Having acquired first-hand knowledge of upper-class life in the empire, she strove to dispel prejudice and change her readers' attitudes to Islam and Ottoman social mores. Montagu was probably the most important woman traveller to visit the Otto-man Empire in the eighteenth century.
I think she told everyone that Turks were not a barbaric society, they were civilized as European countries and she mostly broke the prejudice against Turks.The article focuses on acts of intercultural and interlingual mediation and representations of language difference in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's posthumously published epistolary travelogue The Turkish Embassy Letters (1763). That’s why her letters were also the source of political and military events of that tulip era.Īs a result of that, Lady Mary, when she stayed in Istanbul, mentioned about Turkey, Turks and their lifestyle and she tried to tell about their civilization. Moreover, she was close to affairs of state because of her husband's position. Such, when she saw Belgrad she said Turks protected and also they gave some art into this city. Lady Mary observed the Turkish Army and Turkish politics mentioned in her letters. According to some historians, she brought in historical and unknown 18th-century Ottoman women's life. For example, in one letter -in a letter written by someone who has been in a country where no Christian has dared to go for many centuries- "I hope that the gay enthusiast will find something. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu travelled in the 18th century as a woman also Lady Mary knew that her travel letters were different from other travel letters. The whole things were almost the same as the Turkish women.
The husband made a decision for her and even for her body. When a woman got married, her heritage was automatically going to his husband. The only thing they could do is get married but if a woman didn’t want to get married, society was pitty her and made fun of her. Before marriage, their father, brother or male relatives controlled their life and after marriage, their husband controlled. In England, women didn’t have the right to speak. When we look at Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s work, we can understand to what extent she did break. After that West win and the East itself believed they were barbaric. They wanted to see Turks were like a barbaric. This is a false image or other words, it is demonology. That is why they thought Turks were a threat to themselves and they were politicizing a little bit. A person’s own life and culture and belief are the most important things to herself/himself. Why? Because in Crusades, Ottoman Empire was more developed than European countries and the Christian army came across another culture and religion for the first time their life. In history, the Ottomans or best known as Turks looked like a barbaric society.
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