Traveling to the Near East will be a major source of cultural clash and anxiety for any diplomat or merchant from Europe seeking to do business in the region. There are a plethora of cultural, religious and historical differences between the Muslims and the Christian peoples of Europe which may get in the way of productively conducting business amongst these foreign people. In this briefing, I will outline some of the most important issues to be aware of in your dealings with the Ottomans.

Firstly, I will guide you through many of the sights that will greet you upon your entrance to an Ottoman city, so as to familiarize yourself beforehand. Ottoman cities contain many places of worship—equivalent in their religion to our churches—known as mosques. You can spot these mosques by their large, domed roofs and by the towering minarets which sprout out of the mosques’ four corners. Five times per day, the streets will echo with the call for Islamic prayer that is called from each of these minarets by the local Imam—a Muslim equivalent to a Christian priest or friar.

Expect to see people of all sorts in a dynamic Ottoman city. As these cities are often centres of trade, they will contain people of all sorts, including “fisherman, soldiers, merchants who trade on land and sea, handicraftsmen, scholars and ulema, and vintners.” (Celebi 179). Expect to see many traders and merchants of all sorts in many an Ottoman town because the Ottoman Empire is both a militarily powerful and economically/culturally vibrant one. Interestingly, all of these people will likely be somewhat accustomed to seeing a foreigner such as yourself in their lands because it is far more common for Christian, European merchants to seek trade and business with the Ottomans than it is for an Ottoman emissary or merchant to visit European lands in search of trade.

The laws of government in Ottoman territories is different to the way that it is done in many republican-style governments found in Europe, including the likes of Vienna. All judicial rulings are done at the behest of the Sultan or his local subordinate and with his (or their) arbitrary judgement, there exists a certain degree of legal uncertainty that may best be avoided altogether by avoiding any and all legal altercations whatsoever. With that said, the rule of law is well upheld in Ottoman territories, with strict corporal punishments meted out in cases of non-adherence.

By and large then the Ottoman people are, while very different from Christian Europeans, a people very much willing to open up diplomatically and commercially to Europeans. So long as you are aware of some of the more idiosyncratic cultural practices you may see and are willing to carefully learn and abide by their laws, you will be successful in your trade with the Ottomans. It is for this reason that the Venetians have been able to establish and maintain such longstanding commercial and diplomatic ties for so long—despite Turkish wars with other European states on many an occasion.