Gosia Murad (circa 1596-circa 1702), also called Morad, Murat, or Amurat, was a Chrstian Armenian, born in Aleppo, Syria. In a diplomatic and commercial capacity, he served three Ethiopian emperors – Fasilidas [reigned 1667-82], and Iyasu I [reigned 1682-1705] – over a period of more than half a century.
Murad, who acted partly as an ambassador and partly as a trade agent, and who also engaged in commerce on his own account, was appointed by Emperor Fasilidas as his ambassador to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (reigned 1658-1707) from 1663-65. He subsequently became a minister of the son of Fasilidas, Yohannes I. On Yohannes’ behalf, he took costly gifts, including horses and zebras, to the governor of the Dutch East India Company, bringing back brightly-colored robes, including Chinese garments of gold brocade, as well as several skilfully-ornamented cannon, and “enough pepper, indeed, for his whole household.”
The Armenian also served the son of Yohannes, Iyasu I, for whom he traded with both Egypt and India. On one occasion he brought him two large bronze bells from Batavia (now Djakarta, capital of Indonesia), which he visited for the third time in 1696. The French traveller C. J. Poncet, who saw Murad in 1700, said he was by then a “venerable old man” of 104 who, for “more than 60 years,” had been employed in the “most important negotiations” with the East. Iyasu, he says, held the old man in “such great consideration that he commonly calls him Baba, or Father.”
Later, in 1700, Murad’s nephew was sent by Iyasu as the first Ethiopian envoy to France, but his mission failed, for he died in Arabia while still on the outward journey.
RICHARD PANKHURST
