Fernão Mendes Pinto
Fernão Mendes Pinto [ fɯɾ'nɐ̃ũ 'mẽdɨʃ' pĩtu ] (* 1509 , 1510 or 1514 in Montemor-o-Velho , † 1583 in Pragal (near Almada )) was a Portuguese explorer and writer. In the course of his travels, he visited the Middle and Far East , Ethiopia , the Arabian Sea , China , India and Japan . His adventures were made known through the posthumous publication of his memoir Pilgrimage (Portuguese: Peregrinação ) in 1614. The truth content of the epically designed work is difficult to determine. The travelogue includes in literary form a historical source on Asian life in the 16th century as well as criticism of colonialism . The description of colonialism as exploitation under the pretext of a religious mission is unusual for the time of the peregrinação . At the time of the Inquisition Fernão Mendes Pinto had to express his view indirectly using literary design elements.
Life
Fernão Mendes Pinto was born between 1509 and 1514 to a poor family in Montemor-o-Velho . His family is known to have two brothers, António and Álvaro, and a wealthy cousin named Francisco García de Vargas. Like Pinto himself, all three later traveled to the Portuguese overseas bases in Asia.
On September 13, 1531, through the mediation of his uncle, Pinto came to Lisbon as a servant in the house of a noble lady. After a year and a half, for reasons not known, he left the court hastily and embarked for Setúbal . Pinto himself wrote: "Something happened that put me in great danger, so that I was forced to leave the house in a very short time and run for my life."
At Sesimbra , his ship was allegedly robbed by French pirates who left the passengers at Melides . In Setúbal he entered the service of the nobleman Dom Francisco de Faria , later he became a noble boy with the illegitimate son of the king, Dom Jorge de Lencastre , Duke of Coimbra . On March 11, 1537, Pinto left Portugal on a sailing ship for Portuguese India , where his brothers also lived, and began a 21-year journey through Asia. According to him, dissatisfaction with the remuneration and the expectation of better opportunities in India were reasons for his emigration.
Fernão Mendes Pinto states that in the 21 years of u. a. in what is now Ethiopia, Dubai, Yemen, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Malaysia, China and Japan. Independent sources exist only for a trip from India to Japan.
In 1551 he met Francisco de Xavier , a co-founder of the Society of Jesus . Pinto had evidently become a wealthy merchant and donated 300 cruzados to build the first church in Japan. On April 9, 1554, he joined the Society of Jesus in Goa as a lay brother and donated a large part of his property to it.
Also in 1554 a letter from Ōtomo Yoshishige , the Shugo daimyō of Bungo , arrived in Goa, in which he asked Viceroy Alfonso de Noronha to send Francisco de Xavier to Japan and offered his conversion to Christianity. Francisco de Xavier, however, had already passed away. As a replacement, Belchior Nunes Barreto, rector of the Jesuits, was sent to head a religious mission. In 1554 Pinto came to Japan with him. On their arrival, however, the domestic political situation in Japan had changed and Otomo could not obey his announcement of conversion to Christianity due to the ongoing civil war. Pinto held the position of ambassador for the viceroy and was therefore not a member of the religious mission. Letters from Pintos that were sent to Portugal from Malacca on December 5, 1554 and from Macao on November 20, 1555, as well as other existing sources, attest to this trip to Japan.
After the trip to Japan Pinto left the order of the Jesuits again. The reasons for his resignation are unknown today. The Jesuits made corrections to his memoir, which appeared only 20 years after his death, and deleted it from Jesuit documents. Obviously, Pinto's last trip to Japan fundamentally changed his attitude towards the ideals of the Jesuits or their concrete work.
Pinto returned to Portugal on September 22, 1558. From 1562 to 1566 he tried in vain to obtain a pension for his alleged services in Asia. He moved to Almada and married Maria Correia de Brito, with whom he had several children; the birth of two daughters is documented.
Pinto had acquired a reputation as a connoisseur of Asia, because the Portuguese historian João de Barros and Cosimo I de 'Medici valued him as a source of information. As early as 1555, a report on Pinto's travels as part of a collection of Jesuit letters published in Venice made him known to interested circles in Europe.
In 1573 and 1578 he was deputy (Mamposteiro) of the São Lázaro e Albergaria Hospital in Almada. In 1583, Pinto received a pension of 1,800 liters of wheat annually from King Dom Filipe I of Portugal .
Fernão Mendes Pinto died on July 8, 1583 and was probably buried in the church of Santa Maria do Castelo Almadas , which was destroyed in the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon .
Pinto's travels
According to his information, Pinto traveled to the west coast of India and then through many countries around the Red Sea from the coast of Africa to the Persian Gulf . Back on the west coast of India in Goa , his further path led him to the east coast and from there to the Portuguese possessions around Malacca in what is now Malaysia. Malacca and later Goa were bases for further trips that are said to have taken him to Sumatra , Java , Siam , China and Japan. After 21 years he returned to Portugal from Japan via India.
First trip to India and trip to the Red Sea
Pinto's first voyage began on March 11, 1537 when he sailed from Lisbon. After a brief stop in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique , he claims to have reached Diu on September 5, 1537 , a fortified island and city in India that had been occupied by Portugal only two years earlier. According to his account, the city had just been besieged by Suleyman I , the Magnificent, who was determined to end Portuguese rule in India and maintain the Muslim monopoly on trade with the east.
Inspired by reports of the riches that could be gained through raids on Muslim shipping, he claims to have joined a reconnaissance mission to the Red Sea. He reports about this trip:
- He delivered a message to Portuguese soldiers who had protected Eleni of Ethiopia , the mother of " Priest John " (Emperor David II ), in a mountain fortress.
- After leaving Ethiopia via the port of Massaua , they attacked three Ottoman galleys , but were defeated. They were brought as prisoners to Mokka (in today's Yemen ) and auctioned off there. He was sold to a Muslim Greek . This was cruel and Pinto threatened to commit suicide because of it. This allegedly convinced his master to sell him on to a Jewish trader for dates worth 30 ducats .
- His new master took him along a caravan route to Hormuz , at that time the leading trading center on the Persian Gulf. There it was offered for sale to the captain of the fortress of Hormuz and the king's magistrate for Indian affairs and was ransomed by him for 300 ducats.
- His second trip to India began shortly after his liberation when he boarded a Portuguese ship to Goa . Against his will, he was handed over to a fleet sailing to Dabul , which was supposed to try to capture or destroy Ottoman ships anchored there. After a few skirmishes with different origins in the Arabian Sea , he finally reached Goa in India.
The Portuguese Sea Base was established to gain full control of sea trade from the other European powers after the traditional land route to India was blocked by the Ottomans.
Malacca and the Far East
It seems that from 1539 Pinto was in Malacca under the command of the newly installed captain Pedro de Faria . He sent him to establish diplomatic contacts with unknown states in the region. He reportedly spent most of his early days on assignments in the insignificant kingdoms of Sumatra, which were allied with the Portuguese against the Muslims of Aceh in northern Sumatra . During these trips he did private business. But unlike many of his colleagues, he wants to remain loyal to the interests of his king.
- After his trip to Sumatra, he was sent to Pattani on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula . In a joint venture with his compatriots based in Pattani, he had traveled to the coast of Siam with a load of commercial goods . There they were attacked by Muslim pirates who stole their profits. In the pursuit of the pirates, they became pirates themselves under the leadership of Antonio de Faria .
- They were active as pirates for months in the Gulf of Tonkin and the waters of southern China up to Korea . During this time they would have ransacked the tomb of a Chinese emperor. After a shipwreck, he fell into the hands of the Chinese and was sentenced to one year of forced labor on the Great Wall of China . He did not have to serve the entire sentence because he was captured during a Tatar invasion .
- He and his companions bought freedom by teaching the Tatars to storm fortresses. In the wake of a Tatar ambassador, they traveled to Cochinchina (the southernmost part of what is now Cambodia and Vietnam ). During this trip they met an important religious figure who could be compared to the Pope . Dissatisfied with the slow progress of the voyage, which was still near the uninhabited islands of Canton , he climbed a Chinese pirate junk with two companions . It was said to have been thrown onto the Tanegashima coast by a typhoon in 1543 .
With the shipwreck in Tanegashima , Pinto justifies his claim to have been the first European in Japan . The important religious person Pinto claims to have met could have been the Dalai Lama . The stories about piracy under the leader Antonio de Faria , whom Pinto describes as simple-minded, cruel and greedy, are interpreted as a parody of Portuguese conquests under the pretext of a religious mission.
Trip to japan
Pinto reports on his first trip to Japan in 1542/3:
- He had returned to Ningpo in China, a Portuguese base near Canton, and made contact with Portuguese traders who were very interested in trading with the newly discovered country of Japan. Out of greed for quick business deals, they set out in bad weather. Their expedition was shipwrecked on the coast of the Ryūkyū Islands , where they were arrested for piracy and only released because of the pity of the island's women.
Accompanied by other Portuguese, Pinto claims to have introduced the arquebus in Japan ( Tanegashima arquebus ), a decisive weapon in the civil wars of Japan at the time.
In some historical considerations based on his reports, Pinto is considered the founder of the Namban trade . Through stories such as the pity of women, Pinto expresses his criticism of the image of Christians of pagans at that time, because people who have never heard of Jesus Christ orient their actions on values that Christians claimed exclusively for themselves and for no reason denied others. Christians, on the other hand, commit brutal acts in the name of God that are in obvious contradiction to the religious ideals claimed.
Journey to Martaban
Pinto reports:
- He had returned to Malacca. The captain Pedro de Faria then sent him to Martaban , then a wealthy city in what is now Myanmar (Burma). He left on January 9, 1545 and arrived there during a siege and fled to a Portuguese mercenary camp. At the end of the siege he was betrayed by a mercenary. He was captured by the Burmese and handed over to the treasurer of their king. This took him to the Kingdom of Calaminham, today's Luang Prabang in Laos. On this trip, while the Burmese were besieging Thandwe , a city in what is now Myanmar (Burma), he fled to Goa.
Pinto's drastic portrayals of violence and brutality in connection with these events are seen as passionate indictments of war and cruelty.
Trip to Java
Pinto reports on his trip to Java:
- In Goa he met Pedro de Faria again. He sent him to Java to buy pepper for China. There had been riots in Java over the murder of the emperor. He and 40 other Portuguese fled in December 1547 in the Javanese port of Bantam , but later suffered shipwreck on the coast of Java. To survive, they would have had to resort to cannibalism . The survivors would have sold themselves as slaves to get out of the swamps.
- They had come across a dealer from Celebes and were resold by him to the king of Kelapa, today's Jakarta . The king gave them freedom and sent them to Sunda . With borrowed money, Pinto bought a passage to Siam (now Thailand). There, the king would have recruited resident Portuguese to put down an uprising on the northern border. The king was killed by the queen, who also killed the heirs and put her lover on the throne. This new king was also murdered and riots broke out, which led to the king of Burma besieging the Siamese capital, Ayutthaya .
The description of the events in Burma's history in Pinto's accounts, whether firsthand or not, is the most detailed representation in Western sources. Stories such as the transformation of shipwrecked Christians into cannibals can be interpreted as revealing the questionability of the claim that Christians are better people with a superior value system. In extreme situations such as war and danger to life, taboos and values are quickly dropped.
Further trips to Japan
He reports u. a .:
- In 1547, after a second trip to Japan, he left Japan in the port of Kagoshima and took a Japanese refugee named Anjiro with him, whom he introduced to Francisco de Xavier in 1549.
- Xavier was inspired by his acquaintance with Anjiro to his missionary work in Japan, which began in 1549, and became the main missionary who spread Catholicism in Japan.
- In 1551, on a third trip to Japan, he met Xavier again during the Christianization of the country. Later that year, Xavier left Japan with him on the same ship.
From 1554 to 1557 Pintos made a fourth trip to Japan, starting in Goa. This trip is u. a. evidenced by a letter from Ōtomo Yoshishige , a daimyo of Bungo of the Ōtomo family, who asked for a mission to be sent and promised to convert to Christianity. Fernão Mendes Pinto accompanied the Jesuit mission as secular ambassador of the Viceroy of India.
Francisco de Xavier, who was later canonized, is portrayed by Pinto as a motivating, armed field pastor for soldiers. In contrast to his portrayal of Asian clergymen as unarmed and abhorrent of violence, he expresses the absurdity of the mission's project.
The Peregrinaçao
History of appearance and reception
Between 1569 and 1578, Pinto wrote the Peregrinação , but it did not appear until 1614, about 30 years after Pinto's death. The book is mentioned for the first time on February 22, 1569 in a letter between two Jesuits. It was in manuscript form long before it was published. The original manuscripts are considered lost. After his death, the daughters gave the manuscript to the Casa Pia de Penitentes, a non-profit house for women near Lisbon, as laid down in Pinto's will. In the years that followed, many visitors came to read the book and to learn about the Far East and the life of Francisco de Xavier. For this reason the Casa de Pia asked the authorities for permission to publish it in 1603 and received it on May 25, 1603 after the censorship by the Inquisition . Another ten years passed before the book was published in 1614. The exact reason for this is unknown, but the most likely one is that no publisher could be found. The printing was eventually paid for by Belchior de Faria, with Casa Pia receiving the income for ten years. The book was very successful and two Spanish translations were published as early as 1620. In the 17th century alone, 19 editions appeared in six languages. Seven in Spanish, three in French, two in French and two in German. The Peregrinaçao was translated into German in 1671 and published in Amsterdam in an abridged version . Soon after its publication, Pinto had a reputation for being a liar and a braggart. The vivid accounts of his 20-year hike - for example, he wrote that he was "captured 13 times and sold 17 times" - were so extraordinary that the general public did not take them seriously. This is how the saying “Fernão, Mentes? Minto! (Fernão are you lying? Yes, I'm lying!) “, A pun on his name.
Over the years, many authors have resorted to Pinto, for example Erasmus Francisci for his work Neupolirten Geschicht-Kunst und Sitten-Spiegel of foreign peoples , published in Nuremberg in 1670, or Eberhard Werner Happel for his work Greatest Memories of the World , published in Hamburg in 1683, or so-called Relationes Curiosae . The peregrinaçao also served as material and inspiration for novels . Heinrich Anselm von Ziegler and Kliphausen was inspired for his novel Die Asiatische Banise, or Bloody but courageous Pegu , published in Leipzig in 1689 by a section in Francisci's book that goes back to the Peregrinaçao . Pinto's travelogue met with great interest well into the 19th century. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote in his diary on August 3, 1809: "Ferdinand Mendez Pinto's travel description", on August 5. "Pinto's Reise" on 6.8. "After dinner lecture from Pinto's journey", on August 7th. "Lecture from Pinto" and on August 13th "Read in the Pinto at night and sketch some things". He "is said to have even called her a productive Scharteke ". The women's rights activist Hedwig Dohm quoted Pinto in "The Voting Right of Women".
Literary classification
In literary terms, the Peregrinação is a picaresque, autobiographical novel. The Picaro has an interest in wealth, food and drink and would rather run away than fight heroically. The code of honor of his time means nothing to him, he keeps failing and has no qualms when he has to conquer hunger. The clearly stated reason for his trip is the expectation of better earning opportunities and by no means idealistic assistance in spreading Christianity. In doing so, the Picaro appears far less corrupt than the lords of the crown and the church who surround him, who act greedy and violent ideologically and feign idealistic motives. Since the anti-hero is the narrator, the reader always knows that he will survive any adventure. In contrast to other travel literature of the time, dangers are presented realistically and the narrator often reports of fear.
Historical source
The peregrinação is an important document of Asian life in the 16th century, regardless of various dubious representations and the difficult separation of the reproduction of reality from one's own perspective, the reproduction of experienced stories from reports by third parties and literary fiction. Pinto reproduces details of Asian culture well and realistically portrays Portuguese activities in the Far East, at least far more realistically than Luís de Camões in his portrayal in the Lusiaden .
One controversial claim is Pinto's introduction of the arquebus in Japan. However, there is no evidence of this. It is also doubtful that he was the first European to reach Japan. However, since he was undoubtedly one of the earliest European visitors to Japan, his report on this is an important source.
Another dubious claim, the alleged struggle against Muslims in Java, has been studied by various historians. The Dutch historian PA Tiele wrote in 1880 that he did not believe that Pinto was present at the incidents. Rather, he used second-hand sources. Even so, Tiele believed that Pinto's account could not be disregarded because of the lack of other sources on Javanese history of the period. Despite doubts about Pinto's accuracy, it may well be that he is the only authoritative source on this.
Maurice Collins, an Asian issues expert who lived in the area for 20 years, believes Pinto's report, while not entirely accurate, is broadly true. That is why he regards Pinto's account as the most complete of the sixteenth century on subjects of Asian history.
Critique of Colonialism and Moral Philosophy
In his book, Pinto shows himself to be a sharp critic of Portuguese colonialism in the Far East and expresses moral and religious concerns about what he sees as a hypocritical and greedy undertaking disguised as a religious mission. So he lets locals name the looting of defenseless ships, desecration of temples, grave robbery, rape and opportunism by the Portuguese. On the other hand, he describes bad and good treatment by locals and questions the supposed superiority of Christianity. He tells of Gentiles who had never heard of Jesus Christ and still followed God's commandments. Pinto even questions the value of colonies to Portugal. These views would later become widespread, but were unusual for its time. Because of the restrictive censorship at the time of the Inquisition, Pinto had to dress his criticism in stories or put these fictional figures of his stories in his mouth (moral mirror). Pinto expresses respect for Asian cultures and religions and indirectly criticizes, e.g. B. Makes Orientals appear more educated and fairer than Portuguese. Formally on the side of the Portuguese, however, he arouses sympathy for the conquered and not for the conquerors. His self-portrayal as loyal to prevailing views of the authorities is superficial and hypocritical.
Rebecca Catz interprets the work as a moral philosophy:
|
|
expenditure
- Jorge [Manuel] Santos Alves (ed.): Fernão Mendes Pinto and the Peregrinação - studies, restored Portuguese text, notes and indexes . Lisboa: Fundação Oriente 2010. ISBN 978-972-785-096-9 . - Four-volume edition, Vol. 1: Studies, Vol. 2: Restored Portuguese text, Vol. 3: Notes, Vol. 4: Indexes.
- Martin Angele: Peregrinação or the travels of Fernão Mendes Pinto. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2004.
- Fernão Mendes Pinto: Strange journeys in the most distant Asia 1537–1558. Edition Erdmann, 2001, ISBN 3-522-60035-5 .
- Rebecca Debora Catz: The Travels of Mendes Pinto. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 1989, ISBN 0-226-66951-3 .
- Horst Lothar Teweleit (ed.): Wondrous and strange journeys of Fernão Mendez Pinto. Berlin: Rütten & Loening 1976.
- Walter G. Armando : Peregrinaçam or the strange adventures of Fernção Mendes Pinto. Free editing and transmission of his memoirs published in Lisbon in 1614. Hamburg: Dulk 1960.
- Maurice Collis: The Grand Peregrination. Faber and Faber, London 1949, ISBN 0-85635-850-9 .
literature
- Sven Trakulhun: Cannons on the move . Portugal and the Art of War in Mainland Southeast Asia 1500-1600. In: The One Europe and the Diversity of Cultures - Cultural Transfer in Europe 1500-1850. Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-8305-0476-4 .
- Marília dos Santos Lopes: Fernao Mendes Pinto and his Peregrinaçao. In: Promote and Preserve - Studies on the European cultural history of the early modern period. Volume 70. Wolfenbüttel 1996, ISBN 3-447-03896-9 .
Web links
- From the Catholic Encyclopedia (English)
- Fernão Mendes Pinto and His Peregrinação by Rebecca Catz (English)
- Overview of travel data
Individual evidence
- ↑ According to information in his works, the following are likely: 1509, 1511 or 1514.
- ↑ He may have been related to the wealthy Mendes in Lisbon and Antwerp who had converted to Christianity. This would explain the understanding of his later use as a servant in Lisbon. see. Rebecca Debora Catz, p. Xxxvii
- ↑ Rebecca Debora Catz, pp. Xxxvii; There are no confirming sources for Pinto's own statement of the place of birth.
- ↑ Mendes Pinto, first chapter
- ↑ Mendes Pinto, first chapter
- ↑ Rebecca Debora Catz, pp. Xxxviii
- ↑ Martin Angele, p. 105.
- ↑ Rebecca Catz (University of California, Los Angeles): Fernão Mendes Pinto and His Peregrinação Quote: “He had acquired somewhat of a reputation as an old China hand, for there he was consulted by João de Barros, the foremost historian of his day , for information about China and Japan. "
- ↑ Rebecca Catz, p. Xxxix
- ↑ Rebecca Catz, pp. Xxxvii
- ↑ Martin Angele, p. 108.
- ↑ Rebecca Catz, p. 263, chapter 127 "A heathen Pope"
- ↑ Mendes Pinto, Chapter 202
- ↑ Mendes Pinto, Chapter 203
- ↑ Rebecca Debora Catz, p. Xxxiv
- ↑ Rebecca Catz (University of California, Los Angeles): Fernão Mendes Pinto and His Peregrinação Quote: “The greatest Catholic saint of his time, Francis Xavier, is obliquely presented in the work as a warrior-priest who spurs men on to combat. The portrait of Xavier is in sharp contrast to that of the pagan priests who are forbidden to carry anything capable of drawing blood. Seen in those terms, how can the Portuguese, who are depicted as the very incarnation of evil, hope to convert the Asians, who live in harmony with the laws of God…. "
- ↑ Rebecca Debora Catz, pp. Xxvii
- ↑ Rebecca Debora Catz, pp. Xxvii
- ^ Marília dos Santos Lopes, p. 175.
- ↑ Martin Angele, p. 110.
- ^ Goethe's works. Weimar Edition, III. Abt., Vol. 4, pp. 48f., 51
- ↑ Horst Lothar Teweleit, epilogue to the German edition Berlin: Rütten & Loening 1976, but without any evidence.
- ↑ "Fernand Mendoz Pinto tells us in his travels: the king of Achem was at war with the kings of Jantana (empire in East Asia.) He was defeated [84] and when the fleet returned, in his boundless anger he let the captains' heads off refuse, but he ordered the soldiers to be sawed alive to pieces on punishment, from then on to go about in female clothing and to only do female work, which most of them could not stand shame so much that they either left their homes as refugees or themselves gave death by sword or poison. " Women's nature and law . Berlin: Wedekind & Schwieger 1876. p. 83
- ^ Rebecca Debora Catz, p. Xliii
- ↑ Martin Angele, p. 104.
- ↑ quoted from: Rebecca Debora Catz, p. Xliv
- ↑ quoted from: Rebecca Debora Catz, p. Xliv
- ↑ Mendes Pinto, Chapters 23-25
- ↑ Rebecca Catz (University of California, Los Angeles): Fernão Mendes Pinto and His Peregrinação Quote: “Pinto's criticism of the Portuguese is expressed indirectly, with the utmost duplicity. His book pays full and absolute lip service to the orthodoxy of his day, and is overlaid with the same hypocrisy with which he charged them. "
- ↑ Rebecca Debora Catz, p. Xliv
- ↑ Rebecca Catz (University of California, Los Angeles): Fernão Mendes Pinto and His Peregrinação, accessed December 7, 2007
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pinto, Fernão Mendes |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pinto, Fernam Mendez |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese explorer and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1509 or 1510 or 1514 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Montemor-o-Velho , Portugal |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1583 |
| Place of death | Pragal , near Almada, Portugal |