_ 104 _ whom we now call Shah Tahmasp(A) Lord of Persia, one of the most powerful men in the world. All his people are horsemen, who forever wander about the countryside. As great bowmen, they have no wish to use any sort of artillery. They put up great resistance against the Turks, whom they kill in great numbers. They have ordered all the Turkish fortresses to be demolished so as to wage war in the countryside. These people are great philosophers, medical doctors and astrologers. [12v] so as to raise their spirits(B), but they could not find anyone among all their number who understood Latin, so they did not go there. I shall send some of these to São Paulo and also some janissaries(C), as well as apostate Abyssinians from the land (A) Shah Tahmasp, King of Persia 1524-76. He was the son of Ismael, founder of the Safavid dynasty; a Mohammedan, protector of the weak, and a man whose kindness is praised (Encyclopaedia Italiana 33, 188; ESPASA 61, 511). (B) We are of the opinion that the writer was the Armenian Christian Patriarch (Catholicos), Stephen V (1542-1564), who while living in Rome in the years 1548-50 submitted to Paul III, or his coadjutor Michael de Sebaste (1542-64) (cf. Schurhammer, Q 4464-65; Dictionary of Ecclesiastical History and Geography IV 323 373), or the Nestorian Patriarch Simon Bar Mama (cf. Schurhammer, The Malabar Church and Rome 41). (C) Janízaro, janíçaro (Turkish yenf-cheri): Turkish infantry soldiers serving in the Sultan’s guard, similar to the Roman Praetorian guard. The term is sometimes used as a synonym for “ordinary
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTg0NzAy