The embassy of 1423
Entreating the Pirate Caliph
The tale of the great embassy to the Caliph of Courland-Iraq of 1423
As transcribed from medieval Swedish by prof. James Oswald of Cambridge University.
Background
In 1423 the muslim fleets had controlled the seas of Europe for almost five centuries. Since the demise of the Vikings and their fearsome fleets of longships the muslim rulers on the Mediterranean had been virtually unopposed in their dominance of the seas. By this time that dominance was in decline. Already the muslim hold over the Bay of Biscay and the north sea was slipping, and the outcome of this embassy would seal their fate in the Baltic as well.
After the establishment of the Swedish Republic, following the fall of the Stenkilsätten monarchy in 1411, the leading faction within the Republican government, the merchants, had long argued over how to secure their trade and handle the problem of piracy in the Baltic Sea. The naval proponents managed to gain approval for the construction of a large navy of galleys to secure the merchant vessels sailing to and from the port of Visby. As the cost of this naval programme proved very great its opponents gained the upper hand and it was agreed that another approach was to be tried. The rulers of Sweden, being merchants and thus profit-oriented, simply calculated that to pay off the pirates would cost less than the construction and maintenance of a large navy. And so it was decided to send an embassy to the Caliph of Courland-Iraq, the main source of piracy on the Baltic.
Here follows the account of Sune Sletta, the official chronicler of the mission.
The ninth of June in the year of our Lord 1423
Today our expedition sets sail from the harbour of Stockholm. Six magnificent galleys, crewed by 600 men and carrying 400 soldiers. In our holds we carry many hundreds of our finest furs, and much of the finest crafts that our artisans can muster. It is a princely gift indeed and my masters fervently hope that it will please the Caliph of the musulmans.
The seventh of July in the year of our Lord 1423
Today we sighted the Crescent Keep. It is a mighty fortress situated on a low hill overlooking a busy harbour. The port and keep are situated at the very tip of the Courland peninsula and is surrounded by marshes. The harbour is shallow and a narrow channel has been excavated over generations to allow for the passage of only one ship at a time. Inside the harbour there are docks so as to allow for several dozens of ships to moor at the same time, though the scant depth of its waters allows for nothing but galleys.
The eight of July in the year of our Lord 1423
After having spent the night lying at anchor just outside the port we were admitted before the court of the Caliph this morning. Muammar Al-Kribi Obeid is the nineteenth Caliph of Iraq and Courland, or so he claims. My masters in the capital have access to the royal records of the Fatimids, conquered in the sack of Stettin 130 years ago, and they claim that this Caliph is a descendant of common sailors and only in the fourth generation on this throne.
The Caliph resides inside the keep and he keeps a court of some hundred men and women. A great oblong hall lined with trophies and flanked to the northwest by a grand balcony overlooking the harbour ends in a dais upon which stands a throne of stone. This throne is clad in the finest Persian carpets and the Caliph slumps upon it with a bored expression. He seems a craven little creature and when the Duke of Östergötland, ambassador from the Republic of Sweden approaches he is required to prostrate himself before the throne.
Tonight a feast is held in our honour. We are served many delicacies and many meats. The most interesting of these is the exquisite medallions of beaver, a local delicacy from the marshes surrounding the port. The rumoured exotic belly dancers are also proven to be true! The heathens bring forth women with hardly any clothing on their bodies; these are then made to dance a strange dance in which they sway to the enchanting rhythm produced by a battery of drummers. It is a fascinating dance and I am much amused by it. The ships chaplain had several harsh words to bestow upon us later about the sins of lust and the flesh. In this instance he need not worry though, as I am told that all of these women belong to the Caliph personally and may not be touched by any man other than he. What strange customs these heathens have.
The tenth of July in the year of our Lord 1423
Today the ambassador has presented our gifts and message to the Caliph and his court. The Caliph was very pleased to receive the gift of a greatcoat of fur, studded with silver adornments. Aside from that our embassy has been authorised to promise him ten barrels of silver annually in exchange for safe passage for all ships flying the Swedish flag inside the Baltic Sea. This offer was well received by the Caliph, though I cannot answer for his court. The Duke is pessimistic and fears that the magistrates in Stockholm may have misjudged the level of control that the Caliph has over his subjects. We have been promised an answer within the week and in the meantime we will be entertained as guests at the court.
The fourteenth of July in the year of our Lord 1423
Today the Duke was summoned to appear before the Caliph in the great hall. I was allowed to accompany him. When we arrived the Caliph was in a rare temper, he bellowed insults at the hapless Duke, calling us infidels and dogs and spitting at the carpet in front of us. The Caliph has rejected our proposal in every particular and says that unless we are gone by nightfall he will cut us down to the last man. On this the Duke rose and standing over the Caliph, who is a rather short and podgy little man, he uttered these words. “If the heathens of this barbarous den will not accept the offer of the mightiest power in the north, then so be it. We will wipe you of the waves within a generation!” Then he turned on his heels and left, and I followed. We left that evening without incident.
The third of August in the year of our Lord 1423
Today we arrived back in the capital. Since we had docked in Visby on our way home word of the Caliph’s insults has reached here before us. The entire parliament is in an uproar I hear, the war party has gotten approval for the continued expansion of our navy and I have no doubt that, God willing, the Duke promise will be kept. This ends the chronicle of the embassy to the Caliph of Courland-Iraq.
Written by Sune Sletta, third scribe of Håvard, Grandmaster of the Republic of Sweden
In the subsequent years the expansion of the navy carried on without pause and by the end of the 1430’s most pirates on the Baltic had been hunted down and hanged. The Duke was proven right.
My impression was that it was something more similar to the English Commonwealth or the United Provinces (Holland). Anyway, sorry about the nitpicking again, it definitely does make things more interesting than a run-of-the-mill Vasa dynasty. What do you have for rulers, btw? A new merchant "dynasty"?
STOP! COOKIE TIME
