Original scientific paper

The Diary of Miho Zarini, the Dubrovnik Dragoman

Vesna Miović-Perić ; Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Abstract

The diary of Miho Zarini, the famous Dubrovnik dragoman, was written in Italian and comprises 70 folios. The first part informs of his missions to the Bey of Bosnia od two occasions in 1737 and 1738 and the second part deals with his affairs with the Porte in 1744/45. His first cloaked mission was to the Bosnian Bey Hekim-oglu Ali-pasha. He was assigned to investigate the Ottoman Turkish attitude towards the pro-Austrian position of Ragusa during the Austro-Turkish war. Gathering the valuable facts along the way, Zarini encountered the Turks with enthusiastic visions of the victorious Sultan’s army reaching as far as Vienna. The Republic recived the least appreciation in Mostar. It was rumoured that Ragusa gave financial support to Austria and that even some members of the nobility took part in the battle of Banja Luka. Luckily enough, faithful friends still existed, fully aware how harmless the Ragusan disloyalty could be. Five months later, Zarini was sent on another mission to Ali-pasha Hekim-oglu with the request to lift the commercial blocade (Tur. yasak) of Dubrovnik forced upon it under the suspicion of providing the Ottoman enemy with supplies.

Keywords

Miho Zarini; dragoman; Dubrovnik Republic; diary

Hrčak ID:

239939

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/239939

Publication date:

20.6.1995.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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