IMC 2014: Sessions

Around 1300 the Ottoman Empire began to rise in the East, regularly challenging both local neighbours and Western European powers. The first paper explores the literary representations of Umur Paşa, target of the Crusade of Smyrna in 1343-52. Umur was represented in a widely circulated fake epistle, where his literary double was tailored to fit a variety of different political situations. As such, his portrayal not only informs us of western perceptions of the Turks, but also sheds significant light on the use of apocrypha during the period. The second paper analyses an apocryphal letter on the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Although it is clearly a figment of the imagination, the letter does not belong to the 'classical' apocryphal correspondences between Christians and Muslims. Instead it portrays the Ottoman sultan as both cruel conqueror and just ruler. The last paper focuses on the rise of Portuguese sea power in the shade of the Ottoman threat and on the role of Hospitaller Rhodes in this context. Portuguese travellers such as Afonso de Paiva and Pero da Covilhã stopped at Rhodes on their way to India in 1487, and Portuguese hospitallers such as Fr. Andrea d'Amaral (d. 1522) helped to prevent timber from being supplied to Egypt when the Mamluks wanted to build ships to fight the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean.