Terror and Toleration: The Habsburg Empire Confronts Islam, 1526–1850. By Paula Sutter Fichtner. London: Reaktion Books. 2008. Pp. 205. Cloth $45.00. £25.00. ISBN 978-1-86189-340-6.

摘要

There is considerable and growing interest in western perceptions of thenOttomans and of Islam in early modern Europe. The lively contributionnreviewed here concentrates on the cultural and ideological dimension to thenclash between the Austrian Habsburg and Ottoman empires. The first partninvestigates attitudes in the Habsburg monarchy toward the Ottomans andnIslam from the early sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. Much hasnalready been published on the central European construction of “the Turk”nand his religion as the personification of evil and the antithesis of Christianity.nThe universalist pretensions of the Holy Roman imperial title held by the Habs-nburgs, and the claims of the Ottoman sultanate, left little room for mutual rec-nognition. Political rivalry was underpinned by theology, since both Christianitynand Islam claimed to represent singular, exclusive truths. Fichtner adds detail tonthe Habsburg perspective, especially on the fashioning of their image as innocentnvictims of Ottoman aggression that ran parallel to the better-known argumentsnadvanced in Lutheran Germany of the Turks as the scourge of God, sent tonpunish Christian sinners. Attitudes were far from uniform. A minority of schol-nars continued the earlier Humanist interest in the Islamic world and werenwilling to recognize positive features within Ottoman culture. Economic andndiplomatic exchange persisted with varying intensity. The view remained over-nwhelmingly negative, however, dominated by notions of Ottoman treacherynand brutality. These sentiments were deliberately fostered by the Habsburgs to mobilize support against what was often considered a superior enemy. One ofnthe most significant points to emerge from this part of the discussion is Fichtner’snconclusion that the strident and often shrill tone of Habsburg propagandanreflected their underlying fear that their military inferiority might end in defeat.