Drafts of Letters and Reports referring to Armenia (1336. 1337).

1336.

To THE DEVATDAR OF SYRIA, LIEUTENANT OF THE SACRED SULTAN OF
BABYLON.

[3] The recent disaster in our Northern parts which I am certain will terrify not you alone but the whole world, which

[Footnote:  Lines 1-52 are reproduced in facsimile on Pl.  CXVI.

1. Diodario. This word is not to be found in any Italian dictionary, and for a long time I vainly sought an explanation of it.  The youthful reminiscences of my wife afforded the desired clue.  The chief town of each Turkish Villayet, or province —­such as Broussa, for instance, in Asia Minor, is the residence of a Defterdar, who presides over the financial affairs of the province. Defterdar hane was, in former times, the name given to the Ministry of Finance at Constantinople; the Minister of Finance to the Porte is now known as the Mallie-Nazri and the Defterdars are his subordinates.  A Defterdar, at the present day is merely the head of the finance department in each Provincial district.  With regard to my suggestion that Leonardo’s Diodario might be identical with the Defterdar of former times, the late M. C. DEFREMERIE, Arabic Professor, and Membre de l’Institut de France wrote to me as follows:  Votre conjecture est parfaitement fondee; diodario est Vequivalent de devadar ou plus exactement devatdar, titre d’une importante dignite en Egypt’e, sous les Mamlouks.

The word however is not of Turkish, but of Perso-Arabie derivation. [Defter written in arab?] literally Defter (Arabic) meaning folio; for dar (Persian) Bookkeeper or holder is the English equivalent; and the idea is that of a deputy in command.  During the Mamelook supremacy over Syria, which corresponded in date with Leonardo’s time, the office of Defterdar was the third in importance in the State.

Soltano di Babilonia.  The name of Babylon was commonly applied to Cairo in the middle ages.  For instance BREIDENBACH, Itinerarium Hierosolyma p. 218 says:  “At last we reached Babylon.  But this is not that Babylon which stood on the further shore of the river Chober, but that which is called the Egyptian Babylon.  It is close by Cairo and the twain are but one and not two towns; one half is called Cairo and the other Babylon, whence they are called together Cairo-Babylon; originally the town is said to have been named Memphis and then Babylon, but now it is called Cairo.”  Compare No. 1085, 6.

Egypt was governed from 1382 till 1517 by the Borgite or Tcherkessian dynasty of the Mamelook Sultans.  One of the most famous of these, Sultan Kait Bey, ruled from 1468-1496 during whose reign the Gama (or Mosque) of Kait Bey and tomb of Kait Bey near the Okella Kait Bey were erected in Cairo, which preserve his name to this day.  Under the rule of this great and wise prince many foreigners, particularly