Michele Membré was a Venetian Cypriot, tasked by the Venetian Doge with delivering a letter. This letter, hidden in a book binding, urged Shah Tahmasp to help Venice by attacking the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman from the East.
Membré (eventually) reached Tahmasp’s military camp (urdu), and his description of this is uniquely detailed. Membré recording seeing 5000 tents and 14,000 horsemen; while “of horses and mules [the Shah] had so many that they could not be counted”.
The court was surrounded by “a cord as thick as a finger” suspended on poles fixed into the ground, and with two entrances.
Within the cord were the Shah’s ‘pavilions’. The audience palace, or divankhana, had three pavilions – the first of which was for the actual audiences. The second pavilion was “very large” and “there, within, stands an utaq”. This was “made of sticks of gilded wood in the form of a dome and covered over with scarlet. Upon the cloth is foliage, cut out and sewn with silk. Within, on the ground, there was a red felt, lined with a kind of woollen canvas, and over the said felt there were very fine carpets of silk, on which appeared figures of many animals and foliage”. The third of the tents, “30 to 25 paces behind” was where the Shah “sleeps when it is not cold”. There was also a “stew, that is bath” for the Shah. To the west “is another dome, covered in scarlet . . in which are painters”. Then there were “about five” old men, guardians, outside an entrance which AH Morton presumed was that of the women’s quarters.
Outside of the “King’s court” were the kitchen and supply tents, next to which “stand the tents of the most beloved of the Lords, [and then more] tents as far as a man could see, all well-ordered, with their streets”.
This week, a snippet from the work of the great AH (Sandy) Morton. Sandy, very sadly, died recently – and his memorial service was just a few weeks ago. Sandy inspired me (and many others) in lots of ways. He was a supremely skilled translator of obscure and difficult Persian. He very (very!) kindly let me put some of his photos of Siahkuh and Haramserail on my website (click here to see them).
My personal favourite from his work, though, is his translation (from the Italian) of Michele Membré’s Mission to the Lord Sophy of Persia 1539-42). it is jammed full with great stuff – but this week’s blog focuses on Membré’s description of Tahmasp’s splendid tented military camp.
The pic is of Sandy as a young man, in one of the photo-booths that still exist in Mashhad – though the backdrops are lots more glitzy now!