Explorateurs de la modernité. Les ambassadeurs ottomans en Europe

Explorers of Modernity: the Ottoman Ambassadors in Europe. - Starting at the end of the 17th century, when the Ottoman Empire suffered its first major military defeat at the hands of the Hapsburgs, relations between . ambassadors of the Sublime Porte with - European countries offer testimony as to how a way out of the travel-story tradition common to the major Islamic Ianguages of Arabic. Turkish and Persian was found. Accounts of the marvellous and the strange which once predomina ted gave way to texts in which the primary concern was effectiveness: recognising the positive nature of the adversary-Other, uncovering the secrets of its : power and accounting for other world orders. The process of using Europe as . a possible source of models started up in two directions: first, the representation of the other resulted in new perceptions as a mirror of oneself; secondly, the issue raised by recognising these possible models concerned the conditions under which they might be appropriated. In this way, the. Ottoman- ambassadors participated in the logic of reform through which the Empire tried . to preserve itself under the auspices of the Tanzimat.