Table Of ContentNEW TRANSCULTURALISMS, 1400–1800
Hafsids and Habsburgs
in the Early Modern
Mediterranean
Facing Tunis
cristelle l. baskins
New Transculturalisms, 1400–1800
Series Editors
Ann Rosalind Jones, Department of Comparative Literature, Smith
College, Northampton, MA, USA
Jyotsna G. Singh, Department of English, Michigan State University,
East Lansing, MI, USA
Mihoko Suzuki, Center for the Humanities, University of Miami, Coral
Gables, FL, USA
This series, now published by Palgrave Macmillan, presents studies of
early modern contacts and exchanges among the states, polities, cultures,
religions, and entrepreneurial organizations of Europe; Asia, including
the Levant and East India/Indies; Africa; and the Americas. Books in
New Transculturalisms will continue to investigate diverse figures, such
as travelers, merchants, cultural inventors—explorers, mapmakers, artists,
craftsmen, and writers—as they operated in political, mercantile, sexual,
affective, and linguistic economies. We encourage authors to reflect on
theirownmethodologiesinrelationtoissuesandtheoriesrelevanttothe
study of transculturalism, translation, and transnationalism.
Cristelle L. Baskins
Hafsids
and Habsburgs
in the Early Modern
Mediterranean
Facing Tunis
Cristelle L. Baskins
History of Art and Architecture
Tufts University
Medford, MA, USA
New Transculturalisms, 1400–1800
ISBN 978-3-031-05078-7 ISBN 978-3-031-05079-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05079-4
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Cover illustration: Nicholas van der Horst and Paul Pontius, “Muley Hazen,” in Jules
Chifflet, Les marques d’honneur de la maison du Tassis (Antwerp: Balthasar Moretus,
1645), engraving, 32.1 x 20.8 cm., p. 76. Source: Collection of the author
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Acknowledgments
I am thankful that the editors of the New Transculturalism series stuck
withthisprojectthroughoutitslonggestation.Inapproachingthistopic,
I have drawn inspiration from Gülru Necipog˘lu, Palmira Brummett, and
Natalie Z. Davis whose scholarship paves the way for art historians of the
early modern world to think comparatively, trans-imperially, and inter-
confessionally. This project was awarded several Faculty Research Grants
at Tufts University; a postdoctoral fellowship and a research associateship
from the Aga Khan Program at Harvard University; a Newhouse Center
External Faculty Fellowship at Wellesley College; and a fellowship at the
Center for the Humanities at Tufts.
The following libraries and research centers were instrumental for my
research: the Beinecke Library, Yale University; the British Library; the
BritishMuseum;theHoughtonLibraryatHarvardUniversity;theFolger
Shakespeare Library; the John Hay Library of Brown University; the
libraryoftheMuseumofFineArts,Boston;theRubenianuminAntwerp;
and the Toppan Rare Books Library at the University of Wyoming. The
project would not have been possible without online resources, in partic-
ular digitized texts available from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the
Biblioteca digital Hispánica, Gallica, Google books, and Open Access
publishing.
I have benefitted from the generosity of many colleagues, among
them,DavidG.Alexander,LouiseAmazan,JanBaetens,KarenBarzman,
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Diane Bodart, Katherine Bond, Giuseppe Capriotti, Danielle Carra-
bino, Houssem E. Chachia, Leah Clark, Jodi Cranston, Surekha Davies,
Caroline Duroselle-Melish, Chet Van Duzer, Emine Fetvaci, Virginie
Gavériaux, Tamara Golan, Rubén González Cuerva, Kenneth Gouwens,
Eva Hoffman, Ann Rosalind Jones, Paul H.D. Kaplan, Elizabeth Kassler-
Taub, Dana Katz, Antien Knaap, Adam Kulewicz, Evelyn Lincoln, Maria
Lumbreras, Alberto Mannino, Christina Maranci, Lia Markey, Timothy
McCall, Rachel Midura, Erika Milburn, Emily Monty, Ridha Moumni,
Anthony Ossa-Richardson, Sean Roberts, Mark Rosen, Jorge Sebastián
Lozano, Adam Sammut, Stephanie Schrader, Joaneath Spicer, Almudena
Pérez de Tudela, Antonio Urquízar-Herrera, Gennaro Varriale, Maur-
izio Vesco, and Barbara Wisch. Special thanks to Pamela M. Jones,
Borja Franco Llopis, and Jeffrey S. Ravel who read and commented
on drafts of every chapter, offering infinite support and encouragement.
Responsibility for errors, of course, rests with me.
For assistance with translations from Latin, I thank Amanda Jarvis
and Maya Chakravorty. Silvia Bottinelli and Chiara Pidatella greatly
improved my translations from sixteenth-century Italian. For help with
images, I would like to thank Christine Cavalier, Marina Cotugno,
Mouayed El Mnari, Goran Proot, Barry Ruderman, Ahmed Saadaoui,
and Moez Sghaier. Thanks also to Sam Stocker and Eliana Rangel at
Palgrave Macmillan. Finally, I am grateful to my family—Jeff, Gabe, and
Naomi—for whom Muley al-Hassan is a household name.
Praise for HafsidsandHabsburgsin
theEarlyModernMediterranean
“Facing Tunis is an original study that artfully interweaves visual and
narrative sources to illuminate the contested spaces of the early modern
Mediterranean. Baskins places Muley Hassan, the ruler of Tunis, and
portraits of him, center-stage in an analysis of the evolution and produc-
tion of portraiture and the representation of Hafsid-Hapsburg-Ottoman
confrontation.Portraitscaptureboththeactualandimaginedofthecross
cultural encounter in the sixteenth century, as well as the multi-faceted
struggleforprestige,patronage,andsovereigntyinMediterraneancourts.
Baskins’ work also adds to the burgeoning literature on Mediterranean
conversions and fictions thereof. A compelling read with wonderful
images.”
—Palmira Brummett, Professor Emerita, History, University of Tennessee,
USA
“Baskins offers a fascinating new approach to the figure of Muley
Hassan in European visual culture. Her interdisciplinary book opens new
directions for the study of portraits and Habsburg visual propaganda
about North African campaigns. This research also breaks with tradi-
tional studies of the ‘Muslim other’ and presents a case study of fluid
permeability and alterity in the Mediterranean.”
—Borja Franco Llopis, Associate Professor, Art History, National
Distance Education University, Madrid, Spain
vii
viii PRAISEFORHAFSIDSANDHABSBURGSINTHEEARLY …
“Facing Tunis deals with what Tunisian historians call the ‘enigmatic’
sixteenth century. This work is distinguished by its use of a variety of
primary-sources,anditsmultifacetedapproach,combininghistoryandart
history. This original work is an important addition to the study of early
modern Tunisia in particular, and to acculturation in the Mediterranean
in general.”
—Houssem Eddine Chachia, Assistant Professor, History, University of
Tunis, Tunisia
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Art History and North Africa 12
Note on Sources 17
Transliteration and Translation 18
2 Hafsids and Habsburgs 27
The Lost World of Muley al-Hassan 29
Hafsid Treasures 39
The Tunis Campaign 41
Visible Speech 46
3 Sovereign Display 75
Contesting the Crown: Barbarossa and Muley al-Hassan 77
The King of Tunis in Triumph: Cosenza and Naples 80
The King of Tunis in Triumph: Rome and Florence 90
Tunis Dispersed 100
Tunis in the Wake of the Habsburgs 104
4 Italian Sojourn 123
Naples: June 1543 124
De Spenis, Breve Cronica 129
In Search of Charles: Florence and Rome, Summer 1543 141
Loss of Face 147
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