the disintegration of the empire 139
Whatever the truth, the instinct for brigandage proved stronger than the
interests of state, and he acted just as his predecessor had done, with the
difference that the spoils from this act of theft were very much greater:
many of the merchants were thrown into the prisons of tabriz.343
the venetians learnt their lesson from the misfortunes of the geno-
ese. marco foscarini, the venetian bailey in constantinople, received
instructions in 1344 to be as careful as possible in dealing with al-malik
al-ashraf ’s messengers, orders which he duly followed: his caution was so
great that no agreement was ever reached.344
sheikh Uwais, who became sultan of Baghdad, also sought to re- establish
ties when azerbaijan became part of his realm in 1357. he sent an ambas-
sador to venice and in 1369 invited the merchants to return to the markets
of tabriz. in a letter of response sent in august 1370, the venetians who
had come to trebizond sent bitter reproaches: a magna carauana had
been forming there for two years, they wrote, and new arrivals by sea
swelled its numbers every day, all waiting for merchants to arrive from
tabriz and assure them that the route was safe. they asked that the sultan
intervene so that venetians could again travel the road from trebizond
to tabriz in peace, as they did in the days of Bonsaich, abū sa‛īd, but
these pleas seem to have gone unanswered—not because sheikh Uwais
was indifferent to venetian interests, which so closely matched his own,
but because he was simply unable to ensure law and order on the route.
in 1373, two years later he sent a reply intended to prove his good inten-
tions and to encourage his partners, telling of the punishment inflicted on
brigands who had been preying on merchants.345
the venetians did not receive sufficient guarantees for their journey to
tabriz, and decided to wait for better times. these never came.346
343 stella/muratori, col. 1081, heyd, Histoire, ii, p. 129, petech, “marchands,” p. 574.
344 petech, “marchands,” p. 569; the two chobanids also flew in the face of economic
good sense in dealing with their own merchants, who turned to Janibek, khan of the
golden horde, for succour (cf. grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, pp. 263–264, and the current
work, pp. 200–201).
345 DVL, ii, pp. 158–159, heyd, Histoire, ii, pp. 129–131, petech, “marchands,” pp. 569–570.
346 for more on the collapse of the commercial systems which the ilkhans had built up
and on the networks which came after it, cf. İnalcık, “Question,” p. 89, and Zachariadou,
“trebizond,” p. 356.