Diplomatic Cultures at the Ottoman Court, c.1500-1630

In the sixteenth century, the Ottoman court in Constantinople emerged as the axial centre of early modern diplomacy in Eurasia. Diplomatic Cultures at the Ottoman Court, c.1500-1630 takes a unique approach to diplomatic relations by focusing on how diplomacy was conducted and diplomatic cultures forged at a single court: the Sublime Porte. It unites studies from the perspectives of European and non-European diplomats with analyses from the perspective of Ottoman officials involved in diplomatic practices. It focuses on a formative period for diplomatic procedure and Ottoman imperial culture by examining the introduction of resident embassies on the one hand, and on the other, changes in Ottoman policy and protocol that resulted from the territorial expansion and cultural transformations of the empire in the sixteenth century. The chapters in this volume approach the practices and processes of diplomacy at the Ottoman court with special attention to ceremonial protocol, diplomatic sociability, gift-giving, cultural exchange, information gathering, and the role of para-diplomatic actors.

Tracey A. Sowerby (University of Oxford) is the author of Renaissance and Reform in Tudor England: The Careers of Sir Richard Morison c.1513-1556 (2010), and co-editor of Practices of Diplomacy in the Early Modern World c.1410-1800 (2017) and Cultures of Diplomacy and Literary Writing in the Early Modern World (2019). Christopher Markiewicz is a lecturer in Ottoman and Islamic history at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of The Crisis of Kingship in Late Medieval Islam: Persian Emigres and the Making of Ottoman Sovereignty (2019).

Introduction: Constantinople as a Centre of Diplomatic Culture 1 Persian Secretaries in the Making of an Anti-Safavid Diplomatic Discourse 2 Languages of Diplomatic Gift-Giving at the Ottoman Court 3 Art and Diplomacy: Pieter Coecke van Aelst's 1533 Journey to Constantinople 4 Beyond Topkapi: Ottoman Diplomacy Through Venetian Eyes 5 The Foundation of Peace Oriented Foreign Policy in the Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Empire: Rüstem Pasha's Vision of Diplomacy 6 The Benefits and Limits of Permanent Diplomacy: Austrian Habsburg Ambassadors and Ottoman-Spanish Diplomacy in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century 7 Without 'conformitie of companie': English Religious Identity and the Diplomatic Corps in Constantinople, 1578-97 8 The Trick and Traps of ad hoc Diplomacy: Polish Ambassadors' Experiences of Ottoman Hospitality 9 Sociability and Ceremony: Diplomats at the Porte c.1550-1632