In the middle of the 16th century, a young man, originally from Flanders, but fluent in several languages and now a diplomat in the employ of the Austrian emperor, is sent to Constantinople. His name: Ogier Ghislain de Busbcq (also written: Ghiselin de Busbcq). At this time, Suleiman "the magnificent" was sultan of the Ottoman empire which reached its greatest power and extension during his reign. The Ottoman armies conquered many parts of Europe like Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria and in 1529 they had attacked even the very heart of the Habsburg monarchy, Vienna. This was the situation when, in 1554, Busbecq became ambassador to the Constantinople in order to negotiate about a border treaty between the Habsburg empire and the Ottoman empire.

During this mission, Busbecq reported in Latin about the foreign culture(s), religious habits and languages he experienced during his journey through the Ottoman empire and about cultural inventions which came to Europe due to the contact to Turkish culture. His notes are collected under the title: Legationis Turcicae epistolae quatuor.

(1) Create a google map with the most important stops of Busbecq. Write down some information about Busbecq's observations at each place.

(2) Create an "Actionbound" which helps other students to gain extensive knowledge of the time of the Ottoman-Habsburg wars and the cultural inventions that came to Europe due to the contact with Turkish culture. - For this, you can start informing yourself by using the following links. However, you should also find other serious sources - both from printed books and the internet - by own research.

Your login to "actionbound" is: https://actionbound.com/signin/Erasmus2019 .

(3) Create a page here on the TwinSpace where you put down some information about Busbecq and his time at the court of Suleiman the Magnificent (starting with your google map) which the player of your "Actionbound" can use to prepare themselves for the game you created for them.

TEXT / PICTURES:

a very informative website with Latin text, German translation and a lot of information and pictures (a website created by an Austrian High school student in the last year before the "Matura"):

"Das osmanische Reich im 16.Jahrhundert aus der Sicht von Ogier de Busbecq" (in German)hist

short information about the historical background:

"Goldenes Zeitalter" des Osmanischen Reiches (16.Jh.)

seen with different eyes: Busbecq about life in Constaninople and a Turkish writer of the 17th century about life in Vienna:

Letters by the diplomats Busbecq and Evliya Celebi (English; German)

VIDEO:

a six-minutes-documentation about sultan Suleiman and the "Golden age of the Ottoman empire":

"Suleyman the Magnificent" (in English)

documentation (in minute 25:43, the expansion of the Ottoman empire under Suleiman and the siege of Vienna in 1529  is the main topic):

"Das Reich des Sultans" (ZDF / arte; in German)

short cartoon (8 min.) about the Siege of Vienna in 1529:

Suleiman the Magnificent (part 4) (in English; German subtitles)