Genoa, Genoese Merchants and the Ottoman Empire in the First Half of the Fifteenth Century: Rumours and Reality

Abstract Among the Latin states, it was the maritime republic of Genoa that established the earliest official contacts with the Ottomans by concluding a treaty with them in 1352. This was the first step in the development of relatively smooth relations between the Genoese and the Ottoman Empire, which lasted from the mid-fourteenth until the mid-fifteenth century. Within Christendom, such familiarity earned the republic a negative reputation, which the adversaries of Genoa – Venice among others – tried to exploit for their own purposes. An element that contributed to the idea of a close connection between the Genoese and Ottomans was the outstanding position gained by some citizens of Genoa at the Ottoman court. They were influential men of affairs who owed their acquaintance with the sultans to their specific commercial activity. However, despite the fact that in some cases they held offices in the Genoese colonial administration, these merchants acted quite independently of Genoa itself and sometimes contrary to its directives.