Alexander de Groot looks beyond the Tulip craze of the seventeenth century to explore the story of Dutch-Ottoman contact, from the Battle of Lepanto in the late sixteenth century to the Turkish nationalist struggle of the 1920s.
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-61719-149-7
Publication Status: In Print
Publication Date: Aug 11,2010
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 207
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1-61719-149-7
Lecturer at Leiden University until 2005, Alexander de Groot presents in this volume a collection of essays on the history of contact between the Netherlands and Turkey. The Dutch-Turkish connection is perhaps best remembered in the Tulip craze of the seventeenth century, but de Groot reminds us that it was in fact both earlier and deeper. De Groot starts with the Dutch community in Istanbul, skipping the stories of prior pilgrims passing through, showing that commerce lay behind the closest relationships between the Ottoman Empire and the Netherlands. This holds true for both of the major points of contact, Istanbul and Izmir, the two leading commercial centres. De Groot also looks at the ups and downs of Ottoman-Dutch political and military encounters from the Battle of Lepanto until the Turkish nationalist struggle of the 1920s.