Four Centuries Of Turco-British Relations
William Hale Ali İhsan Bağıș
The Eothen Press
Britain’s diplomatic relations with Turkey began in January 1583, when her first Ambassador to the Ottoman Sultan Murad III, William Harborne, set sail for Istanbul. This collection of papers was prepared to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of what was to prove a difficult but politically momentous journey. Though it cannot claim to offer a complete or detailed survey of the totality of Turco- British relations over such a long period, it is hoped that it will provide a sketch of some of the currents which have affected their course.
There was some political motivation for the English desire to strike up relations with the Ottoman Empire in the late sixteenth century. Protestant England was at this time locked in a struggle with
Dr. William Hale is Senior Lecturer in Politics at Durham University. His publications include The Political and Economic Development of Modern Turkey (1981, repr. 1984) as well as several articles on modern Turkish history and politics. Dr. Ali İhsan Bağıș is Associate Professor of Economic and Diplomatic History in the Department of Economics, Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Hacettepe University, Ankara. He has published several articles and his two recent books are Britain and the Struggle for the Integrity of the Ottoman Empire and, in Turkish, The Non-Muslims’ Role in the Commercial Life of the Ottoman Empire, 1750-1839.
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