Turkish Letters

Intelligent but unpretentious, gossipy yet honest, inquiring and unprejudiced - Busbecq is the sort of man we would all like to meet on our travels. As Habsburg ambassador to the sixteenth century court of Suleyman the Magnificent he missed nothing: the intrigue of Roxelana at court, the unloading of Spanish prisoners of war, the healthy yoghurt and fruit diet of country Turks, the brutal realities of super-power politics or the charming, but expensive, habit of being welcomed with flowers by the Janissary guards. Busbecq describes Constantinople as 'created by nature to be the capital of the world', and brings the city at the heyday of Ottoman power bursting back to life. Turkish Letters is eyewitness history at its best.