{page 210 note 1} See plate iv (b), 1. 9. The stroke between and is very likely an abbreviation used in the Mamluk chancery for the word which invariably appears in this formula. See for example Ernst, , Sidtansurkunden, 170, 206Google Scholar.

^{page 210 note 2} The titles have been translated from the Italian text.

^{page 210 note 3} Examples of salutations used by the Mamluk chancery for Christian rulers are to be found in Qalqashandī, , Ṣubḥ, vii, 27–53Google Scholar (of which three are for the Venetian Doge, pp. 47–8); Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 166, 182, 183, 211, 213, 222, 225Google Scholar; Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, pp. 344, 350, 355, 360, 365, 368, 370Google Scholar; Elezovié, , Turshi spomenici I, pt. 2, pp. 169, 174, 184Google Scholar; and Amari, , Biblioteca Arabo-Sicula, Leipzig, 1857, pp. 342–3Google Scholar. Dalmatia and Croatia are the readings of Amari (‘Dei titoli che usava la cancelleria di Egitto’, Memorie Accademia Lincei, xii, 1883—1884, 515, 519)Google Scholar for the manuscript of the Ṣubḥ in which the two words appear as or and or . He further suggests that might be derived from ‘Cral, il titolo di principe’ (p. 515, n. 1). The Doges of Venice were in fact granted the title ‘Dux Dalmatie atque Chroatie’ in 1084 by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I (Kretschmayr, , Oeschichte von Venedig, Gotha, 1905–1920, i, 165)Google Scholar, and used the title in correspondence with Muslim rulers (see Latrie, Mas, Traités de paix et de commerce, Paris, 1866, ‘Documents’, pp. 216, 222)Google Scholar. ‘Ornament’ (see text, plate I (a), 1. 5) is also the conclusion of Amari (‘Dei titoli’, 519, 526) who read rather than in the manuscript of the Ṣubḥ, though the Cairo edition (viii, 47) has which would appear to make less sense.

^{page 211 note 1} The Venetian new year began in March.

^{page 211 note 2} A not uncommon expression. See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 166Google Scholar; and Alarcón-García, , Documentos, p. 370Google Scholar.

^{page 211 note 3} This seems to be a fair translation of the word mithāl in the context of this document where it appears twice (see text, plates I (b), 1. 2, and iv (b), 1. 2). For its more technical uses in the Mamluk chancery see Björkman, , Staatskanzlei, 113, 115, 138, 153, 168Google Scholar.

^{page 211 note 4} Marsūm (pi.marāsīm) is the usual term for the Sultan's order relating to commercial privileges, though manshūr and murabba'a also occur (see Moritz, , ‘Ein Firman’, 429, 437, n. 1)Google Scholar, as well as mithāl (See Amari, , Diplomi, p. 205)Google Scholar.

^{page 211 note 5} Ṣadaqātnā al-sharīfa is frequently used to indicate the Sultan. See Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 167, 208Google Scholar, translated ‘bontà’.

^{page 211 note 6} Al-mamālik al-islāmīya was used by the Mamluk sultans to designate their realm, with the descendents of the ‘Abbāsid caliphs in Cairo, as the centre of religious and political authority in Islam. See Ernst, , Sultansurkunden, 158, 192Google Scholar; and Amari, , Diplomi, p. 189Google Scholar.

^{page 211 note 7} Dhakhīratnā al-sharīfa: see Popper, , Egypt and Syria, i, 98Google Scholar (translated ‘treasures'); and Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 226–7, 438Google Scholar (translated ‘tesoro ‘). It was invariably left ‘Dachieri’ in contemporary Italian translations of Mamluk commercial treaties with Venice (in 1504, 1507, and 1512, see p. 200, n. 3), where it appears to designate the repository and market for the wares of which the Mamluk sultans from time to time had monopolies. Khalīl al-Ẓāhirī, in Zubdat kash f al-mamālik (ed. Ravaisse, ), Paris, 1894, p. 110Google Scholar (French trans., Beirut, 1950, p. 183) refers to a dīwān al-dhakhīra with an inspector and officials and disposition over many sorts of property.

^{page 211 note 8} Al-qatā‘i’ (sing, qit'a). This word, which occurs in the writings of Al-Athīr, Ibn and Khaldūn, Ibn, is denned by Fahmy, A. M. in Muslim sea-power in the Eastern Mediterranean, London, 1950, 129Google Scholar, as ‘a kind of vessel, a piece or part of the fleet’. It was used for ships of war as well as for transport. See also Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 199, 208Google Scholar, translated ‘galea’.

^{page 212 note 1} On Venetian coinage in circulation in the Mamluk sultanate, see Popper, , Egypt and Syria, II, 41–79Google Scholar.

^{page 212 note 2} Al-qumāsh appears to be a generic name for cloth, though Amari, (Diplomi, pp. 189, 193)Google Scholar translates it ‘mercanzie in generate e robe minute’.

^{page 212 note 3} Al-mukhmal al-manqush. The embroidery was apparently supposed to have been worked in gold thread. See Heyd, , Commerce, ii, 703–5Google Scholar (‘camelotto’); Pegolotti, , Pratica, 79, 85Google Scholar (‘velluto’). Neither mentions this cloth with gold embroidery. Perhaps ‘camocato ‘is meant (Heyd, n, 697, and Pegolotti, 36). See also Serjeant, R. B., ‘Materials for a history of Islamic textiles—I’, Ars Islamica, ix, 1942, 72Google Scholar.

^{page 212 note 4} Al-jūkh may be a general term for woollen cloth. See Lewis, B., Notes and documents from the Turkish archives, Jerusalem, 1952, 13, 14, 38, n. 20Google Scholar. Cf. Persian chūkhā and Turkish choqa in Dozy, R., Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, Leiden, Paris, 1927, I, 230Google Scholar. See also Amari, (Diplomi, p. 187)Google Scholar where jūkh and ṣūf occur together, translated by him ‘panni, lane e simili’. ‘Cut in the centre’ would seem to mean that the rolls of cloth were not of one piece.

^{page 212 note 5} Al-mu'tamad. The usual words for representative or agent are wakīl and qāṣid (rendered in this sense in Italian by ‘ochilo’ and ‘messo’, for example in the Mamluk-Venetian treaties referred to in p. 200, n. 3). It is not impossible that mu'tamad is synonomous with qunṣul (Italian ‘console ‘), the Venetian consuls having been the sole representatives of the Doge in Egypt and Syria.

^{page 212 note 6} Qābala. See Dozy, , Supplement, ii, 304Google Scholar.

^{page 212 note 7} I have found no record of this episode, condensed to a sentence in the Italian translation (paragraph X), in Venetian sources, although similar cases of kidnapping in 1465 and 1475 were the subjects of protracted negotiations between Venice and Cairo, and are recorded in both Arabic and Italian sources. For 1465: ASV, Senato deliberazioni secrete, xxii, fols. 83, 95, 96, 130; and Birdī, Ibn Taghrī, Hawādith (ed. Popper, ), Leiden, 1930, 499Google Scholar. For 1475: ASV, Senato deliberazioni secrete, xxvn, fols. 95, 96; Iyās, Ibn: Badā'i', iii, 110, 115Google Scholar; and Wiet, G., ‘Les marchands d'épices sous les sultans mamlouks’, Cahiers d'Histoire Égyptienne, vii, 2, 1955, 127Google Scholar.

^{page 213 note 1} Al-ma'dala al-sharīfa. See also Ernst, , Sultansurkunden, 182Google Scholar.

^{page 213 note 2} Nafaqa. This was the common practice in dealing with foreign envoys at the Mamluk court. See Birdī, Ibn Taghrī, al-Nujūm al-ẓāhira (ed. Popper, ), Leiden, 1909-, vii, 6, 114, 121Google Scholar (trans. Popper, v, 4, 82, 86), and Hawādith, 214, 477; Iyās, Ibn, Badā'i', ii, 62, 94, IV, 119, 124, 145, 378, 402Google Scholar, and especially pp. 259 and 268 for Venetian and French envoys in 918/1512. When the Mamluk envoy Taghrī Birdī travelled to Venice in 1506 the Senate ordered his expenses to be paid from the consular funds in Alexandria and Damascus (ASV, Senato deliberazioni secrete, XL, fol. 185).

^{page 213 note 3} Al-gā'ima. See Björkman, : Staatskanzlei, 115Google Scholar. The usual Italian word is ‘polizza’, list or receipt (see Pegolotti, , Pratica, 41)Google Scholar.

^{page 213 note 4} This and the following concluding formulae appear, with slight variations, in most documents emanating from the Mamluk chancery. A more detailed discussion of these formulae will appear in my forthcoming study of Mamluk commercial treaties, referred to in p. 205, n. 2. See Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 217, 229Google Scholar; Ernst, , Sultansurkunden, 192, 196Google Scholar.

^{page 213 note 5} Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 213, 217, 220Google Scholar; Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, pp. 351, 356, 361, 366, 369, 370Google Scholar; Elezovié, , Turski spomenici, I, pt. 2, pp. 174, 182Google Scholar; Ernst, , Sultansurkunden, 194, 196Google Scholar.

^{page 213 note 6} Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 217, 220, 225Google Scholar; Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, pp. 346, 351, 356, 361Google Scholar; Elezovié, , Turski spomenici, I, pt. 2, p. 182Google Scholar.

^{page 213 note 7} Amari, , Diplomi, pp. 183, 435, n. 7Google Scholar. Ernst, , Sultansurkunden, 170, 178Google Scholar, reads in a decree ‘God is our sufficiency and it suffices’, rather than . The more common ṣasbala is ṣasbunā allāh wa ni'ma 'l-wakīl; see Björkman, ; Staatslcanzlei, 117Google Scholar; Amari, , Diplomi, p. 225Google Scholar; Alarcón-Garcia, , Documentos, pp. 338, 346, 356Google Scholar.