The Sultan Speaks pp 33-61 | Cite as
Sixteenth-Century Histories of the Turks: Shocking Speech and Edifying Dicta
Abstract
During the sixteenth century, most sources about the Ottomans available in England were translations of continental works. Typically, many years separated the originals and the translations, and consequently, these works did not represent a single voice speaking from a unique historical moment. They were the product of a scholarly dialogue: the Catholic authors are themselves ambivalent about the Turks, and the translators complicate matters further, adding Protestant commentary and providing competing versions of events in the margins. While the originals were available to educated English readers (as they were to the translators), the translations naturally found a wider audience. Moreover, by choosing a particular text (old or new, scholarly or sensational) the translators shaped the discourse about the Ottomans circulating in England. One can speculate about how the originals were received by other readers in the privacy of their libraries, but the translators explicitly discuss their motives for undertaking the work, and their translations show how they “read” the originals.1 While a word-for-word comparison of source text and translation is beyond the scope of this chapter, a comparison of the author’s and the translator’s prefaces (where both are available) and an analysis of the translator’s marginalia and other apparatus provide some evidence of where and how they differed. Often cited exclusively for evidence of hostility to the Turks, the source texts construct contradictory images: sultans condemned for the bloody deeds by which they gained the throne are later portrayed as rulers of accomplishment, wisdom, and justice; denounced as sensual or barbaric in one passage, the Turks may be praised for near angelic piety in the next.
Keywords
Sixteenth Century Source Text English Reader Protestant Activist Person Plural PronounPreview
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Chapter 2 Sixteenth-Century Histories of the Turks: Shocking Speech and Edifying Dicta
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