ZARAIN AGA.

An interesting contemporary account of the siege of Baghdad (Babylon) in 1638 during which Sultan Murat IV reclaimed the city from the Persians. The account was first translated from Turkish into Italian by a dragoman (interpreter) in Raguza and subsequently “Englished” by William Holloway. Though no such captain Zarain has been traced, Holloway affirms the authenticity of this account in his letter on the final leaf: “This foresaid relation is here of all held for a certain truth, this State having sent the selfe same news to the Pope and Viceroy of Naples, and hath also beene confirmed to bee true, by 100 severall Carryers…” Nonetheless, Holloway’s translation carries an obvious bias as he makes frequent jabs at the Zarain and the Ottomans in his marginal notes, never missing an opportunity to accuse them of blasphemy for their allegiance to the sultan.

The work opens with an abridged history of the city, starting with its legendary foundress Semiramis and ending with the Persian Prince Abas, who in 1625 ended a thousand years of Ottoman rule. Zarain begins with a description of the vast Ottoman army, which included 4 bastions, 73,589 horses, 35,000 foot (some Janissaries) and lords and captains from Greece, Albania, and Morea. He describes how the army diverted the Euphrates, built a bridge over it, and arranged cannons to be fired at the walls of Babylon. Upon breaking through the fortification, 1000 boats of soldiers entered the city via the river. The Persians, armed only with scimitars, were unable to hold off the Ottomans with their muskets and retreated. Seeing their imminent defeat, the Persian leader, Obet Han, secretly surrendered himself to the Turks after they had promised his people unmolested travel back to Persia. The aftermath was perhaps bloodier than the battle itself: both sides remained highly suspicious of the truce and bloodshed resumed, culminating in the “mortall destruction” of the Persians and devastating casualties for the Turks. They stormed the castle, and having subdued the remaining 300 Persians within, officially reclaimed the city.

This copy belonged to Sefik Atabey, the formidable collector whose vast library comprised of books from and about the Ottoman Empire, the majority of which were published before the mid-1800s. A substantial number of books in his collection were purchased from the sale of Henry M. Blackmer II’s library (Sotheby’s, 1989). Leonora Navari’s catalogue of Atabey’s collection was published in 1999; she also catalogued Blackmer’s Library. Atabey’s collection was dispersed at various auctions in the late 1990s and early 2000s.