Language:
English
Year of publication:
2019
Titel der Quelle:
Studia Iranica
Angaben zur Quelle:
48,2 (2019) 195-234
Keywords:
Capsali, Elijah,
;
Chaldiran, Battle of, Turkey, 1514
;
Jews Historiography
;
Turkey History 1453-1683
Abstract:
Rabbi Elijah Capsali (d. after 1555) of Candia, Crete, is the author of the Hebrew chronicle Seder Eliyahu Zuta [‘The minor order of Elijah’] which includes an indirect account of the seminal battle of Čālderān between the Ṣafavid Shāh Esmā‘īl (r. 1501-1524) and the Ottoman Sultan Selim I (r. 1512-1520). The aim of the present study is to provide an English translation of the account highlighting the author’s 'biblical' style and rhetoric, and pointing to those details that confirm, differ, or are additional to the Ottoman and Iranian narratives of the battle. The chronicler’s pro-Ottoman sympathies are reinforced by the sources most likely to have been available to him even as some of the details of his account are more than likely wholly imaginative. The account also illustrates the widespread contemporary emotional reactions caused by Čālderān in the larger Mediterranean area.
DOI:
10.2143/SI.48.2.3288439
URL:
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