The Influence of the Turks in Othello

The Influence of the Turks in Othello

In Shakespeare's play Othello the Turks are shadowy enemies always lurking in the background but never seen. Though invisible in the drama, the Turks play a significant part in Othello: references to the Turks and their Islamic/infidel culture illustrate the progress and illuminate the themes of the tragedy.

The Ottoman Empire was the closest Islamic state to Shakespeare's Europe -- and the most dangerous. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 heralded the utter destruction of the old Byzantine Empire and the rise of the new regime of the Ottoman Turks. Straddling Asia Minor and the Hellespont, the new government cut off Mediterranean access to the Black Sea and deprived Europe of its land route to India. (The search for a new route led Columbus to his discovery of the New World). The Ottomans steadily marched up the Balkan peninsula, overcoming Serbia in 1459, Bosnia in 14 63, Hungary in 1541. The Turks beseiged Vienna in 1529, in 1568 they forced the Hapsburg monarchs to pay an annual tribute, and they fought again with Austria in Shakespeare's own day, from 1593-1606.

Italy and the Ottomans faced each other across the Adriatic, with Venice right at the crux. In 1522, the capitulation on Rhodes of the Knights of the Order of St. John (who later became the Knights of Malta) allowed a Turkish control over all Genoan and Venetian trade that was not broken until the Ottoman defeat in the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571. Even then, in the same year the Turks took Cyprus, another gateway to the markets of the Levant and the Arabic trade routes to Asia.

In 1604, when Othello's first recorded performance took place, the Ottoman realm stretched from Arabi...

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