links to original Turkish article.
(Milliyet Newspaper, 12 July 2020)
//Ed. note: TNT recommends "The Imperial Gate"
by R. Kandıyoti, a novel that revolves around
Ottoman-Venetian relations in the mid-1600s.//
The 'Fondaco dei Turchi' in Venice.
Despite the fact that the Ottomans and Venetians fought seven wars
from the 15th to the 17th century, both states had very profitable
commercial ties with each other. There was even a "Turkish ghetto",
the 'Fondaco dei Turchi', in Venice where Ottoman merchants traded
with their Venetian counterparts.
Their first war spanned the years 1463-1479 and resulted in Albania
and the Morea (Peloponnese in today's Greece) coming under
Ottoman rule. An agreement Venice was forced to sign in Istanbul
on 25 January 1479 laid the foundation for the "win-win" (!)
philosophy in trade relations, although Venice was obliged by the
pact to pay war reparations and 10,000 gold pieces annually to the
Ottomans.
But the Venetians won the right to trade in the eastern Mediterranean
and the Aegean, which had become "Turkish lakes". The Istanbul
municipality recently acquired a painting of Fatih Sultan Mehmet II,
who conquered Istanbul in 1453, by Gentile Bellini, who came to
Istanbul at the time the 1479 agreement to paint the Sultan's portrait.
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/istanbul-municipality-buys-ottoman-sultans-portrait-156017 click here for the related story.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottomans availed themselves of
Venetian maritime expertise, the world's best at the time, while the
Venetians were free to enter the Ottomans' most important ports.
Consequently, the two states became quite dependent on one another,
with one Venetian ambassador quoted as saying "We Venetian
merchants couldn't live without the Turks."
The Ottomans sent to Venice wheat, spices, raw silk and cotton,
as well as ash for use in producing Murano glass and in return the
Venetians sold soap, paper and cloth to the Turks. The same
ship that brought goods from Venice to an Ottoman port would
return to Italy with exotic Ottoman and Eastern items.
One of the most magnificent structures in Venice is the "Fondaco
dei Turchi (Turkish commercial building) that was allocated at
the beginning of the 17th century to the Ottoman traders in Venice.
This "Turkish ghetto" was famous for the smell of spices that
filled the site. Even after Napoleon conquered Venice in 1797,
the "Turkish ghetto" operated until 1838. Today the building
houses the Venetian Museum of Natural History.
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