MUSLIMS IN VENICE

As an intersection of roads, Venice has also always been an intersection of worlds: Mediterranean and Central European, Italian, German and Slavic, Christian and Islamic. It has been repeated so many times that it would sound futile had we not found out, again and again, something new about this phenomenon. It is little known that Muslims have also contributed to the multicultural mosaic that makes up Venice, the most numerous among them being Slavs from European provinces of the Ottoman Empire, particularly from today’s Bosnia as a province which was a trade and production center closest to Venice in the early modern age. However, at the time, multiculturalism and tolerance did not imply equal rights, either in the Ottoman Empire or in Venice. Since Muslims could not be full citizens of Catholic countries of the time, in Venice they were accommodated in a strictly separated though impressive Pesaro palace at Canal Grande – now better known as Fondaco dei Turchi (term Turchi – Turks was used both for Turks as a nation and for all Muslims).

The first provision of the kind was issued in 1574, after the War of Cyprus (1570–1573), when relations between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire stabilized and the number of Ottoman merchants in the Venetian Republic abruptly increased. With a prominent intention to protect the newly arrived Muslims from attacks and robberies, and local Christians from the alleged moral danger (including fasting on Fridays and Saturdays and polygamy), Venetian authorities decided that it would be best to separate all the Muslims into a single house adjusted to their needs. Initially, the designated site was inn Angelo at Rialto (main city marketplace); however, due to internal intolerances within the Empire ethnic Turks refused to live with European groups. Their boycott was to an extent tolerated until 1619 when, encouraged by the feast of St. Matthew, a small group from Bosnia fired near the church. Since evening mass was still in progress, Venetians were insulted and decided to move all Muslims to the described Fondaco dei Turchi on Canal Grande. Many alternations of the impressive medieval palace were made. Fence walls and low windows were heightened, all doors except one were closed and the building was divided into two parts, to the wing for the so-called Anatolian and Constantinople nation, i.e. ethnic Turks and few Arabs and Kurds, and the wing for the so-called Bosnian and Albanian nation, or more accurately all the others, who were far more numerous. During the day, women and children were not allowed to enter, and at night no Muslim was allowed to go out, similar to the Ottoman han (inn).

Unlike the han, stay in this palace was mandatory, which caused dissatisfaction among users. Aware of the benefits of Ottoman trade, Venetian authorities therefore attempted to make the user’s lives comfortably “like at home”. A market was established within the large courtyard of the palace and its porches, there were common rooms for rest and entertainment, separate kitchens and water supply, two praying spaces, bathrooms, toilets, rooms with sofas etc., all decorated alla turca. Merchants had at their disposal authorized brokers for Turkish, Greek or the so-called Slavic (schiavonesco). It should be noted that there was also a Muslim cemetery at the nearby Lid (literally ‘shoal’).

It should also be noted that decline of both Venetians and Ottomans trade died down as early as in the 18th century, and that therefore the cemetery no longer exists while the palace was radically restored after centuries of disuse and now houses the Museum of Natural History (Museo di Storia Naturale Giancarlo Ligabue). With respect o the history of minorities, it could be said that, once for sake of trade and today for sake of tourism, Venice has been as economically strong as it has been hospitable.

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