Abd-al-Razzāq Samarqandī 3: To Home, to Herat

1550 map of the Arabian Sea and surrounding lands - Wikimedia

The Timurid ambassador's time in India comes to an end, and he heads for home.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

• India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India. Edited by Richard Henry Major. Hakluyt Society, 1857.

• Alam, Muzaffar and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400–1800. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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Abd-al-Razzaq Samarqandi 2: City of Victory

Chariot and Temple at Hampi - Wikimedia

Shah Rukh's ambassador to the Indian city of Qaliqut arrives at the heart of the Vijayanagara Empire, finding much to admire but also war, a usurper, and uncertainties about his own status. We visit Hampi, the centre of that late-medieval power, and we talk about elephants.

Sources:

• India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India. Edited by Richard Henry Major. Hakluyt Society, 1857.

• Alam, Muzaffar and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400–1800. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

• Caine, William Sproston. Picturesque India: A Handbook for European Travellers. G. Routledge, 1891.

• Prange, Sebastian R. Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

• Ray, Aniruddha. "The Rise and Fall of Vijayanagar – an Alternative Hypothesis to "Hindu Nationalism" Thesis," in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 64, 2003.

• Sewell, Robert. A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1900.

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Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo 6: There and Back Again

Vasily Vereshchagin - The Apotheosis of War

The Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo story reaches its conclusion, and so does that of Timur aka Tamerlane.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

Sources:

• Narrative of the embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the court of Timour at Samarcand, A.D. 1403-6, translated by Clements R. Markham. Hakluyt Society, 1859.

• Embassy to Tamerlane: 1403-1406, translated by Guy le Strange. Routledge, 2005.

• Ahmad ibn 'Arabshah. Tamerlane or Timur the Great Amir, translated by J. H. Sanders. Luzac & Co., 1936.

• Manz, Beatrice Forbes. The Rise and Rule of Tamerlane. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

• Manz, Beatrice Forbes. Power, Politics and Religion in Timurid Iran. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

• Marozzi, Justin. Islamic Empires: Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization. Penguin, 2019.

• Rubiés, Joan-Pau. "Late Medieval Ambassadors And The Practice Of Cross-Cultural Encounters 1250–1450," in The ‘Book’ of Travels: Genre, Ethnology, and Pilgrimage, 1250-1700, edited by Palmira Brummett.

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Sir John Mandeville 5: Mongols, Mountains, and Myths

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville - British Library Add. Ms 24189

Finishing up with Mandeville's travels, we visit the palace of the Mongol khan, the fortress paradise of the Old Man of the Mountain, and a land that never sees the sun.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here.

Sources:

• Sir John Mandeville: The Book of Marvels and Travels, translated by Anthony Bale. Oxford University Press, 2012.

• The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, translated by Charles Moseley. Penguin, 2005.

• The Book of John Mandeville, edited by Tamarah Kohanski and C. David Benson. Medieval Institute Publications, 2007. 

• Friedman, John Block. The Monstrous Races in Medieval Art and Thought. Syracuse University Press, 2000.

• Higgins, Iain Macleod. Writing East: The "Travels" of Sir John Mandeville. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.

• Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the West: 1221-1410. Routledge, 2018.

• Metlitzki, Dorothee. The Matter of Araby in Medieval England. Yale University Press, 2005.

• Tzanaki, Rosemary. Mandeville's Medieval Audiences: A Study on the Reception of the Book of Sir John Mandeville (1371-1550). Taylor & Francis, 2017.

• Verner, Lisa. The Epistemology of the Monstrous in the Middle Ages. Routledge, 2005.

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Thomas Dallam 4: Edward Barton in Constantinople

Edward Barton takes up residence in Constantinople, struggles with his unofficial position, navigates the death of a sultan, and eventually goes to war alongside the Ottomans against a Christian foe. And Thomas Dallam’s departure creeps closer.  Thanks for listening!

(MP3)

If you like what you hear, my Patreon is here, my Ko-fi is here, and Paypal is here..

Sources for Dallam series:

• Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant, edited by J. Theodore Bent. Hakluyt Society, 1893.
• Andrews, Kenneth. Trade, Plunder, and Settlement. Cambridge University Press, 1984.
• Brotton, Jerry. The Sultan and the Queen. Viking, 2016. 
• Dallam, Thomas. The Sultan's Organ: London to Constantinople in 1599 and Adventures on the Way, translated by John Mole. Fortune, 2012.
• Finkel, Caroline. Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. Basic Books, 2007.
• Jardine, Lisa. “Gloriana Rules the Waves: or, the Advantage of Being Excommunicated (and a Woman).” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society No. 14 (2004): 209–22.
• Jenkinson, Anthony, et al. Early Voyages and Travels to Russia and Persia. Hakluyt Society, 1886.
• Maclean, Gerald. The Rise of Oriental Travel: English Visitors to the Ottoman Empire, 1580-1720. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
• Mayes, Stanley. An Organ for the Sultan. Putnam, 1956.
• Pedani, Maria Pia. "Safiye's household and Venetian diplomacy." Turcica, no. 32 (2000): pp. 9–32.
• Sanderson, John. The Travels of John Sanderson in the Levant 1584-1602, edited by Sir William Foster. Hakluyt Society, 1931.
• Somerset, Anne. Elizabeth I. Anchor, 2010.
• Vlami, Despina. Trading with the Ottomans: The Levant Company in the Middle East. I.B.Tauris, 2015.
• Willan, Thomas Stuart. Studies in Elizabethan Foreign Trade. Manchester University Press, 1959.
• Wood, Alfred C. A History of the Levant Company. Frank Cass & Co. Ltd, 2006.

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