The road to Vienna: Habsburg and Ottoman statecraft during the time of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Paşa (1676–1683)

This dissertation comparatively analyzes Habsburg and Ottoman decision-making and statecraft during the time of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Paşa (1676–1683). I synthesize Habsburg diplomatic reports and Ottoman chronicles to show that during the peace negotiations between the Habsburg envoys and Kara Mustafa Paşa’s court before the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, the two state’s diplomatic postures were shaped by their different court structures. At the end, in response to the religiously-oriented explanations of early modern Habsburg-Ottoman confrontations, I argue that the monumental encounter in 1683 was a product of the difference between the two states’ governmental priorities and administrative mindsets formed within peculiar geopolitical conditions. This conclusion transforms our understanding of not only a specific moment in 1683, but also of early modern European-Islamic world confrontations by showing that a full comprehension of the two world’s relations can be achieved primarily through comparative case studies of tangible phenomena, such as governmental structures, strategic objectives, and personal ambitions