‘In addition to trade, the Ragusans played a vital role for Catholicism in the Ottoman capital, whether through consular support, or, occasionally, even personally, as the highest Roman Catholic dignitaries in Istanbul. The skilful Ragusan diplomats sometimes provided their services to other foreign embassies as well, and thus played an important role behind the scenes in European diplomacy in Istanbul. At the same time, often they figured as the leaders not only of the Ragusan community, but of the local Roman Catholics in general.’
Vjeran Kursar (PhD, University of Zagreb) is Associate Professor of History and Hungarian, Turkish and Judaic Studies at the University of Zagreb. He has published on topics of Ottoman ethno- confessional, legal, and social history, mainly related to Bosnia, the Balkans, and Istanbul. He is the author of Croatian Levantines in Ottoman Istanbul (2021) and co-editor, with Nenad Moačanin and Kornelija Jurin Starčević, of Evliya Çelebi in the Borderlands: New Insights and Novel Approaches to the Seyahatname (Western Balkans and Iran Sections) (2021).
