Sir Paul Rycaut (1629-1700) was a diplomat, poet, translator and
administrator. His Present State of the Ottoman Empire was the most
important and influential work on its topic produced by an Englishman in
the seventeenth century, and it served as a reference point for others
writing on the same subject for nearly two hundred years. Rycaut's book
was considered the most informative and accurate text on its subject,
and was widely-read in Europe as well as in England. It contains
extensive discussions of Ottoman government, religion, and military
matters, and may also be read as a subtext suggesting a middle road
between absolutism and constitutional monarchy.
This critical edition of Rycaut's important work includes a full
introduction, which discusses at length the historical background to the
text, its reception at the time in which it was written and a discussion
of its influence, as well as an extensive bibliography. This is the
first modern edition of the work, and should be useful for general
scholars of the period, specialists, and students alike.