The view of the modem Greeks through the mid-sixteenth century travellers’ accounts

Abstract

Travellers’ accounts are among the important sources reflecting the
attitude of Western Europe vis à vis the Ottoman Empire. While, up to the reign of Suleiman I, such sources repeatedly emphasize “the Turkish threat”,

in the following years new Western motives dictated changes in the intial views
toward the vigorous Eastern neighbour.
The Franco-German antagonism on the Continent, the Catholic-Lutheran
clashes and the competition for the trade of the East, all substantially influenced
the attitudes of the European powers—not only among themselves—but also
with regard to the Ottomans.
Based on the known and heretofore published travel accounts, one notes
that in the quarter-century following 1532 there is a proliferation of focus on
the Ottoman Turks, their administrative system, their religion, their customs
and ways and their daily life. Correspondingly, during the same period, there
is also a scarcity of travel accounts dealing primarily or exclusively with the
Holy Land. Therefore, one may conclude that there is a translocation of
interest.
This new Empire with its renowned capital now attracts a wider interest.
Fear, cultivated by the factor of the unknown and the intense religious antagonism
gradually dissipated—especially in France—while, parallelly, there is
a definite progress towards economic relations. Access to the East is no longer
restricted to routes through the Holy Land. Constantinople—now Istanbul—
again becomes an international cross-road.
The legitimacy of the Ottoman State, sealed by Francis’ I alliance with
the Sultan and the development of diplomatic and commercial relations, again
brings the Balkan peninsula into prominence, almost a century after the fall
of Byzantium. Sporadic data on the Greek element now appears in travellers’
accounts, written by diplomatic personnel, merchants, seamen or even curious
and daring scholars who visited or explored the Empire during this period.
In this connection one may mention G. Postel, B. Ramberti, J. Maurand,
La Borderie, P. Gyllius, P. Belon du Mans, André Thévet, Nicolas Nicolay
and finally Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, diplomatic representative of Ferdinand
of Austria, for their information regarding the Greeks and the Greek lands.
Thus, mid-sixteenth century Europe comes into contact with the modern
Greeks and their classical monuments through its broader interest toward
the Ottoman Empire and the people who founded it.