Description
[Sefaretname: 1205 senesinde Prusya kralı İkinci Frederik nezdine memur olan Ahmed Azmi Efendinindir]
A rare first printed edition of a travelogue by the Ottoman ambassador in Berlin, Ahmed Azmi, in the late 18th century, was published a century after his staying in the city.
Ahmed Azmi or Azmi Efendi was the second Ottoman ambassador to Prussia, who arrived to Berlin in 1791, where he stayed for 11 months. This was not Azmi Efendi’s first visit to the city. He spent there some time with his relative (in documents mentioned as his father-in-law, brother-in-law or nephew), Ahmed Resmi Efendi, who was appointed the first ambassador to Prussia in 1763 with a mission to negotiate the peace treaties with the Ottoman Empire and Russia.
During his 11 months in Berlin Azmi Efendi was carefully observing the cultural life, the politics and the Prussian administration. He was so fascinated by its structure, that upon return he presented his travelogue with a suggestion to reform the Ottoman administration to sultan Salim III, who followed his advice.
This first printed version of the travelogue was published in 1886/1887, on the eve, when the Ottoman relations started changing to the favor of Germany. With already several important Prussians employed by the Ottoman government, in the next years Germany took over a large part of the Ottoman finances and railways.
References: OCLC: 63663600, 888149941, 984444530, 163519124, 634647015. E-copy: OCLC 682782893. Özege 17658. Otto Müller, Azmi Efendis Gesandtschaftsreise an den preußischen Hof. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der diplomatischen Beziehungen Preußens zur Hohen Pforte unter Friedrich Wilhelm II., Hohe philosophische Fakultät der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, 1918; Ingeborg Böer – Ruth Haerkötter – Petra Kappert (ed.), Türken in Berlin 1871 – 1945: Eine Metropole in den Erinnerungen osmanischer…, 2002; Gümeç Karamuk. Ahmed Azmi Efendis Gesandtschaftsbericht als Zeugnis des osmanischen Machtverfalls und der beginnenden Reformära unter Selim III, Bern : Herbert Lang ; Frankfurt/M : Peter Lang, 1975; Virginia H. Aksan, An Ottoman Statesman in War and Peace: Ahmed Resmi Efendi, 1700-1783, 1995.
