Complaining to One Sokolović Against Another Sokolović

Protests by the Habsburg Emissary Joachim Von Sinzendorf to Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasha Against Ferhad Bey, the Sanjakbey of Bosnia

Abstract

In the early 1578, a nobleman from Upper Austria, Joachim von Sinzendorf, took the post of the permanent diplomatic representative of the Habsburgs in Istanbul, at a very complex period. One of his key tasks was to stop the offensives by the sanjakbey of Bosnia, Ferhad Bey Sokolović. Commanded by Ferhad Bey, the ottoman troops started attacking the area of Bihać in 1575, planning to take this important town and a fortress in Croatia, In August 1578, the Habsburg side launched a military campaign against Ferhad Bey’s troops, but it ended in failure. In his written and oral protests, Sinzendorf tried to justify the Habsburg campaign and stop Ferhad Bey’s attacks against their territory. Sinzendorf’s interlocutor in the meetings at the Sublime Porte was the Grand Vizier, Mehmed Pasha Sokolović, Ferhad Bey’s cousin and his principal protector. The paper explains Sinzendorf ’s methods in attempting to achieve his goal, indicating his different view of the nature and the personalities of Ferhad Bey and Mehmed Pasha Sokolović. As an annex, the paper presents a text in German and a translation into Bosnian: the last protest note Sinzendorf sent to Mehmed Pasha on 2 August 1579.