Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants: A Maritime History of the Early Modern Mediterranean

by Molly Greene

A new international maritime order was forged in the early modern age, yet until now histories of the period have dealt almost exclusively with the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants shifts attention to the Mediterranean, providing a major history of an important but neglected sphere of the early modern maritime world, and upending the conventional view of the Mediterranean as a religious frontier where Christians and Muslims met to do battle.


Molly Greene investigates the conflicts between the Catholic pirates of Malta--the Knights of St. John--and their victims, the Greek merchants who traded in Mediterranean waters, and uses these conflicts as a window into an international maritime order that was much more ambiguous than has been previously thought. The Greeks, as Christian subjects to the Muslim Ottomans, were the very embodiment of this ambiguity. Much attention has been given to Muslim pirates such as the Barbary corsairs, with the focus on Muslim-on-Christian violence. Greene delves into the archives of Malta's pirate court--which theoretically offered redress to these Christian victims--to paint a considerably more complex picture and to show that pirates, far from being outside the law, were vital actors in the continuous negotiations of legality and illegality in the Mediterranean Sea.



Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants brings the Mediterranean and Catholic piracy into the broader context of early modern history, and sheds new light on commerce and the struggle for power in this volatile age.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 22, 2010

About the author

Professor of History and Hellenic Studies at Princeton University.

Reviews

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greene provides an introduction to the Mediterranean in the early modern era (15th - 18th Centuries). It appears that she has discovered some hitherto obscure archival sources to bring to light a new story. As Greene points out early on, most readers know little about piracy in the Mediterranean; and certainly do not think of Christian pirates. Her book focuses on the Knights of St. John on Malta and the Knights of Stephen of Tuscany. It is fascinating research. However, the writing style was awkward and difficult to follow. It is because of the writing that I downgraded my rating.

In her conclusion, Greene writes that she "uncovered some of the norms and customs, reference points that people drew on when disputes arose over conduct at sea." By this she means that when Catholic pirates attacked Greek shipping they were claiming to attack Muslim shipping because good Christians would not attack other Christians (Greeks). Furthermore, if a mistake was made, there was an appeal process with a court and the option of appealing all the way to the Vatican.

Other authors have noted the Tribunale degli Armamenti on Malta; but regard it as a kangaroo court because the Knights of St. John - the corsairs themselves - conducted the court and always or nearly always ruled in favor of themselves. In fact, I cannot recall Greene describing an example in her book where a Greek successfully recovered items from the Tribunale. Greene does set the environment by noting the Vatican was concerned with reconciling with the Greeks, so they sought to influence or restrain the Knights. Greene gives hints that some Greeks were successful in presenting their cases to Rome; but again, I cannot recall an example where she identifies someone by name (Greek) as recovering their stolen property. She does provide examples of French and English recovering property due to pure politics.

The strength and weakness of the book is her focus on a handful of cases. Rather than discuss the Tribunale and offer statistics on cases heard or ruled upon, she focuses on about ten cases that generated the most paperwork not just in Malta; but also in Rome and Savoy (?). By focusing on this small sample she makes some sweeping observations about customs and norms like Muslims disguised their property as Christian property to thwart pirates or help their cases in the courts; and Western (English and French) consuls in the Levant also knew about this custom and helped it along with passports and letters. The weakness comes in the form that she drops and returns to the cases at different stages. This creates far more confusion than she surely intends.

For readers, it is exciting enough to learn an entire new story about piracy. There are the salacious details of torture, loot, adventure (the corso), and exotic lands. Had Greene cut back on her story to give ten-ish chapters on each of the court cases she discusses, she would have a much shorter book that reads much faster. She beautifully augments this history with an appropriate amount of historical context. In some cases, readers want more, such as her strange focus on Kyrillos Loukas without really describing his role in anything except to say that Catholic prelates disliked him so much that they encouraged the Catholic corsairs to go after Greek merchants in order to pressure Ottoman and Greek resistance to Loukas.

In addition to a confusing organization and structure to the book, Greene also has an awkward writing style. She writes in concise and crisp sentences; but when grouped together the paragraphs hop between cases, repeats herself, and she goes in circles. When the paragraphs are grouped together it results in even more hopping between cases, repetition, and circles. It almost feels as if she had written out a good story and an overly critical academic forced her to change it in order to clarify her sources and subject matter.

Only in the last chapters does Greene appear to say 'Yeah, the Tribunale was a kangaroo court...but at least there was a court.' Her main conclusion appears to support the Knights in their proceedings, namely that Greek ship captains / merchants were protecting Muslim cargo by hiding ownership of the cargo. The only real evidence she has for this comes from the 18th century when she can accurately cite court cases where the English consuls clearly did use their offices to help conceal ownership. However, these rare instances are not conclusive proof of widespread custom in the main period of her focus (1422 - 1700).

Overall, I enjoyed learning about the subject. Greene found a relatively untapped corner of history that should give her plenty of future publications. Even the proceedings of the Tribunale were interesting up to a point. About half way through the book the chapters blurred together and became repetitive and dragged out the book unnecessarily.

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greene attempts to provide a maritime history of the early modern Mediterranean according to her book's title, but the author's thesis is more narrow in focus. Greene examines the dynamics between Venetian Christian and Muslim corsairs and pirates who pillaged Greek merchants during the early modern era. Greene posits that religion played a key role in piracy as opposed to economic gains. Greek merchants were in a precarious position living as Christian citizens on the outskirts of the Ottoman Empire. Yet Christian corsairs, namely fraternal organizations like the Knights of St. John and the Knights of St. Stephan who normally would avoid other Christian merchants, pillaged at will, including the Greek merchants. Reclamation cases would play out in court through the Tribunale Degli Armamemnti, which were mainly controlled by the Knights. The Greek merchants rarely stood a chance to recover their goods.

Greene leans heavily on the mostly untapped resources of the Tribunale archives. The records of the Tribunale provide historians an opportunity to understand the effects that Christian corsairs and piracy had on trade in the Mediterranean. They had been given free rein by their religious order and political statehood to pillage at will as long as their victims weren't fellow Christians. Greek merchants attempted to hide behind Christian orthodoxy, yet were pillaged and captured anyway. Their only recourse was to look to the courts for reclamation. Greene follows several specific cases to support her thesis and this is where things become disjointed.

The court cases within Greene's book provide support for her thesis; however, they are interspersed throughout the book. Often Green introduces characters and cases early in the book then mentions that she'll pick up their stories in later chapters. This causes the storyline to become fragmented and at times a bit confusing. Had Green started with background and history, then utilized each chapter on a specific case with specific points and supporting evidence, her overall position would have been more clear. This issue should not overshadow the fact that Greene has tapped into an area of Mediterranean historiography that had, at the time, been overlooked. The book likely was originally a series of papers that were collated to be a more broad look at piracy and captivity in the Mediterranean. For the subject matter, this is a book worth examining for those interested in this area of history.

[Dylan Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic complement to any study of dynamic state formation in the early modern era, and particularly useful for the way it reveals the notches, overlaps and exceptions in any binary, clash-of-civilizations-type model of global history.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 2 out of 5]

A shoddy book which tries to do too much at once. The result is individual chapters of great interest which are integrated together in a series of central ideas which are sparsely interlinked and which only serve to confuse the reader. In fact, this reads like a collection of loosely-tied together articles that Greene tried to cram together after-the-fact. If there is a main theme, it is that the early modern Mediterranean was an international order. Coming from an alternate reality where Fernand Braudel became a gay cobbler instead, this might sound like an earth-shattering concept, but here it is just a vague cover for the messiness of the book. Greeks figure prominently. Who were they and how did they identify themselves? Religion is a factor since Maltese pirates were attacking Ottoman ships because they were Ottoman, etc. Courts, pirates, whatever. For me, I am becoming more and more convinced that there was actually no such thing as the Ottoman Empire.

[Kate]

I just heard this author speak at a conference, and I learned that the chivalric order of St. John of Malta continued their "crusade" as pirates in the Mediterranean! Looking forward to reading more when I get the chance.