The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It - Course Information

174 ~ THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE WORLD AROUND IT ~
evidently enjoyed these novel dishes and also the relaxation of social constraints
that travel brought with it – and his Ottoman interlocutors did not hesitate to
make it all possible.
~ Mediations, ambiguities and shifts of identity
That mediation between members of the Ottoman elites and visiting or resident
foreigners often fell to the lot of Ottoman non-Muslims has long been known. In
this endeavour, the latter were all too often ‘caught in the middle’, that is, they
attracted the reprobation of both sides. The dragomans attached to foreign
embassies were mistrusted by their employers, on account of real or supposed
venality but also because their status as subjects of the sultan made them liable to
pressure by the Ottoman authorities. Venetians and Frenchmen especially made
considerable efforts to teach young subjects of their own states the Ottoman language
in order to avoid hiring locals. 53 Yet Christian dragomans subject to the
sultan continued to work for many embassies, the family of the scholarly Armenian
Catholic and luckless Swedish ambassador Mouradgea d’Ohsson
(Muradcan Tosunyan) forming a case in point. 54 On the Ottoman side, there was
the consideration that the dragoman might or actually did usurp the privileges of
foreigners to which, as a subject of the sultan, he had no right. Moreover it was
probably assumed that a denizen of the Empire owed his ruler undivided loyalty,
and somebody who instead presumed to play a role ‘between the fronts’ must
therefore have been viewed as faithless and unreliable.
However, mediators were necessary for many diplomatic negotiations, and
while the motivations of these men for the most part remain obscure, their visible
activities often have been well studied, especially where the sixteenth century is
concerned. As a colourful example, we may refer to the doctor Solomon
Ashkenazi from Udine, who studied in Padua and later settled in Istanbul. 55
There from the 1560s/967–77 onwards, he built up an important practice, which
included the Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Paşa and the chief translator to the
sultan’s council as well as the different Venetian ambassadors (baili) present in
Istanbul during those years. In addition Ashkenazi did well in trade, and is
known to have owned several ships.
The reason for the Jewish-Italian doctor’s being the subject of several studies
– the most recent dating from 1995 – is his share in bringing the war over Cyprus
to an end. 56 The Signoria had entrusted this responsibility to the current bailo
Marcantonio Barbaro, who was under house arrest in Pera and thus could only
negotiate through a middleman. As such, Ashkenazi was a good choice because
of his ongoing relationship with the grand vizier who, for his own reasons,
wanted to end the war. But even so the undertaking was highly dangerous for the
doctor and diplomat, as the grand vizier’s political opponents tried to torpedo the
negotiations by threatening the middleman. However Sokollu was successful in