The first appearance in English of Ludovico di Varthema’s ground-breaking travel account, in which he described parts of the Middle East practically unknown to non-Muslim Europeans. It is justly famous for Varthema’s accurate and unprecedented account of Mecca and Medina in 1503 CE. Of his visit to the Holy Cities, D.G. Hogarth asserts Varthema’s primacy**: “All later European pilgrims, who have known his narrative, have borne witness to its great succinct fidelity in so far as concerns Mecca, its great shrine and its neighbourhood.”** (Hogarth, p.65).
This copy has been extracted from the 1577 expanded version of Richard Eden’s The history of travayle in the West and East Indies…, a compilation of Western colonial expeditions and explorations. Eden’s work was the first to include an English translation of Varthema’s remarkable journey, which was first published as Itinerario de Ludouico de Varthema Bolognese in Rome, 1510.
Little is known of Varthema (c.1470-1517) beyond what is contained in his Itinerario. Born in Bologna, he may have been employed as a soldier before an appetite for travel directed his future course. Setting out from Venice in late 1502 he first stepped foot in the Islamic Middle East at Alexandria in January 1503. Stops at Cairo, Beirut, Tripoli and Aleppo followed, then Damascus which drew high praise: “It is in maner incredible, and passeth all beleefe, to think howe fayre the citie of Damasco is, and how fertile is the soyle.” (p.357). It was in Damascus that Varthema became acquainted with Mamluk soldiers and found a way to enrol himself in their garrison, assuming the name Yunus (Jonah).
In that guise he accompanied a Hajj caravan to the Hejaz, stopping at the Khaybar oasis on the way to Medina and Mecca. Varthema’s description, particularly of Mecca, has proven to be the most accurate of the period: “All the prospects, passes and and valleys which Varthema noted have been recognised. Both the general scheme and the detail of the Bayt-Allah and its enclosure, as he described them, agree remarkably with subsequent descriptions … and his general account of the city as an unwalled and well-built settlement in a ring of hills, containing some thirty thousand souls and great concourse of traders, is now known to have been exact in 1503.” (Hogarth, p.65-66). It had no competitor in English until Joseph Pitts’ A true and faithful account of the religion and manners of the Mohammetans (Exeter, 1704) gave a fuller picture of the city.
The rest of Varthema’s narrative is no less astounding, with explorations further South into Yemen, voyages to Somalia, Oman (including a stop at Muscat) and Hormuz, and an overland journey across Iran to Herat.
Hogarth, The Penetration of Arabia, [second edition] Beirut, Khayats, 1966; Howgego, V15;Macro, 884.
