Early French Encounters with the Ottomans

Orientalist representations loom large in the history of 19th-century colonialism and European engagement with the late Ottoman Empire. But how did the orientalist discourses of the late Ottoman period compare with European representations of the Ottoman Empire during its early rise? In this episode, Pascale Barthe revisits this question through the lens of 16th century French encounters with the Ottoman Empire. Through Renaissance period French accounts of travel in and political engagement with the Ottoman Empire, we discuss early Franco-Ottoman rapprochement and cross-cultural exchange pursued by French monarchs and subjects with the would-be eastern other of the "Turk."