TORCH Network on Diplomacy in the Early Modern Period (1400-1800) - ‘Ubudiyet: Edward Barton's service to the sultan’
Abstract: Late in the summer of 1593, Edward Barton, English ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, took a little boat trip out from the embassy building at Fındıklı to the shores of ancient Byzantium, under the walls of the Topkapı Sarayı. There he held a paper petition to his head in a gesture of subjection to sultan Murad III, hoping for redress in a dispute with his great political rival, Ferhad Paşa. Several weeks later, following a humbling forced apology from Ferhad, and the arrival of the English ship bearing Edward’s gifts and official credentials for presentation to the Ottoman authorities, he had pride of place in a ceremonial audience with the sultan to hand over an ubudiyet-name – letter of subjection to sultanic authority – on behalf of himself and his nation. But then, Edward had for a long time been a man with three masters: his queen, his company, and – through his remarkable integration into Ottoman high politics – the sultan himself.
Date: 22 May 2018, 17:30 (Tuesday, 5th week, Trinity 2018)
Venue: Radcliffe Humanities, Woodstock Road OX2 6GG
Venue Details: Seminar Room on the 3rd floor
Speaker: Joel Butler (Wadham College, Oxford)
Booking required?: Not required
Booking url: https://earlymoderndiplomacyevents.wordpress.com/2018/05/17/joel-butler-wadham-college-oxford-ubudiyet-edward-bartons-service-to-the-sultan/
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Laura Spence