Venice’s Knowledge of the Qizilbash – The Importance of the Role of the Venetian Baili in Intelligence-Gathering on the Safavids

Abstract

While the subject of the Venetian espionage in the Ottoman empire has received scholarly attention, no attempt has been made to study the baili’s intelligence-gathering activities on Safavid issues in a systematic way. Through the close scrutiny of baili dispatches and other relevant materials of the Venetian State archives, this paper examines the role of the Venetian diplomats in Istanbul in information-gathering on the Safavids. It demonstrates that the baili used various techniques, particularly gifting, bribery, and information exchange with the Ottoman officials in order to collect and transmit to Venice a wide range of information on Ottomans’ arch-rivals, the Safavids.