The Birth of the Despot

The Birth of the Despot
Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Total Pages : 129
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781501717215
ISBN-13 : 1501717219
Rating : 4/5 (15 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Birth of the Despot by : Lucette Valensi

Download or read book The Birth of the Despot written by Lucette Valensi and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her graceful account of the transformation of European attitudes toward the Ottoman empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Lucette Valensi follows the genealogy of the concept of Oriental despotism. The Birth of the Despot examines a crucial moment in the long and ambiguous encounter between the Christian and Islamic worlds: the period after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, when Venice's pursuit of its commercial and maritime interests brought two powerful protagonists—Venice and the Sublime Porte—face-to-face. Vivaldi's oratorio Juditha Triumphans, in which Judith liberates her besieged town by killing the Turk Holofernes, serves as the organizing metaphor in Valensi's study of how Venice's perceptions of its rival changed. Valensi shows how Venice's initial admiration for the sultan and his orderly empire metamorphosed into revulsion at a monstrous tyrant.


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