An Ottoman City of Strangers: Placing the Jews in Early Modern English Texts on Istanbul
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This article investigates the ways in which early modern Englishmen surveyed the urban material frames, places and houses of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and its capital. I will ask what kinds of meanings English texts about Turkey assigned to the Jews, their material culture, dwellings and way of life as a minority among the feared and awed ‘Turks’. It will be argued that Istanbul was used as an example of how Ottomans treated the minorities in their midst, and that such information was vital to know about for Englishmen of various profes- sions and backgrounds at a time when English travellers and traders were forming closer contacts and trading relations with the Ottoman Empire.
This article investigates the ways in which early modern Englishmen surveyed the urban material frames, places and houses of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and its capital. I will ask what kinds of meanings English texts about Turkey assigned to the Jews, their material culture, dwellings and way of life as a minority among the feared and awed ‘Turks’. It will be argued that Istanbul was used as an example of how Ottomans treated the minorities in their midst, and that such information was vital to know about for Englishmen of various profes- sions and backgrounds at a time when English travellers and traders were forming closer contacts and trading relations with the Ottoman Empire.