The Reports of Venetians and Pilgrims on Ottoman Palestine in the İtalian Sources (XVIth-XVIIth Centuries)
The Reports of Venetians and Pilgrims on Ottoman Palestine in the İtalian Sources (XVIth-XVIIth Centuries)

Summary/Abstract: The Mediterranean has traditionally been a place of transit for men, goods and inventions. Fernand Braudel, a historian of the Annales School, saw the Mediterranean as “an immense sponge that has slowly become imbued with all knowledge.” There were several protagonists here: In the western Mediterranean, the Spanish monarchy and the Genoese, and in the eastern Mediterranean the Republic of Venice with its colonies of the State da Mar. The latter was in dialogue with the great enemy of the Christian West, the Ottoman Empire. This new political actor, following the capture of Constantinople (1453) overlooking the Mare Nostrum, embarked on an expansionist policy that involved not only the Balkan area, but also the Mediterranean. The empire had a feudal composition, with a large number of vassal territories including the Arabian Peninsula. Within this multicultural context, a commercial power such as the Serenissima managed to defend its interests in various regions of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine, despite the religious adversity between the Turks and the Western world. Through an analysis of the relevant Italian sources, this study explores the relations between the Sublime Porte and the Republic of Venice in Palestine, a region where commercial exchanges took place, but also pilgrims arrived to see the places sacred for Christendom.

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