Introduction

Focusing on the expansion of the Ottoman Empire immediately following the direct threat to German territories, this chapter investigates a variety of printed depictions and descriptions of Ottoman soldiers and armies. In some cases Turkish soldiers are shown as brutal and cruel enemies, in others as worthy opponents. These depictions range from illustrations in books, pamphlets and broadsheets including ‘eyewitness’ accounts, to maps of battles and skirmishes. They include portraits of sultans as representative of the whole Ottoman Empire, panoramas of Turkish soldiers and military campaigns. They clearly show the gradual developments in reporting specific battles as more current news could be disseminated through the advances in print technology. These images and their accompanying texts help to frame sixteenth-century visual responses to the constant Ottoman military and religious threat, especially as it encroached on German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire.