Michele Membré, Relazione... (1539-1542)

Portrait of Tahmasp I by an unknown Italian artist,
XVI-XVII centuries, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Starting in 1521, the Ottomans led by the maverick Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent embarked on a rapid succession of victories in southeast Europe, capturing Belgrade, overrunning Hungary and besieging Vienna. Alarmed by these successes, Venice explored a possibility of forming an alliance with the rising Safavid Persia, where Shah Tahmasp had been also hard-pressed by the Ottomans. In 1539 the Venetian government made the decision to dispatch the thirty year old Michele Membré to Persia. Born into a well-to-do (but not patrician) Venetian family, Membré spoke several languages - Italian, Greek, Turkish and Arabic - and was a sociable person who found it easy to get to know people, all qualities that, in the eyes of the Venetian governing council, made him eminently qualified for the embassy. 

Pretending to be a merchant, Membré left Venice in early 1539 and, after passing  Crete, Cyprus and the Ottoman heartlands, he reached Western Georgia in late spring. After spending several weeks in Mingrelia, Imeretia and Kartli, he traveled to Armenia where he revealed his identity to the Persian authorities and was conveyed, with appropriate pomp, to Marand (some 45 miles northwest of Tabriz) where Shah Tahmasp had established his royal encampment. Welcomed by the shah, Membré spent several months at the Safavid court advocating alliance with Venice against the Turks and had exceptional opportunities to observe the Persian court. By the summer of 1540, Membré embarked on a return journey, travelling to the Portuguese colony in Hormuz, then to India and Portugal before returning back home in early spring of 1542. It was Venetian practice for envoys to present detailed accounts of their missions and Membré submitted his Relazione in July 1542. This document document provides excellent insights into the regions that Membré had visited and below is the excerpt on his experiences in Georgia.

Then I found a ship ready to go to Kaffa [in the Crimea], loaded with cotton botanoes from Adana and Tarsus. In the said ship were Turkish and Greek merchants; the sailors were Greek. So I straightway found the master of the ship and came to agreement with him; and because the sailors were Greek the master treated me kindly. And on the instant I loaded my camlets, which I had bought in Angora, and also sold that donkey of mine. And then we set out for Kaffa; if I am not mistaken, that was in the month of June 1539; and we went straight to Kaffa, remaining 18 days at sea with contrary winds and calms. The city of Kaffa consumes much cotton cloth because of the dyers. Then, together with the merchants, we lodged in a caravanserai... And that same day I found another Greek ship loaded with salt and other merchandise, master Khoja Ra'is of Sinop, which was ready to go to Mingrelia; and the next day I straightway found the master in the company of an Athenian barber, and I spoke with him, saying that he should carry me to Mingrelia. He replied that he would do so gladly. So, on the third day I loaded those few mohairs and camlets and on the fourth day set off on the said ship; from there we always sailed in sight of land, and in 18 or 16 days we reached a place called Anaclia, territory of the King Dadian of Mingrelia. 

In this place there is a large river, on which the ships go into when they are unloaded. Then the ship stops there on the said shore and holds a market within the ship, all by barter; they give cloth and take cloth. The Mingrelians come alongside the ship in their boats and each brings a bag with his cloth. So in that way they hold their markets. Salt is not found in the said place of Mingrelia. Leather and sheepskin and other goods are very dear. In the said place of Mingrelia there comes forth much yellow wax, linen thread and canarine silk of Zagem [Zagemi in eastern georgia] and they also sell many slaves. Then the next day the said ship began unloading salt and loading it into the boats to send to be sold in a market which they were going to hold in those days on the Phasis River at a place called Culauropa. 

And I went with the said boats to the said place where the market is held; and we travelled always in the boats on a river called the Phasis for 8 days. On the said river are infinitely many trees, on one side and the other, flat country; so each night the boat stopped by land and in the morning travelled, proceeding by sail. In the said place many flies and mosquitoes are found, which I surely could not have survived if I had not covered my face with a cloth, and all my body and hands; for the said mosquitoes were of such a kind that, when they had found uncovered flesh, they treated it so that the blood flowed as if a phlebotomy [ the practice of drawing blood from patients] had been performed. 

The Mingrelians go very poorly dressed, all with short cotton clothes and unshod, which we value for nothing. But it is quite true that all their feet look as if they were scabby. They wear on their heads a piece of felt like a mitre; they are all very small. To the north are many high mountains. The Mingrelian gentlemen wear very long clothes and a pair of boots of sheepskin leather, not having a leather sole but all of that sheepskin; also coloured felt on the head; and they are unbearded, with long moustaches such as the Iberians [eastern Georgians]have. So, because of the mosquitoes, as I have said, we endured great trouble till arriving at the said place of the market, called Culauropa. The said place is by the river called Phasis, to the southeast. It is on a plain within a wood and the houses are of wood, about 50 in number; and in the said place most of the households are Jews, who buy slaves of the Mingrelian nation and make them Jews; and in this the Mingrelians do not say them nay. 

And in the middle of the square where the market assembles stands a Church of Saint George, its vault of copper and with two little bell-towers. The Iberians [Georgians] celebrate the mass, and outside the church, there stands a wooden mast with three or four of their daggers [...] and two swords all stuck into the said wood. So, in that said place Culauropa I found a man from Scio called Zane, who was married there with an old lady of Mingrelia. Wherefore he made me alight at his house. I also found another, who was a venetian, married to a Mingrelian. His name was Bernardo Moliner, a man of forty five years of age, who told me that he had been a miller in Venice and that place in Mingrelia he had children, 3 in number, two male and a female married to one of the Mingrelians. 

Now, many poor people come to the said market, and other Iberian [Georgian] merchants with silks, which they exchange, cloth for cloth, without other money being used. And the said fair lasts three days and then all depart. There only remain those families of the Jews and 10 or 12 families of Mingrelians. 

So after the said fair was ended, as I have said, I set off in the company of a Greek merchant, Calojero of Trebizond by name, and we crossed the said river Phasis in a boat and went to a city of Iberia [Imeretia] called Kutaisi, of King Bashi achuq.* 

We were on the road 21/2 days, always travelling over level ground with many gardens. Then we entered the city called Kutaisi, crossing a river by a wooden bridge. Which river passes beside the said city; and to the north stands a stone fortress on a hill, in which there is a church; and on the other side, to the south east, is a meadow where the said King runs his horses. And beside the river he was building some houses of stone with many vaults, which they said were for the King. However, most of the houses in the  said city are of wood for the most part and there are many gardens.  

I lodged in the house of some goldsmiths from Trebizond, who kept me good company, and together with the said Calojero. In the said city cloth pays 5 per bale in tax. The coins of the said city are like Turkish aspers, and they are called tanka. The stamp on them is some Iberian [Georgian] letters. The King can have, by what was said, horsemen 7,000 in number, who are called aznavurs. The said aznavurs are much bigger men than the rest of us and have long, black moustaches; and they shave the beard. And they wear clothes, that is very long stockings of cotton cloth, of very coarse cotton, and cloth breeches, with, over the stockings, boots of sheepskin leather, and a quilted shirt of coarse cotton cloth, and a very long dolman of cotton cloth; and on the head a felt hat with a very long fine top. Which felts are coloured. Their arms are swords, lances, shield, bow and arrows, iron mace, mail coat, cuirassine, half helmet, plate gauntlets, good horses with good silk covers such that an arrow cannot go through them. So, when one of the said aznavurs rides to go to the field of battle, he wears all those arms. 

The said city of Kutaisi is very small.  After 7 or 8 days we went our way to another city called Gori, on which we were four days on the road, travelling always over very high mountains, full of trees and with many rivers, on which roads there is much mire; and about a day from the said city of Gori we passed by a fortress which stood on the summit of a mountain, and was in ruins for the most part. Then we came to to a place where there were houses to the number of about 70, all Jews, and beside that place passed a sweet stream like a canal. Thus, a river passes by the city called Gori. And with the horses we passed the said river and entered the city and lodged in the house of some Trapezuntines. The city is half of houses of wood and the other half of earth and part of stone. The city is small and to the north stands a stone fortress, partly in ruins. The King of the said place is called King Luarsab; he has horsemen called aznavurs, some 5,000 in number, by the account of his gentlemen. The people who live in the said city are half Armenians and the other half Iberians [Georgians]. They do not have salt, save that which comes from the lands of the Sophy [Persia]. Then, having loaded the mules, after 8 days I departed and went to another city called Tiflis, in the company of an Armenian of Lori. This city belongs to the said King Luarsab; to it we traveled 1 1/2 days. The said city of Tiflis is very large but the greater part of it was destroyed on account of the many wars the said Iberians have made among themselves. So the next day we departed, in company of five other Armenians who were going to Lori, the first of the Sophy's [Shah tahmasp's] cities, which borders on Iberia...

*King of Imereti was Bagrat III; Bashi achuq was the Ottoman name for the Imeretians.