Lecture notes: Treaty of Karlowitz, 1699

Battle of Lepanto, 1571

Siege of Vienna, 1683

Treaty of Karlowitz, 1699

But these defeats, and the peace treaties, were also when the Ottomans first became involved in the diplomatic system of Europe

• but they were not including in the European corps diplomatique — at least not at first

European diplomats in Istanbul

Permanent embassies:

• Venice, France, England, and the Habsburg Empire
• from the late 15th century onwards
• but the Ottomans did not reciprocate
• not avatars of kings — more like lowly servants

Negotiated “capitulations”

• granted certain privileges and exemptions to their countries’ subjects
• covered issues such as trade, legal matters, and religious freedom
• in a way quite similar to the system in Europe

Information gathering:

• vital sources of information for their home countries
• reports and dispatches helped shape European perceptions of the Ottoman Empire
• for policy but also for general public — the diplomats often wrote books
• this is Edward Said territory — Orientalism!

Stanisław Chlebowski

Stanisław Chlebowski

Stanisław Chlebowski

Cultural exchange:

• exchange of ideas, knowledge, and cultural practices between Europe and the Ottoman Empire
• close contacts when it comes to art, for example

Diplomatic intrigues and alliances:

• intricate political maneuvers and intrigues
• sought to advance their countries’ interests in the Ottoman Empire and the broader region
• form alliances or pit rival powers against each other in order to gain advantages in trade, territory, or influence

Dragomans

• dragoman – tercüman — the Arabic word “tarjumān” (ترجمان)
• we talked about a liminal “diplomatic position”

Palace dragomans:

• served the Ottoman court directly,
• assisting the Sultan and the Ottoman administration in their diplomatic correspondence, negotiations, and relations with foreign powers
• high status and often played a significant role in shaping Ottoman foreign policy

Kapudan Pasha dragomans:

• worked under the Kapudan Pasha, the admiral of the Ottoman fleet
• responsible for diplomatic and trade relations in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions

Embassy dragomans:

• attached to foreign embassies in the Ottoman Empire, as well as to Ottoman embassies abroad
• interpreters, translators, and advisors to ambassadors and other diplomats
• helping to navigate the complexities of Ottoman and foreign politics, culture, and language.

Provincial dragomans:

• employed by local Ottoman governors and administrators to facilitate communication and diplomacy at the regional level

The ambassador as pater famiglia —

• protect the members
• the families intermarried — created a sort of social class — people from Pera, often Catholics –
• speak Italian

Ears, lips and minds of the ambassadors

• they knew the diplomatic protocol audiences
• often standing in for the ambassadors at court
• not actually translator
• rather interpretation — reformulates and summarizes

Not institutionalized

• also merchants at the same time
• use the state’s prestige in order to do deals

Aso helping out in commercial relations

• they mediate between East and West
• they married local women
• become localized — go native

They were Christian

• powerful in the Ottoman state
• legal immunity although they were born as Ottoman subjects
• the Venetians had the largest contingent — well trained

Most of them were Greek speaking, although they had Italian names

• essential to the Ottoman empire
• not foreigners, fit right into the empire
• no place in Europe to learn Ottoman language
• no direct access to the Sultan — no point in learning the language

Try to teach dragomans in Paris and Vienna

• strong immersive language

Role in subsequent centuries?

• they lose their position in the 19th century

Paul Rycaut

Sir Paul Rycaut (1628-1700) was a British diplomat and author

• secretary to the British ambassador in Istanbul, Sir Daniel Harvey, from 1661 to 1667

The Present State of the Ottoman Empire, 1668

• Paul Rycaut, pp. 34, 84
• read on Internet Archive

On deafs and mutes on diplomatic ceremonies

Yedikule

• foreign ambassadors imprisoned in Yedikule

“Ambassador Crisis” in 1769

• the Ottoman Empire accused the British ambassador of conspiring with the Russian Empire
• at war with the Ottomans at the time
• released after several months when it became clear that the accusations were unfounded

French diplomat, Comte de Bonneval,

• imprisoned in Yedikule in 1707
• accused of plotting against the Ottoman Empire while serving as a military advisor to the Ottoman army
• released after converting to Islam and taking the name Osman Pasha

Gustav II Adolf

Bethlen Gábor

• Hungarian Calvinist, opposed to the Habsburgs, supported by the Ottomans, and the brother-in-law of the Swedish king

Charles XII

Kalabaliken vid Bender, Feb 1, 1713

• great loss at the Battle of Poltava, 1709
• Karl XII flees to the Ottoman Empire together with 1,500 Swedish soldiers

Poltava

Bender

• in 1713 the Ottomans are fed up with the Swede

Swedish köfte

The Ottomans in the European system of states

1794, Yusuf Agah Efendi

• first resident ambassador to Great Britain
• Ottomans come to join the European system of diplomacy

Ambassadors to Paris and Vienna

The Congress of Vienna

Jousting entertainment piercing heads of “Turks” with their lances

The Crimean War

• the French as protector of Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire the British worried about Russian expansion southward

Treaty of Paris, 1856

“in 1867, Sultan Abdülaziz, as the the first Ottoman ruler ever, went on an extended tour of Europe. In Paris he visited the Exposition Universelle, which, like other world expos, provided a convenient excuse for Europe’s upper-classes to get together. On June 8, a grand ball was given in the Sultan’s honor by the City of Paris, and two days later Napoleon III was hosting the Ottoman delegation in the Palais des Tuileries. It was, no doubt, a British journalist concluded, “the most brilliant assemblage of the century,” with “the most voluptuous music that ever floated from horn or rang from string” conducted by none other than Johann Strauss (Sohn) himself. After Paris, the Sultan continued on to London where the dancing continued at Buckingham Palace on July 13, and in the India Office on the 19th, where the orchestras played waltzes, quadrilles and galops.”

“The Eastern Question”

The Eastern Question refers to the diplomatic and political problems that arose in the 19th century in relation to the declining Ottoman Empire and the desire of various European powers to gain influence or territory in the Balkans, Eastern Mediterranean, and Middle East.

As the Ottoman Empire weakened, various Christian communities in the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean began to seek greater autonomy or independence, leading to conflicts between the Ottoman government and these nationalist movements.

European powers, especially Russia, sought to intervene in these conflicts to protect the interests of their own nationals or to gain influence in the region. The Eastern Question became a major issue in European diplomacy, especially after the Crimean War (1853-56), and played a role in the eventual disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.

Both the Eastern Question and the Great Game emerged in the 19th century and were driven by the expansionist policies of the European powers and Russia. The two concepts were intertwined, as the outcome of the Eastern Question had significant implications for the balance of power in Europe and for the strategic interests of both Britain and Russia in the region. The Great Game was, in many ways, a continuation of the Eastern Question in a different context, as it involved the same powers vying for control over key strategic territories and resources.

Greek war of independence

the Greeks were Christians and part of a European identity

• the “roots” of European civilization

massacre on Chios — made famous around Europe

• Lord Byron
• Delacroix

The Eastern Crisis of 1875-8

the Ottomans suppressed a Bulgarian uprising

• the states of the Balkans are taking shape
• they become European-style nation-states

helps define what “Europe” is in relation to “Asia”

• how the Balkans “got in” to Europe and how there could be no such thing as a European Ottoman Empire

Cf. Cyprus which is European since it is part of a Greek world

Turkey lost its bid to EU membership in 1878 (at a conference in Berlin where these lines were drawn up)

• willful circular reasoning — “Turkey is not European since it is not European”

Turkish soft power today