Mere container or object of intrinsic value? A leather wallet on diplomatic mission in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars

Abstract

This chapter focuses on an Ottoman wallet sent in 1685 by the Ottoman governor of Buda, Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha, to Margrave Hermann of Baden. It shows how this particular object opens up new perspectives on the material culture of diplomatic documents and their containers, which to date have not attracted the attention they deserve. Whereas the Ottoman sultans used to insert their letters to foreign rulers in embroidered silk bags, Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha chose a costly decorated leather wallet as an Ottoman artefact that a European elite figure of the time was likely to appreciate. Thereby, Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha probably tried to create an atmosphere favourable to his own political agenda. Evidently, in an early phase of the conflagration known to European historians as the Great Turkish War (1683–99), the Ottoman governor hoped to start peace talks at the sub-imperial level with a general of the Habsburg Empire. As the present chapter highlights, governors in the Ottoman-Habsburg borderlands enjoyed considerable autonomy in the pursuit of their own political goals.