The last decade has witnessed a flourishing interest in pursuing themes such as trans-culturalism, identity politics and the permeability of social bonds, as well as re-conceptualizing borders in the early modern period. In tandem with its favourable reception of the idea of a global early modernity and connected histories as well as the revival of interest in Braudel, Ottoman scholarship, in particular, and the field of Mediterranean studies, in general, have been eager to employ these themes. The result has been the emergence of a valuable body of literature that challenges both nationalist readings of the past and overemphasis on the idea of “clash of civilizations” at micro and macro levels. Related to this revisionist perspective, there emerged the tendency of problematizing the image of an omnipotent and omnipresent state in favour of creating space for historical agency and diverse roles of individuals. Stephen Ortega’s book can be considered as a product of this academic environment.
The thematically-organized work mainly covers the period from 1573 to 1645 and Ortega cites Venetian, Ottoman and Spanish archival sources with the Venetian perspective predominating. Early in the introduction, Ortega makes it clear that his work does not merely concern itself with the Ottoman merchants’ presence and commercial activities in Venice but instead favours an examination of more intricate issues including “their contact with locals, their treatment by the Venetian judicial and political systems, their cross-cultural status and their power to influence events” (1). As the following five chapters detail, embedded in this comprehensive perspective is the emphasis on the idea that physical presence was not the only way for Ottomans to have influence and reflect power in the early modern Mediterranean as this could be achieved in many different ways.
Chapter 1, which draws upon the author’s 2009-dated article, explores Ottoman Muslim communities and their networks in Venice, as well as the Venetian government’s attempts to control and supervise these networks in accordance with the state’s general tendency towards foreigners. Providing revealing examples, Ortega unpacks the complicated process that resulted in the establishment of a permanent residence, the Fondaco dei Turchi, for all Ottoman Muslims in Venice in 1621. From the Venetian perspective, “Muslims were seen as outsiders, a social grouping that needed to be institutionally located, identified and supervised” (23) and the establishment of the fondaco served this purpose quite successfully. However, the creation of the fondaco was neither unique nor fait accompli; it was the result of a negotiated process that reflected not only Venetian socio-political needs but also the demands of Ottoman Muslims and the dynamics of transregional trade and cross-cultural contact in the early modern Mediterranean. In relation to the issue of fondaco, the chapter provides insights into the details of cross-cultural and cross-religious contacts, the role of intermediaries and the distinctive identity patterns and politics of the early modern era.
Chapter 2 then examines the ways in which Ottoman Muslim merchants negotiated with the Venetian government through an analysis of their diplomatic and judicial treatment. Ortega shows that a monolithic and consistent Venetian attitude towards foreigners, including Ottoman merchants, cannot be determined: the complex political dynamics of the early modern Mediterranean “demanded flexibility not only in regard to negotiations with foreign subjects, but also in regard to how matters were deliberated internally” (51). The Venetian government tried to follow balanced diplomacy by providing legal and political guarantees to foreign merchants, whose presence in the city was vital for Venetian commercial interests, without alienating or upsetting its own subjects. Relatedly, Ottoman merchants made regular use of legal and political tools, including petitioning, relating themselves to an important Ottoman patron, providing witnesses and supporting documents for their cases, or by referring to the guarantees of the Venetian state to obtain a favourable result in their interactions with the Venetian government.
The subject of Chapter 3 is cross-cultural and cross-religious interactions and the crossing of borders between the Venetian and Ottoman territories. Rather than trade-related movement, what dominate this chapter are types of “non-sanctioned forms of contact” and “unwanted forms of exchange” over borders that the states took different measures to prevent. In addition to trade and diplomacy-related movement, border-crossing in the early modern Mediterranean was a result of many issues including seeking political refuge, kidnapping, exile and conversion. A distinctive aspect of this chapter that should be highlighted is the centrality of gender. Ortega effectively uses individual episodes of border-crossing women such as Lucia, Elena and Dorothea by situating their stories within the broader context of the early modern Mediterranean and its politics of border-crossing. He convincingly shows that although movement across borders was common, the penetrability of borders differed according to the border-crosser’s socioeconomic and political status, networks, gender and personal ties.
Chapter 4 delves into the different ways in which Ottoman power in Venice was projected. Ortega draws our attention to the fact that an understanding of Ottoman power in Venice should not be limited to state diplomacy; Ottomans also exerted power in socio-political circles in Venice through different means such as envoys, treaties, personal influence and institutions. The discussion serves as a corrective to the tendency of underestimating Ottoman influence in Europe due to the presumed absence of Ottoman subjects and diplomats. Ortega shows that, at least in the context of Venetian-Ottoman relations, “power was less about a permanent physical presence in a particular place …” (108) and that Ottomans could compensate for lack of permanent formal diplomatic agencies in foreign states through alternative efficient means such as sending envoys composed of prestigious members of the Ottoman state.
The last chapter aims to provide a snapshot of early modern Mediterranean politics and diplomacy by zooming in on a conflict that involved the Venetian, Ottoman, and Habsburg states as well as lesser known affiliated historical actors who occasionally sought to promote their own agendas. The event that is used as a prism to read the complex power balance, broader agendas and struggles and the ever-changing political dynamics of the region is the Spanish attack on a Venetian fleet that included merchant ships carrying Ottoman Muslim merchants, whose safety was promised by the Venetian authorities. Ortega masterfully analyses the differing interpretations of the event by the involved parties, taking into account their interests as well as their historical understandings of the Mediterranean as a space and political arena. The discussion encapsulates, among others, the issue of sovereignty over sea and how the sea was understood and conceptualized by the states, state-related actors and corsairs. This chapter is followed by a very brief epilogue that presents some final remarks on the issues discussed in the book.
Ortega’s work is an important and timely contribution that takes into consideration recent trends in the field and provides new perspectives and documentary repertoire for further use by scholars working on relevant topics. In particular, his discussion on physical presence not being the precondition for Ottomans’ ability to assert political influence offers a new way of assessing Ottoman-European relations. The most well-known studies on Venetian-Ottoman encounters—Eric Dursteler’s work concerning Venetians in the Ottoman Empire and Natalie Rothman’s book regarding “trans-imperial” subjects composed of commercial brokers, religious converts, Ottoman and Safavid subjects, Jewish and Muslim dragomans, and Greeks—differ in that they do not necessarily consider Ottoman Muslims. Ortega’s originality lies in his specifically concerning Ottoman Muslims in Venice, an aspect that makes the work the most systematic study of Ottomans in Venice to date. Similar studies on British-Ottoman-French relations might make further use of Ortega’s work in addition to the existing fine scholarship on Ottoman-Venetian interactions by continuing to lay the groundwork for comparative and broader analyses of interactions in the early modern Mediterranean.
