An Ottoman envoy in Paris: Süleyman Ağa's mission to the court of Louis XIV, 1669

IV. Mehmed 1669 yılında Süleyman Ağa'yı elçi olarak Fransız Kralı XIV. Louis'ye göndermiştir. Fransa ve Osmanlı İmparatorluğu arasında bir seri savaşın sonunda gelen bu diplomatik misyonun hedefi geleneksel Osmanlı-Fransız itilâfındaki krizi çözmekti. Her ne kadar bu diplomatik misyonun ardındaki fikir açıksa da, aynı şeyi Süleyman Ağa'nın rolü için söylememiz mümkün değildir. Fransızlar bir büyükelçi beklemekte ve büyükelçi karşılamaları için gerekli hazırlıkları yapmış bulunmaktadır; oysa Osmanlı elçisinin statüsü çok daha kısıtlıdır. Bu makale, Osmanlı ve Fransız diplomatik protokolünün karşı karşıya gelmesiyle ortaya çıkan sorunları ve Fransız hükümetinin bu sorunları nasıl çözdüğünü araştırmaktadır. Onyedinci yüzyıl Osmanlı-Avrupa diplomasisinde uygulamada çıkan zorlukların büyük bir kısmını yansıtmakla beraber, elimizdeki vak'a aynı zamanda Fransız ve Osmanlı hükümetlerinin yüksek siyasi çıkarlar adına makul ve pragmatik kalabildiklerinin altını çizmektedir.

Paris'te Bir Osmanlı Elçisi: XIV. Louis'nin Sarayında Süleyman Ağa, 1669

In 1669, Sultan Mehmed IV dispatched Süleyman Ağa as emissary to King Louis XIV of France. Coming at the end of a decade which saw a series of military confrontations between France and the Ottoman Empire, the mission was an attempt to resolve the crisis in the traditional Franco-Ottoman entente. If the thinking behind this diplomatic mission is reasonably clear, the precise role of Süleyman Ağa was anything but. While the French expected an ambassador and made preparations to receive him accordingly, the Ottoman envoy's status was in fact far more limited. This article investigates the problems encountered as Ottoman and French diplomatic protocol clashed, and the ways in which the French government attempted to resolve these problems. The episode reflects many of the difficulties in conducting Ottoman-European diplomacy in the seventeenth century. But it also underlines the ability of the French and Ottoman governments to remain reasonably pragmatic in the name of higher political imperatives

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