Machiavelli, the Iberian Explorations and the Islamic Empire: Tropical Readers from Brazil to India (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries)

Abstract

The chapter traces the emergence of a discourse about the Islamic empire in the context of the global circulation of Machiavelli’s works. Readers from the Iberian world were among the first who reacted to Machiavelli's colonial doctrine, as well as to his harsh polemics against Christianity, including those who reinterpreted The Prince and the Discourses on Livy for praising or describing manifestations of the early modern Islamic empires. This was particularly true in the case of individuals living either within or on the fringes the Portuguese Empire, whether or not they were in direct contact with Islamic powers. The cases discussed in the chapter include the ideas and readings of a Florentine planter in colonial Brazil and a description of the Mughal court contained in the chronicle written by a Venetian traveller and physician.