כתביו של האב הישועי גספר ברזאו מהורמוז: הרהורים על המושגים "דתיות" ו"אדיקות" במאה השש-עשרה

This article explores how Gaspar Barzeo (1515-1553)—the first Jesuit to reach the island of Hormuz, in the Persian Gulf—perceived the complex relations between its inhabitants, Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Barzeo arrived in Hormuz in the context of Portugal’s maritime expansion during the sixteenth century. Like all Jesuit missionaries, Barzeo was obliged to report back to the Society of Jesus’ leadership about his performance. To this end, the native Dutchman penned a trove of lengthy letters, which constitute a valuable source for historians of this era. Generally, Barzeo considered Hormuz a wantonly permissive environment, the most iniquitous place he had ever stepped foot in. Nevertheless, the emissary’s dispatches present compelling ethnographic accounts of the island, as well as providing vivid testimony to the high level of mutual tolerance and cooperation existing between the island’s different religious communities, Jews and Muslims.