Introduction

Sixteenth-century historians, theologians and antiquarians widely debated the history and place of the Ottoman Empire, its inhabitants, their culture, customs and religion in a variety of cosmographical, historical and geographical publications. This chapter investigates textual and visual representations by historians and illustrators of the Turk in such publications. It focuses especially on how these ideas contributed to an understanding of the place of the Ottoman Empire and its people in the history and geography of the wider world, as described by sixteenth-century scholars. In many ways the authors and illustrators of the works in this chapter used the material considered in earlier chapters of this book to help determine a historical framework for the Turk, and often recycled older views and images rather than creating something new. Study of the historical background of the Ottoman people and their rulers enabled scholars to analyse the growing power and expansion of this empire. Classical and biblical sources, as studied by medieval scholars, had improved the understanding of Islam for humanists and scholars in the early modern period.

Illustrations of Turks in historical and genealogical works depended on the type of histories being written and their context, though not all texts contained illustrations. These encyclopaedic works might be chronicles, genealogies or separate histories, which often included sections describing the origins, rituals and habits of the Turk.