Between fear and fascination: spatial manifestations of Habsburg–Ottoman rivalry in early modern Istanbul (c. 1530–1606)

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates how the Ottoman–Habsburg rivalry was materialized in Istanbul’s urban fabric, c. 1530–1606. Tracing the itinerary Divanyolu → Elçi Hanı → Topkapı Palace, it reconstructs a ritual geography in which routes, lodgings and thresholds converted diplomacy into spatial governance. Drawing on protocol notes, narratives and images, it shows how orchestrated confinement, staged spectacle and reciprocal visibility structured ambassadorial experience: envoys were lodged under watch in the Elçi Hanı , processed along a ceremonial corridor and received in a palace that magnified authority by withholding it. Combining visual, textual and architectural analysis, the article demonstrates how power was materially and symbolically enacted and ambassadors became both spectators and exhibits. Rather than treating the city as backdrop, it reads Istanbul as an instrument that translated rivalry into movement, vantage and constraint, situating the Ottoman capital within a wider Mediterranean economy of representation, comparison and control.