appointments while making preparations to neutralize them. Ali had maintained friendly ties with certain Celali rebel leaders, including Cemsid Bey of Tarsus, who had taken control of Adana and its vicinity, and Tavil Bey of Bozok, who was a recipient of Ali's financial aid. The Celali leader Tavilahmedoglu Mahmud, who controlled Baghdad Eyalet, made common cause with Ali. Ali saw in Baghdad a potential refuge where he could regroup. Ali also communicated with the major Anatolian Celali leaders Kalenderoglu Mehmed and Kara Said. Alliance with Tuscany To prop up his nascent Syrian state Ali moved to obtain recognition, as well as loans or trade revenue, from regional powers. In November 1606 the Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand I, sent as envoys a Tuscan noble with close ties to Florentine merchants and King Philip III of Spain, Hippolito Leoncini, and an Aleppine-born dragoman Michael Angiolo Corai, who maintained close contacts with the Safavid Shah Abbas and the Aleppo Janissaries. Ferdinand sought to reconquer Cyprus for the Christians and had similar designs on the Holy Land, while also seeking commercial ties with Aleppo, the principal outlet for the export of Iranian silk and other commodities to European markets. The Tuscans had also been refused the capitulations and trading rights maintained by the French, English and Venetians with the Porte in Constantinople, and Ferdinand viewed the Aleppine port Iskenderun as a suitable Levantine harbor for his political and economic ambitions. Moreover, for a technologically advancing Tuscany the relationship with Ali and his vulnerable but geographically strategic domains served as an extension of their burgeoning imperialism. Aleppo would serve as the commercial link between Persia and their European domains. Ferdinand's envoys came with significant gifts and proposed an alliance treaty with Ali. It explicitly stipulated joint efforts toward the weakening and eventual destruction of the Ottoman Empire, the strengthening of the Janbulad dynasty and recognition of Ali as "Prince and Protector of the Kingdom of Syria". It mandated a special status for the Tuscans in Syria, including free trade with Iskenderun, authorization for their sale of pirated goods, Tuscan residency rights throughout Syria and their subjects' governance by Florentine law. Janbulad was required by the treaty to assist a European conquest of Jerusalem and recognize the city's Christian denominational redirection to Roman Catholicism from the Eastern churches. The Tuscans also called for tax exemptions for Christian pilgrims compensated by Tuscany and permission for the construction