BIÇAK SIRTINDA: MICHAEL TALMAN’IN OSMANLI İMPARATORLUĞU’NDAKİ İLK SENELERİ
ON THE RAZOR’S EDGE: MICHAEL TALMAN’S FIRST YEARS IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Summary/Abstract: When Michael Talman came to Edirne in the early months of 1703 as ambassadorial secretary to Alexander de Fin, who had been appointed internuntius some time ago and was still unable to start his journey to Istanbul, the spirit of Carlowitz was maintained in the Ottoman-Habsburg relations. However, both the War of the Spanish Succession and Rákóczi's War of Independence set the stage for the war party and actors of the anti-Habsburg diplomacy in the Ottoman capital. Instead of their influence, it was the fall of the pillars of peace, Sultan Mustafa II, the Grand Mufti Feyzullah Efendi, and the Grand Vizier Rami Mehmed Pasha, as a result of the Edirne Incident that made the sustainability of the peace uncertain. Under these circumstances, Michael Talman, an experienced diplomat in Ottoman affairs with a limited apparatus, tried to defend the interests of the Habsburgs in Istanbul, and he succeeded this with the help of the international conjuncture. Based on the Habsburg, Ottoman and English archival sources, this article focuses on Michael Talman's diplomacy in protecting the Ottoman-Habsburg peace, which was on the razor's edge as a result of the turbulence in European diplomacy and the changes at the Sublime Porte, and his promotion as imperial resident in Istanbul.

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