How Many Miles to Babylon?: Travels and Adventures to Egypt and Beyond, From 1300 to 1640 (2003)

How Many Miles to Babylon? uses the writing of European travelers to Egypt between c. 1300 and c. 1600 to give a picture of the country in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, drawing on sources that have hitherto been inaccessible to English-speaking audiences. These accounts portray an Egypt ruled by the despotic Mamluk sultans and the early Ottoman governors, a society at once cruel and sophisticated, dangerous and alluring. The Europeans’ wonderment at the exotic flora and fauna, the ancient ruins of temples and pyramids, and the astonishing summer rise of the Nile to irrigate the crops and replenish the lakes and waterways of Cairo is well conveyed by these travelers’ tales. How Many Miles to Babylon? is a fascinating picture of the people, customs and culture of Egypt from the fourteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth. "After the conflicts of the Crusades, increasing numbers of western merchants established trading companies in Egypt to channel the lucrative spices and oriental luxuries into Europe. Besides these traders, Christian pilgrims also travelled to Egypt, drawn to sites associated with the Holy Family in Cairo, St. Mark in Alexandria and St. Catherine in Sinai. Many of these merchants and pilgrims left first-hand accounts of their experiences, and these stories are the basis for How Many Miles to Babylon?" "Among the visitors were Emanuel Piloti, a Venetian merchant from Crete, whose endearing personality won him widespread affection from fellow traders and Muslims alike; Christopher Harant, a nobleman from Prague, who survived the perils of the desert journey across the Sinai desert to the Monastery of St. Catherine, only to be robbed by brigands on the return journey; and Johann Wild, a German soldier captured by the Turks and sold in the Cairo slave market to a tyrannical Persian merchant." "These accounts portray an Egypt ruled by the despotic Mamluk sultans and the early Ottoman governors, a society at once cruel and sophisticated, dangerous and alluring. The Europeans' wonderment at the exotic flora and fauna, the ancient ruins of temples and pyramids and the astonishing summer rise of the Nile to irrigate the crops and replenish the lakes and waterways of Cairo is well conveyed by these travellers' tales. How Many Miles to Babylon? is a picture of the people, customs and culture of Egypt from the fourteenth to the beginning of the seventeenth century."--Jacket Title Page......Page 5 Contents......Page 9 Preface......Page 11 Permissions......Page 12 List of Illustrations......Page 13 List of Abbreviations......Page 17 Glossary......Page 18 Introduction......Page 19 1: The Mamluk Rulers of Egypt......Page 32 2: Egypt Imagined and the Realities of the Voyage......Page 58 3: The Maritime Port of Alexandria......Page 79 4: Sailing Upstream to Cairo......Page 115 5: Cairo: ‘meeting place of comer and goer’......Page 130 6: Venetian Diplomacy and the Arrival of the Ottomans......Page 169 7: Exploring the Pyramids and Mummy Fields......Page 185 8: Pilgrims to the Monastery of St Catherine......Page 213 9: Adventures with the Mecca Caravan......Page 251 10: To the South......Page 268 Appendix 1: Europeans in Egypt in the Reigns of the Mamluk Sultans up to 1517......Page 303 Appendix 2: Europeans in Egypt in the Reigns of the Ottoman Sultans after 1517......Page 304 Bibliography......Page 305 Index......Page 315 How Many Miles to Babylon? uses the writing of European travellers to Egypt between c. 1300 and c. 1600 to give a picture of the country in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, drawing on sources that have hitherto been inaccessible to English-speaking audiences. These accounts portray an Egypt ruled by the despotic Mamluk sultans and the early Ottoman governors, a society at once cruel and sophisticated, dangerous and alluring. The Europeans'wonderment at the exotic flora and fauna, the ancient ruins of temples and pyramids, and the astonishing summer rise of the Nile to irrigate the crops and replenish the lakes and waterways of Cairo is well conveyed by these travellers'tales. How Many Miles to Babylon? is a fascinating picture of the people, customs and culture of Egypt from the fourteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth. How Many Miles to Babylon? uses the writing of European travellers to Egypt between c. 1300 and c. 1600 to give a picture of the country in the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, drawing on sources that have hitherto been inaccessible to English-speaking audiences. These accounts portray an Egypt ruled by the despotic Mamluk sultans and the early Ottoman governors, a society at once cruel and sophisticated, dangerous and alluring. The Europeans? wonderment at the exotic flora and fauna, the ancient ruins of temples and pyramids, and the astonishing summer rise of the Nile to irrigate