Carmelite missions in Safavi state in the period of Shah Abbas I (1587-1629)

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Carmelite missions in Safavi state in the period of Shah Abbas I (1587-1629)

Carmelite tradition traces the origin of the order to a community of hermits on Mount Carmel that succeeded the schools of the prophets in ancient Israel, although there are no certain records of hermits on this mountain before the 1190s. By this date a group of men had gathered at the well of Elijah on Mount Carmel. These men, who had gone to Palestine from Europe either as pilgrims or as crusaders, chose Mount Carmel in part because it was the traditional home of Elijah. The foundation is believed to have been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In 1242 settlements were established at Aylesford, Kent, England, and Hulne, near Alnwick in Northumberland, and two years later in southern France. Settlements were established at Losenham, Kent, and Bradmer, on the north Norfolk coast, before 1247. By 1245 they were so numerous that they were able to hold their first general chapter at Aylesford, where Saint Simon Stock, then eighty years old, was chosen general. During his rule of twenty years the order prospered: foundations were made at London and Cambridge (1247), Marseilles (1248), Cologne (1252), York (before 1253), Monpellier (before 1256), Norwich, Oxford and Bristol (1256), Paris (1258), and elsewhere. By 1274, there were 22 Carmelites houses in England, about the same number in France, eleven in Catalonia, three in Scotland, as well as some in Italy, Germany and elsewhere [1, p.14].

In the late 14^th and 15^thcenturies the Carmelites, like a number of other religious orders, declined and reform became imperative. In 1432 the Carmelites obtained from Pope Eugenius IV the bull Romani pontificis, which mitigated the Rule of St Albert and the 1247 modification, on the ground that the original demanded too much of the friars [1, p. 41].

Reform in Spain began in earnest in the 1560s, with the work of Saint Teresa of Avila, who, together with Saint John of the Cross, established the Discalced Carmelites. Teresa's foundations, although welcomed by King Philip II of Spain - who was most anxious for all Orders to be reformed according to the principles of the Council of Trent (1545-1563) - did create practical problems at grassroots level. The proliferation of new religious houses in towns that were already struggling to cope was an unwelcome prospect, creating a backlash from local townspeople to nobility and diocesan clergy. Teresa made a point of trying to make her monasteries as self-sufficient as was practicable and restricted the number of nuns per community accordingly. The Discalced Carmelites also faced much opposition from other unreformed Carmelite houses (famously exemplified in the arrest and imprisonment in their own monastery of John of the Cross by Carmelites from Toledo). Only in the 1580s did the Discalced Carmelites gain official approval of their status. In 1593, the Discalced Carmelites had their own superior general styled propositus general - the first being Fr. Nicholas Doria. Due to the politics of foundation, the Discalced friars in Italy were canonically erected as a separate juridical entity [3].

By the middle of the 17^th century the Carmelites had reached their zenith. At this period, however, they became involved in controversies with other orders, particularly with the Safavids.

As we know, during the Middle Ages Christian powers, threatened by powerful Muslim states, placed their hopes for a swift and decisive revanche on a ruler from far-off and little known Eastern lands.

The fear of the Ottomans and the hope to crush them once and for all played an important part in prompting many European states to enter into contact with Safavids.

As we know the Ottoman Empire, was founded by Oghuz Turks under Osman Bey in northwestern Anatolia in 1299. With conquests in the Balkans by Murad I between 1365 and 1389, and the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed II in 1453, the Ottoman sultanate was transformed into an empire.

During the 16^th and 17^thcenturies, in particular at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire was a powerful multinational, multilingual empire controlling much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. At the beginning of the 17^thcentury the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of expansion. The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective Sultans. It also flourished economically due to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia.

Sultan Selim I (1512-1520) dramatically expanded the Empire's eastern and southern frontiers by defeating Shah Ismail of Safavid Persia, in the Battle of Chaldiran.Selim I established Ottoman rule in Egypt, and created a naval presence on the Red Sea. After this Ottoman expansion, a competition started between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottoman Empire to become the dominant power in the region [4, p. 55-76].

Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) captured Belgrade in 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of Hungary as part of the Ottoman- Hungarian Wars, and, after his historical victory in the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, he established Turkish rule in the territory of present-day Hungary (except the western part) and other Central European territories. He then laid siege to Vienna in 1529, but failed to take the city [6, p.50].In 1532, he made another attack on Vienna, but was repulsed in the Siege of Guns. Transylvania, Wallachia and, intermittently, Moldavia, became tributary principalities of the Ottoman Empire. In the east, the Ottoman Turks took Baghdad from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of Mesopotamia and naval.

This episode marks the beginning of another stand-still in the diplomatic relations between Safavids and European states, including Rome.

In 1580, shortly after the outbreak of the Ottoman- Safavid war of 1578-1590, the trader Xwale Muhammad arrived in Venice as the envoy of Sultan Khudabendeh (1578-1587). He was well received, though in secret, by the Doge: yet the Republic had made peace with the Porte in 1573 (abandoning the Holy League and consequently being accused by the Pope and the King of Spain of forsaking the Catholic cause). However, Xwaje Muhammad dictated an account to the emissaries of the Venetian government which contained, among other information, interesting details on the genesis of his mission.

Under Shah Abbas I (1587-1629) the Safavid state reached its apogee of political power and military strength. Abbas's expansionist policies also brought him into conflict with the Ottomans. It was the threat from this common “enemy” and the resulting anti-Ottoman interests shared by Safavids and Pope Clement VIII, especially Sigismund III Vasa of Poland which provide the rationale for the contacts the two allied. There was nothing new about these shared interests. Fear of the Ottomans went back as far as the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The subsequent expansion of the Ottoman Empire into southeastern Europe and the area north of the Black Sea had increased concern on the part of European and West-Asian powers alike and was an early ground for European states to seek Muslim allies in an anti- Turkish coalition.European envoys - Carmelites visited Persia (the Safavids - S.M.)

In 1602 Pope Clement VIII, Shah Abbas (1587-1629), the outward looking Safavid ruler who matched a rumoured readiness to convert to Christianity to a supposed eagerness to join forces with Europe in his anti-Ottoman struggle, resolved to send a diplomatic mission to the Shah. He was pre-empted by the Portuguese Viceroy of Goa, who dispatched an Augustinian delegation instead. Its members laid the groundwork for a permanent Augustinian presence in Isfahan.

In 1604 Pope Clement VIII, with the support of Sigismund III Vasa of Poland, dispatched a mission of Discalced Carmelite fathers to Persia; the embassy represented the culmination of a policy of seeking alliances against the Ottoman Empire that had been initiated by Pius V when he had attempted to formalize relations with Shah Tahmasb. These first reformed Carmelites, whose vocation was both contemplative and missionary, had been recruited in Italy in order to evade the control of the king of Portugal, who had a monopoly on missions in Asia; they received a very warm welcome from Shah Abbas I (1588-1629) and were permitted to settle at Isfahan in 1608 under the direction of Father Jean-Thaddee de St.-Elisee (John Thaddeus of St. Elisaeus; 1574-1633). Its members, Juan Tadeo di San Elisio and Paulo Simone, were both Spaniards. They, too, were to exhort Shah Abbas to join an alliance with the Pope and to offer Safavids Western military assistance. As ambassadors, they were given a royal residence near the Meydan-e Mir, where they established a handsome monastery. For many years it sheltered a varying number of fathers from a wide range of national backgrounds [2, p.67].

All these 2 envoys, above mentioned, were messengers rather than ambassadors and strictly speaking they were not even purely Pope's emissaries, since they were originally chosen for their missions by other rulers.

Afterwards, letters between the Safavid court and the Senate were exchanged mainly through missionaries or religious men travelling on behalf of the Shah, the Pope or some other European ruler.

Paul Simon of Jesus Mary, the first leader of the Carmelites, who arrived in Safavids at the end of 1607 and by his residence, at the Court and relations with those in a good position to learn details of what had happened only 20 years previously, stated in his long report after his return to Rome, 1608.

“...The King of Persia (Safavids - S.M.) is called Shah Abbas. He was the second born. Out of fear of his brother (when his father was dead) he fled into Khurasan, where he lived incognito and poorly, like a Darwish among the Tatars there. Some of the principal lords of Persia (Safavids - S.M.), partial to a change, offered him the kingdom. They caused his brother to be killed by the barber, who cut his throat while shaving him; and they sent for this king. Once put forward as a sovereign Abbas I returned to Khurasan with the object of chastising the Usbak tribesmen who after his departure had made a raid, and seized Harat, where Abbas I himself had perhaps passed his early years. Arrived at Mashad he was obliged by news of internal disturbances to go back to Qazvin. Then the young ruler had to hasten south to Shiraz to quell an outbreak in Fars; and that was followed by the menace of a Turkish attack from Mesopotamia into western Persia. Warfare had already been ablaze in Georgia. In 1590, unfavourable for Safavids, peace was made, Tabriz and some Caspian ports remaining with the Turks. Already as early in his reign as 1592 the prowess of the young Abbas I as a warrior and successful fighter against the Turks had reached the Rome, for on 30.09.1592 Pope Clement VIII wrote a brief, and invited the Persian monarch to join a Christian league against the Sultan of the Turks”[2, p.67].

From the beginning it was clear to the Carmelites that, while Abbas I reigned, their diplomatic mission would achieve only minor and temporary success and that the vaunted benign attitude of the shah toward Christianity was entirely relative. On the other hand, their apostolic mission could be furthered in a number of fields. In 1608 Father Paul-Simon de Jesus-Marie (Paul-Simon of Jesus-Mary) proposed the establishment of a school for Armenians. In general, however, Carmelite efforts to draw the Armenian Gregorian church into the Roman see encountered many obstacles, for Abbas I was fundamentally hostile to such a union and supported the opposition. This opposition was made easier by the fact that the thousands of Armenians whom he had transplanted to Isfahan had gradually been reunited under the jurisdiction of the bishops of New Jolfa of Isfahan, a city with privileged status [2, 100-101]. On the other hand, a celebrated mullah undertook, in cooperation with the Carmelites, to translate an Arabic version of the Gospels into Persian (now apparently lost) and to circulate it among learned circles in the capital (it was later revised, about 1618, perhaps by Father John Thaddeus;. The zeal of the first Roman Catholic fathers did meet with some success and even a number of conversions. In 1609 Robert Sherley petitioned Pope Paul V to send Carmelite missionaries to Persia to assist in furthering the work of those already there. Nevertheless, in 1622 there was an outbreak of persecution, which was directed particularly at Muslim converts, five of whom were put to death in Isfahan by royal command. There was also a concerted effort in the villages to convert transplanted Armenian Christians to Islam by force; the Carmelites intervened on behalf of the Armenians of Cahar- Mahal, when some of their villages were forcefully converted to Islam [2, p. 122-123].

The primary importance of the Carmelites in Persia was as witnesses to history; they were observers of political and social events through the reigns of Abbas I and Safi I (1629- 42), the fall of the Safavids, and the subsequent period of troubles. In addition, as great travelers, the Carmelite missionaries were often reassigned to new posts and covered hundreds of kilometers in order to join their provincial chapters: The vicar provincial of Persia was responsible for an enormous territory. Two Carmelites may be mentioned as authors of printed travel accounts: Father Philippe de Sainte-Trinite (Philip of the Holy Trinity), author of Voyages d'Orient, who spent 1038-4o/1629-30 and 1049-50/1640 in the Orient, and Leandre de Ste.-Cecile (Leander of Sta. Cecilia; 1702-84), author of three Viaggi, which were printed at Rome between 1753 and 1757. With the closing of their missions in Persia after 1174/1760 the Carmelites did not withdraw totally from the Middle East; they remained active in Mesopotamia (at Baghdad and Basra) and in India. The Persian mission had, however, known some triumphant moments. For example, the superior of the mission sent by the pope to Persia, Father Paul-Simon, was elected superior general of the Carmelite order three times, in 1623, 1632, and 1641.

In conclusion, the history of diplomatic relations between Persia and Rome during the Safavids, Shah Abbas I can be divided into two phases. In the first one, corresponding to the 16^th century, each of the two states still saw in the other a possibly ally against the Ottomans. Several missions were thus exchanged to this effect, but conditions favourable to war never occurred in both countries at the same time. In the second phase (i.e. in the 17^th century) Popes' envoys to Persia, allowed to operate churches and convents and to engage in circumscribed proselytizing and educational activities. For the next two decades the distraction of Wars of Religion in Central Europe in addition to the absence of any notable activity beyond the Cape on the part of other Catholic countries gave the Iberian Fathers a monopoly in the Safavid realm. And also Safavids envoys to Europe were mainly merchants commissioned to trade in the city on behalf of the Shah.

References

1. Andrew Jotischky,The Carmelites and Antiquity: Mendicants and their pasts in the Middle Ages. Oxford, 2002.

2. A Chronicle of the Carmelites in Persia: The Safavids and the Papal mission of the 17th and 18th centuries. Edited and translated by H.Chick. I.B.Tauris, London, 2012. In 2 volumes.

3. Carmelites // http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmelites

4. Hess, Andrew C. The Ottoman Conquest of Egypt (1517) and the Beginning of the Sixteenth-Century World War". International Journal of Middle East Studies 4 (1), 1973.

5. Haffert, James Mathias; Mary in Her Scapular Promise. AMI Press, 1954.

6. Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002

7. John Welch. The Carmelite Way. London, 1996.

8. Keith J Egan, 'The Spirituality of the Carmelite Order', in Jill Raitt with Bernard McGinn and John Meyendorff, eds, Christian Spirituality: High Middle Ages and Reformation. London: SCM, 1989

Размещено на Allbest.ru