No peace without rapprochement

The life of the native Swiss and later Habsburg envoy Johann Rudolf Schmid zum Schwarzenhorn (1590-1667) took an abrupt turn while he was still a young man: in the early 17th century he became a prisoner of war of the Ottoman empire and suffered long years of captivity. Thanks to his language skills he was able to elevate his social status from mere slave to interpreter. In this capacity he made contact with Habsburg envoys, who successfully worked towards his release in 1624 and facilitated his entry into the diplomatic service. At a time when diplomatic careers were based on family background and wealth, Schmid’s beginnings were unusual. They were also unusual because his success was based on intercultural skills and his proficiency in the Ottoman language.

“At that time, it was rare to have envoys going to Constantinople who had a command of the local language. Most of them had to use interpreters, so-called ‘dragomans’. Schmid, however, had personal contacts with the Ottomans and learned many things at first hand. This is what makes his reports so intriguing,” explains the historian Arno Strohmeyer of the University of Salzburg.

Communication creates knowledge

Schmid was sent to Constantinople several times as a Habsburg envoy. In 1649, a diplomatic mission of several months was particularly important for maintaining the peace between the two empires. The manner in which Schmid and his assistant Johann Georg Metzger recorded the events in Schmid’s travel report is at the centre of a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF. The historian Strohmeyer and his team of researchers from the University of Salzburg, the University of Graz and the Hungarian University of Szeged analyse various aspects of the diplomatic missives. The communications include letters sent between Schmid and the Imperial Court in Vienna, instructions from Emperor Ferdinand III, the “Secret Report”, the final report (Finalrelation) and travel reports. This is the first time that researchers are investigating the mission of 1649 in terms of media interfaces, examining, for instance, where text passages were copied from one medium to another.

The analysis also provides new insights as to how knowledge about the Ottomans was gained in Central Europe and the impact intercultural rapprochement had in this process. “You have to bear in mind that, for a long time, these correspondences were the central form of communication between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. A significant portion of the knowledge about the Ottomans was gathered in the context of diplomatic missions, which means that written correspondence is the most important historical source of information,” Strohmeyer notes. Thanks to his language skills, Schmid was also very familiar with the Ottoman culture, which is why the researchers’ analyses illustrate phenomena such as adapting to the foreign culture (acculturation) or adopting aspects of a foreign culture (assimilation).

Everything was important

The documentation is plentiful, since Schmid sent a letter to the Habsburg Emperor every two to three weeks. Preserved in its entirety, this valuable correspondence is kept in the Austrian State Archives in Vienna. There were always several copies made of each letter and these were sent to Vienna by different routes. In addition, sensitive passages were encrypted. The researchers were surprised by the very diverse content, ranging from political events to the seating arrangements at festivities or the weather, which provided a very detailed impression of everyday life. The envoys had the remit to report on everything they deemed important, but were expected to do so from a neutral and “objective” point of view wherever possible. These expectations had an impact on how events were reported.

The analysis has revealed examples where Schmid underlined his own successes and sober attitude, while for instance portraying a high-ranking Ottoman as highly emotional. Schmid reinforced this rational-versus-emotional portrayal even more by including verbatim quotes. He could do this credibly, because he spoke the language. While the letters and reports illustrate the diverse everyday activities of the envoy, the travel reports – to the extent that they are still preserved – furnish more context.

A single travel report was rediscovered

Thanks to the commitment of the historian and project team member Anna Huemer, an original travel report by Johann Georg Metzger that had been believed lost was rediscovered after a laborious search at Stiebar Castle in Lower Austria. “That was a really lovely moment when we finally discovered it in a cabinet on our second visit to the castle archives,” Strohmeyer recalls. After all, only this one travel report exists of the diplomatic mission in 1649. The document also derives its great value from the fact that it provides a different perspective on the events mentioned in letters and reports. Detailing the timeline of the mission, Metzger also adds historical information, for instance on city history, and provides numerous illustrations of the country and its inhabitants.