A History of Sinai

by Lina Eckenstein

THE PILGRIMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES II.

THE war of retaliation, which the Sultan waged against the king of Cyprus, interrupted the flow of pilgrims to the East in the first half of the fifteenth century. Moreover, the sultans, more especially Bursbai (1423-38), began to squeeze the Christian merchants. Their grievances raised the ire of Emmanuel Piloti, a native of Crete, who spent twenty-five years in Egypt and Syria, and acquired considerable insight into affairs generally. He was moved to compose a missive which he addressed to Pope Eugenius IV (1431-47). In this he spoke of the achievements of the Crusaders, insisting that Mohammad had called for toleration of the Christians, a call that was disregarded by Sultan Bursbai, who oppressed them grievously. The resources of the Sultan were enormous. He ruled from Mecca to India, and had full control of the spicery that was unshipped at “Torre, as the port of St. Katherine is now called.” He levied 10 per cent. on the value of these goods, not once, but several times over, as they passed through his dominions. Why, asked Piloti, did not the head of all Christendom arise in defence of the Christians, sally forth like the Crusaders, conquer Cairo, and supplant the Sultanate? In doing so, he would have the support of the Arabs of the desert.

The Church of Rome, however, was bent on propaganda along more peaceful lines. After the Crusades the Franciscans, starting from Jerusalem, penetrated into Tartary and China. The plan was now formed of securing a foothold in Sinai as a stepping-stone on the way to India. With this end in view Pope Calixtus III (1455-58) addressed a letter to the Franciscans urging that they should secure further sites, including one on Mount Sinai (“concedimus ut nova loca etiam in Monte Sina capere possitis”).[273] The direct steps that were taken are not known, but in the course of the fifteenth century we hear of Franciscans, popularly known as Cassis, moving to and fro between Gaza where they had a house, and the convent, where at first a room and later a chapel was reserved for the celebration of a Roman Catholic service.

The desire to penetrate to India and beyond was very general. Thus, Pero Tafur, a Castilian nobleman, arrived at the convent in the year 1435 on his way to Tur, where he hoped to embark for India. But at Tur he met Niccolo da Conti, for many years a resident in India, who was on his way to Cairo, where he intended to lodge a complaint with the Sultan (Bursbai), because of the indignities to which he was exposed. His account made Pero Tafur give up the thought of his journey.

Tafur found only about fifty to sixty monks at the convent, which had fallen on evil days. The Turk was advancing. In the year 1453 he took possession of Constantinople. As he advanced on Sinai, he laid a heavy hand on the convent, from which he claimed an annual tribute of three hundred ducats. Jacob, the patriarch of Jerusalem († 1482), hereupon despatched a monk of Sinai to the princes of Europe, with a letter asking for help. This monk, besides the letter, carried with him some valuable relics, including a tooth of St. Katherine.[274] His appeal met with a ready response. King Louis XI of France (1463-83) made an annual grant to the convent of two thousand ducats,[275] which was still paid by King Charles VIII in 1497 (Harff, p. 122). Queen Isabella of Spain (1481-1504) gave five hundred ducats a year, a sum which was still paid by King Phillip in 1558.[276] The emperor Maximilian I (1493-1517) and the king of Hungary gave money (Fabri, ii. 623).

Unrest, however, now spread to the Bedawyn. A German pilgrim named Leman in the year 1472 sailed from Beirut to Alexandria in the largest galley of the time, which carried two hundred and sixty Christians and nine hundred Moslim. He was bent on going to the convent, but was prevented from entering Sinai owing to the hostile attitude of the Bedawyn.[277] However, matters again improved, and the pilgrims and the accounts of voyages multiplied. The most notable accounts which describe a visit to the convent are enumerated below.[278]

Among these pilgrims the Flemish knight Anselm Adornes and his party were advised by the monk of Sinai who acted as their guide from Egypt, to adopt the appearance of monks in order to travel with safety. They reached the convent where there were about forty monks in residence, who told them that the Arabs frequently invaded the convent (p. 162). On one of their raids they entered the sanctuary and broke open the marble chest which contained the relics of St. Katherine but, instead of the expected treasures, they found a few bones (Gregor, p. 504).

Towards the close of the century the accounts of pilgrims show that these now came in large parties. In 1479 the Nürnberg patricians Hans Tucher and Sebald Rieter, went to Gaza where they entered into an agreement with a dragoman that was set down in writing to convey them to the convent or Cairo. This agreement is worded exactly in the same way as these agreements are worded at the present day. They travelled with seven Franciscan friars, and on their arrival at the convent Latin mass was celebrated (Tucher, p. 365). Again, in 1483 two parties of Germans, numbering twenty persons in all, visited Palestine and Syria. They included Bernhard von Breydenbach († 1493), of the Chapter of Mayence, who came east with the artist Rewich of Utrecht, whose drawings served to illustrate his patron’s account of his journey. The other party included Felix Fabri, who acted as chaplain to the young Count Solms. Fabri became a friar in 1452 “out of love of St. Katherine, his spouse.” On the arrival at the convent of their party mass was also celebrated in the chapel set apart for Latin use (Fabri, ii. 547).

Another pilgrim was Jan van Aerts of Malines, who sailed from Venice for the East in 1484, with a party of twenty Franciscan friars travelling with a Portuguese whom Jan referred to as the grand facteur. It was customary at the time for each visitor to deposit two ducats in the chest of St. Katherine. In addition to this, the grand facteur gave a thousand ducats to the monks. From the convent he and his party proceeded to Tur, where they took boat for India. But at the port of Medina they were forced to turn back owing to the enmity of the Arabs. The desire to penetrate to the far East was increasing. Mynher Joos van Ghistelles visited the convent in 1485, and went on to Tur, where he met the Venetian Bonajuto del Pan (Albani) and the Milanese Benedetto da Navara, who were on their way to Ormuz on the Persian Gulf, in order to visit the coral and pearl fisheries (Joos, p. 227). In 1487 the two Portuguese, Pedro da Cavillan and Alfonso da Paiva, came from Cairo to Tur, from where they sailed for Aden, Alfonso on his way to Ethiopia, the lesser India, in search of Prester John; Pedro on his way to the coast of Malabar, in order to see the spice-growing districts and to collect information on Madagascar and Calicut, which he laid before his king.[279] In 1489 Joannes de Hese passed through the convent and Tur on his way to India. The Ritter von Harff went from the convent with a letter of introduction to the monks at the convent of St. John in Tur, where he left for Mecca and Madagascar, returning to Egypt by way of the Mountains of the Moon and the course of the Nile. Von Harff illustrated the account of his journeys with many cuts, of which the one here reproduced shows the knight before St. Katherine ([Fig. 21]). These various writings supply information on the cost and routes of travel at the time. According to the English Information for Pilgrims of about 1450, the cost of going from Venice to the Holy Land and back was 50 ducats.[280] One party of pilgrims of 1483 paid 42 ducats each on the understanding that they were allowed full time to see the Holy Places, and received two meals a day; the other party paid 45 ducats each, their meals including wine. The party of twenty persons in 1484 paid a thousand ducats, i.e. 50 ducats for each person. Half the money was paid at Venice before starting, the other half on arrival at Jaffa. A certain Zülnhart fell ill at Venice after paying his 25 ducats, and as he was unable to sail, his money was forfeited.[281]