Ambrogio Contarini was a member of the patrician
family of Contarini and spent his youth in the
Ottoman capital of
Constantinople as a merchant. He left the city after the
Ottoman–Venetian war began in 1463. In 1470, he was aboard the
Aegeus, fighting the Ottomans at sea. The
Republic of Venice sought to forge a larger alliance against the Ottoman Empire and sent Contarini with a diplomatic mission to
Uzun Hassan, the Iranian ruler of the
Aq Qoyunlu clan. He left Venice in February 1474, traveled through Austria, Poland, and the Caucasus. He reached
Tabriz in August 1474. In October, he met Uzun Hassan at his capital of
Isfahan. He was kindly received, but the Venetian proposal of alliance was declined. There he met another diplomat,
Giosafat Barbaro. Contarini returned to Venice only in April 1477, after many delays and a difficult return voyage. He also stopped at Germany. On the day of his arrival in Venice, Contarini orally reported to the
Council of the Republic. His report was published in Venice in 1476 by H. Foxius as
Questo e el Viazo de misier Ambrogio Contarini. A written account of his mission appeared in print in 1486 in
Vicenza. Contarini's itinerary is dominated by his own personal vicissitudes, but contains much valuable information about the regions he visited, especially Iran under Uzun Hassan's rule. == Works ==