Browsing by Subject "Louis XIV"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Open Access
An Ottoman peace attempt at the Habsburg court during the Ottoman-Holy league war: Zülfikâr Efendi in Vienna, 1688-1693
(2008) Yılmaz, Yasir
The visit of Zülfikar Efendi to the Habsburg court in 1688 was a milestone in Ottoman diplomatic history. The Ottoman system had its own diplomatic means and manners for centuries preceding the 1680s but these methods would function effectively only as long as the Ottomans were strong enough to ignore the strength of their rivals. An empire which for centuries had practiced unilateral and nonreciprocal policy making and implementation in diplomatic affairs was now seeking peace at the court of the Habsburgs, while welcoming Anglo-Dutch mediation. This peace attempt marked the beginning of a new era for the Ottomans. From then on, they started considering the diplomatic rules and procedures followed by the European states in international arena, while this also marked the beginning of Ottomans’ gradual acceptance of European means and manners in many other issues.
Open Access
A would-be Turk: Louis XIV in le Bourgeois gentilhomme
(Routledge, 2010) Hodson, D.
Despite the large number of references to diplomatic blunders by the French during Süleyman Aǧa's visit to Paris in 1669 and the charade-like character of much of Louis XIV's policies towards the Ottoman Empire during the period, few scholars have seen the humour in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme as directed towards the crown and court. In this article, I argue that Molière's comedy-ballet can be read as a pointed satire of how Hugues de Lionne, the foreign minister, and the king received the Ottoman envoy in their official audiences, and of French foreign policy with the Ottoman state itself. The mummery involved in Lionne's receiving Süleyman as the 'Grand Vizier' of France, and the king's pretence in expecting to be viewed as a crusading monarch while diligently pursuing commercial relations with the Porte, provided Molière with ample material for satirical development. The oriental trappings of the work, especially of the Turkish ceremony, might thus be considered as a means to mirror and criticize French governmental policies and behaviour rather than as a proto-colonialist attempt imaginatively to represent the Ottoman Turk. © The Society for Seventeenth-Century French Studies 2010.