An Ottoman Envoy at Work (1665-1666): Kara Mehmed Pasha, His Stay in Vienna, Entourage, and Ambassadorial Report

Abstract

The Treaty of Vasvár (10 August 1664) ended the war between the Ottoman and Habsburg courts that had been keeping them busy for the last two years. The last article of the treaty called for an exchange of envoys with the rank of ambassador. In 1665, Kara Mehmed Pasha was dispatched by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed IV to Vienna where he carried out his diplomatic mission. This paper aims to examine a series of topics related to the Ottoman ambassador’s legation to the Hofburg with an emphasis on both Austrian and Ottoman archival sources: his being elected as ambassador, his travel to Vienna, the members of the Ottoman diplomatic delegation, the protocol applied to him in his diplomatic encounters in Vienna, etc. The article begins with a review of the scholarly works that have been produced on Kara Mehmed’s embassy thus far and continues with a reconstruction of the history of the embassy based upon a wide range of primary sources. It also offers two specific contributions to the literature: a listing of the members of the Ottoman delegation that arrived in Vienna in 1665 and a textual analysis of the ambassadorial report of Kara Mehmed Pasha.