Abstract

This article unearths the little-known history of the Hanseatic legation in mid-nineteenth-century Ottoman Istanbul through a close reading of the career and writings of its head of mission Andreas David Mordtmann. A trained Orientalist, Mordtmann ventured well beyond the social and spatial boundaries that seemed to confine the select and inward-looking diplomatic milieu of Pera. He travelled extensively throughout Anatolia and had close relationships with notable Ottoman high-officials and intellectuals. After the legation was disbanded in 1859, these contacts secured him employment in the Ottoman state service. Applying a transcultural approach, the article examines Mordtmann’s overlapping and often conflicting roles of diplomat and scholar in the light of recent scholarship on nineteenth century diplomatic culture and (German) Orientalism, paying particular attention to his complex position as an observer with multiple and shifting political, cultural, and professional affinities. Uncovering the mental and material worlds of this Orientalist-turned-diplomat-turned-Ottoman will not only shed new light on some of the intricacies of diplomatic life in Istanbul, but also show how it was ultimately more ‘locally embedded’ than previously presumed in the literature.

摘要

本文通过仔细阅读其使命负责人 Andreas David Mordtmann 的职业生涯和著作，揭示了 19 世纪中叶奥斯曼帝国伊斯坦布尔汉萨公使馆鲜为人知的历史。作为一名训练有素的东方学家，莫德特曼远远超出了似乎限制了佩拉选择性和内向的外交环境的社会和空间界限。他在安纳托利亚各地旅行，并与著名的奥斯曼帝国高级官员和知识分子建立了密切的关系。公使馆于 1859 年解散后，这些联系使他在奥斯曼国家服务中获得了就业。本文运用跨文化的方法，根据最近关于 19 世纪外交文化和（德国）东方主义的学术研究，考察了莫德特曼在外交官和学者之间的重叠和经常冲突的角色，特别注意他作为观察者的复杂地位，具有多重和不断变化的政治、文化和专业亲和力。揭开这位由东方学家变身外交官、变身为奥斯曼帝国的精神和物质世界，不仅将揭示伊斯坦布尔外交生活的一些错综复杂，而且还将展示它如何最终比以前假设的更“本地化”。文献。