Description

In 1835 a young, well-educated official from the imperial council (divan-i hümayun) in Istanbul by the name of Enverizade Sadullah Enveri Efendi was sent to Vienna. There he served for a short time - perhaps not even one year - as the private secretary of the prominent statesman Ferik Ahmed Fethi Pasha, at that time the Ottoman ambassador in the capital of the Habsburg Empire.Interested in reform and eager to learn as much as possible during his short time abroad, Enveri Efendi wrote a treatise in which he not only recorded geographical information but also numerous details concerning the state organization in Austria. This treatise is presented here in translation, along with an edition of the Ottoman Turkish text.