Page 97 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

A Turkish Report on the Red Sen &c. 87
4. Ahbarii'l-Yemani, which is a Turkish translation of Qutb al-DTn
al-Nahrawall, al-Barq al-Yamani fi *1-fatb aWuthmani with additional
material and remarks based on his personal experiences by a certain ‘All,
notes that Ibrahim Pasha was informed by Selman Reis about the
circumstances in the Yemen: iinki sadr-i azam Ibrahim Pa§a merhum
Selman Rcis’den bu minval iizere ahval-i Ycmcn'e muttali oldi (sec
Istanbul Siileymaniyc Library, Hamidiye section, no. 886, fol. 22b).
5. See also the comments of Orhonlu (op. cit., 13) or another report
similar in character, dealing also with Jedda and Mecca, which is rightly
attributed to Selman Reis, see Tckindag, ‘Siivey§’tc Tiirkler ve Selman
Reis’in Arizasf, Belgclerlc Turk Tarihi Dergisi, Istanbul, 1968, IX, 77-80.
6. Work on the naval career of Selman Reis (referred to as Salman
al-Ruml in Tarikh a I-Shi bn, R. B. Serjeant, The Portuguese off the South
Arabian Coast, Oxford, 1963, 48, 50, and Salmao, sometimes Soleimao
rex, or even (^oleymao raix, or Salmon in Portuguese sources, e.g.
FemSo Lopes de Castanheda, Historia do Dcscobrimento c Conquista da
India pclos Portugucscs, Liv. IV, caps. VII, XI, Liv. VII, cap. XV; and J.
Aubin, ed., Mare Luso-Indicum, Geneva, 1971, I, 160, is still to be
undertaken.
7. I have used here and in the following pages the term ‘Portuguese’,
though the text reads ‘Portugal’.
8. Bidin literally means irreligious. But the expression was often used to
designate those who did not believe in Islam.
9. For this and other foreign terms used in the Ottoman naval parlance
see H. and R. Kahane and A. Tictzc, The Lingua Franca in the Levant,
Urbana, 1958, 100, 241,523-6.
10. Kayik, i.e. a Turkish name applied to a kind of boat.
11. Badjalushka or badalushka, i.e. a large siege gun (perhaps the
basilisk?). See Ency. Islam, 2nd ed. (EP), s.v. Barud 1061-66 by V. J.
Parry.
12. Literally ‘side gun’.
13. Qarbzan or parbuzan (zarbozan), a gun cast in various sizes (EP,
s.v. Barud).
14. ShSyka (cf. Hungarian sajka), a name given to a certain type of
boat, but also used for the guns mounted on such craft (EP, loc. cit.).
15. Parry writes (loc. cit.), ‘Among the cannon employed in the
Ottoman fleet can be numbered the kolonboma (culverin), the parbzan
and the shayka ... also the pranghl or prankI-
16. W. Hinz, Islamische Masse und Gewichte, Leiden 1970, 24-27,
notes, ‘Der qinfar fol foil filr GewUrze und Zhnliche Waren war
haupts&chlich in Alexandria gcbrauchlich und bestand aus 100 rap zu je
144 dirham, wog also 45 kg ... Der qinfar garwi bestand aus 100 rap
garwi (siehc dies) zu je 312 dirham, wog also 96.7 kg. ... Im Rumseld-
schukcnreich wei auch unter den Osmanen bestand der qanfar aus 100
lodra (siehe dies) zu je 176 dirham und wog also bis auf den heutigen Tag
56.443 kg.
17. See above, fn. 16.
18. Arshin, i.e. the Ottoman measure of length of about 68 cm.