Enchantment

Abstract

This chapter examines the history of charismatic megafauna in the early modern Ottoman Empire. It begins with a discussion of the place of Ottoman Egypt and Istanbul in the early modern charismatic animal economy of Eurasia, focusing mostly on the trade in elephants and lions. Between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, elephants were regularly shipped from South Asia to Egypt, while lions mostly came to Istanbul from Iran and North Africa. Around these animals developed whole infrastructures and sophisticated bureaucracies of care, feeding, and support. This chapter also discusses the role of hunting in the inculcation and projection of Ottoman notions of kingship, just rule, and sovereign power. Throughout, the chapter focuses on the strategic uses of large charismatic animals as symbols of imperial power in the Ottoman Empire and on their roles as diplomatic tools of both rivalry and alliance-building among sovereigns in the early modern world.