Eastern Trade and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages: Pegolotti’s Ayas-Tabriz Itinerary and its Commercial Context: 25 (Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies)

Description

At the end of the High Middle Ages in Europe, with buying power and economic sophistication at a high, an itinerary detailing the toll stations along a commercial artery carrying eastern goods (from China, India and Iran) towards Europe was compiled, and later incorporated in the well-known trading manual of the Florentine bank official Pegolotti; Pegolotti was twice stationed in the city of Famagusta in Cyprus, which lay opposite the city of Ayas where the land route ended. The Il-Khanid capital, Tabriz in Iran, attracting expensive merchandise such as spices and silk from a variety of origins, was the road’s starting-point. To demonstrate the importance of the route in its own time, parallel and contemporary routes in the Black Sea and the Levant are traced and the effect of trade on their cities noted. To compare the Ayas itinerary (1250s to 1330s) with previous periods the networks of commercial avenues in the previous period (1100-1250) and the subsequent one (1340s to 1500) are reconstructed. In each period the connection of east-west trade with the main movements of the European economy are fully drawn out, and the effects on the building history of the three main Italian cities concerned (Venice, Genoa and Florence) are sketched. Attention then turns to the Pegolotti itinerary itself. The individual toll stations are identified employing a variety of means, such as names taken from the Roman itineraries (Peutinger Table and Antonine Itinerary) and archaeological data; this allows the course of the track to be followed through diverse topography to the city of Sivas, then across plains and through passes to Erzurum and finally to Tabriz. A picture is drawn of the urban history of each major city, including Sivas, Erzurum and Tabriz itself, and of the other towns along the route. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Illustrations Author’s preface Markings, transliteration and symbols Markings of proper names, quotations, symbols Transliteration Part A Introduction Chapter 1 The documents and the routes 1. Date and significance of the route 2. Sources, date, etc. of the Pratica and of the itinerary 3. Aims of the present book 4. Methods of travel, shipment of goods, distances, etc. 5. Problems and methods of identifying the route Notes Chapter 2 The commercial background A. Before the Ayas-Tabriz route B. The period of the Ayas–Tabriz itinerary C. After the Ayas–Tabriz itinerary D. Summary Notes Part B THE Ayas-Tabriz Itinerary Chapter 3 Ayas to Sivas A. Famagusta and Ayas B. The road from Ayas to Sivas C. Sivas Notes Chapter 4 Sivas to Erzincan A. Introduction B. The ancient itineraries C. Pegolotti’s route D. Erzincan Notes Chapter 5 Erzincan to Erzurum A. Pegolotti’s route B. The Tabula Peutingeriana route from Satala eastwards C. Conclusions D. Erzurum Notes Chapter 6 Erzurum to Tabriz A. The Tabula Peutingeriana B. Pegolotti’s route C. Tabriz and Sultaniyya Notes Part C Conclusions Conclusions Notes Appendix I: Ottoman routes of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries in the Sivas–Erzurum sector (a) The military route (‘Heerstraβe’) (b) Wider detours, taken by Selim I, from the main route (c) Caravan routes (“Karawanenwege”) (d) General conclusions, and implications for the Pegolotti route Notes Appendix II: Coins Abbreviations, glossary, layout Seljuk Period (twelfth and thirteenth centuries) Fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Bibliography Maps Index