In 1580-1581, the Austrian Habsburg ambassador to the Ottoman court shared news of a remarkable letter and self-portrait that had arrived from an Ottoman subject in Habsburg captivity. Tracing the scramble for details on the matter and its import for Habsburg-Ottoman diplomacy reveals the structure, contours, and challenges of the Habsburg mission in Constantinople. The article argues that the image and the accompanying letter may be a forgery seeking to place the ambassador and the peace he was to uphold in jeopardy. Instead, the ambassador himself was captive to the factions, rivalries, and shifting loyalties in the borderlands that played out in the diplomatic culture of Ottoman Constantinople. This reveals the possibilities, limits, and ranges of control that early modern resident ambassadors had of their missions.

中文翻译：

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被俘虏的自我：阴谋的艺术和 16 世纪神圣罗马帝国皇帝在奥斯曼宫廷的常驻大使

1580 年至 1581 年，奥地利哈布斯堡王朝驻奥斯曼帝国宫廷大使分享了一封来自被哈布斯堡王朝囚禁的奥斯曼帝国臣民寄来的非凡信件和自画像的消息。追溯对此事细节的争夺及其对哈布斯堡-奥斯曼外交的重要性揭示了哈布斯堡王朝在君士坦丁堡的使命的结构、轮廓和挑战。文章认为，这张照片和随附的信件可能是伪造的，目的是让大使和他要维护的和平处于危险之中。相反，大使本人被奥斯曼君士坦丁堡外交文化中上演的边境地区的派系、敌对和不断变化的忠诚所俘虏。这揭示了早期现代驻地大使对其使命的可能性、限制和控制范围。