Presentation of the Mahometan Credentials. . .
Not suprisingly, Presentation of the Mahometan Credentials, or the Final Resource of French Atheists was one of the "Suppressed Plates" not generally circulated during the Victorian period. It shows the Turkish Ambassador presenting a hugely phallic set of credentials for a closer "Connexion" between the Sublime Porte (Ottoman Empire) and England and France. The King, along with Pitt as court monkey literally chained to the crown, is taken aback by this presentation, and unconsciously reaches out to protect Queen Charlotte where it most matters. But the females of the Royal family seem to be less frightened than titillated by the Ambassador's proposal. Meanwhile the Francophiles Fox, Sheridan, Priestley, and Stanhope support the delegation, in varying degrees of disguise, apparently perceiving potential advantages for France.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
The print, which appeared on December 26th 1793, was likely prompted by the news of the arrival in England of the Turkish Ambassador. According to The St. James Chronicle for December 21st, and the Evening Mail for December 20th, for instance, his Excellency Aga Jusuf Affendi (sic), Minister Plenipotentiary from the Sublime Porte with two officers and a retinue of 27 persons in Turkish habit arrived in Dover on December 20th on their way to Canterbury and London to be presented to the King on January 1st and to the Queen on the following day. The trip was part of a diplomatic mission sponsored by the reform-minded Sultan Selim III to set up permanent embassies in Prussia, France, Russia, and England. For although there had been representatives from Turkey visiting England before in 1791, this was to be the first permanent embassy from the Ottoman empire ever established in Britain. It aroused considerable interest in both the English press and in the fashionable and diplomatic world.
On his entrance to and exit from Canterbury, we are told, the Ambassador was escorted by mounted Dragoon Guards with trumpets sounding. And at the Fountain Tavern, where he stopped to rest on the way to London, he was greeted by "a large assembly of the clergy and gentry of Canterbury, amongst whom were a great many ladies, all of whom he received with becoming dignity...." Over the coming months, the 30 year old ambassador was given rock star treatment and his movements among the nobility and at theatres and pleasure gardens were carefully recorded.
The contemporary Times of London as described by Emre Araci in an excellent Youtube account of the Ambassador, seems to have focused particularly on the effect of the new embassy on the fashionable British females. The Turkish Ambassador, it said,
will probably revive the almost exploded custom of smoaking. He offers his pipe to all who favour him with a visit. Several of the first female fashionables have taken a morning puff, merely for the whim of the thing. . . . Most of the Ambassador's suite are wealthy batchelors, and it is rather laughable to hear the whimsical enquiries of our beautiful BELLES as to their respective qualifications—whether they are Pachas of one, two, or three Tails!
Several pleasant whispers have been circulated, respecting the newly arrived OTTOMAN being already on the best terms at several houses of distinction. Some of our fair Sultanas making no secret of the business. . . .
Gillray may have heard rumors that the true aim of the delegation was to broker a peace between France and England or that Selim was sympathetic to the aims of the revolutionaries in France, so he shows the delegation flying a tri-color flag with the words "Vive la Republique." But the real thrust of the print, if I may use that expression, would seem to suggest that the seductive presence of the Turkish embassy will place British females on the slippery slope towards French atheism.
NOTE: For more information, listen to the fascinating and detailed account of the visit of the Turkish Ambassador, Yusuf Agah Efendi, by Emre Araci on Youtube.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Presentation of the Mahometan Credentials. . .
- Draper Hill, The Satirical Etchings of James Gillray, 1976, #33
- "Yusuf Aga Efendi," Pera Museum
- "Yusuf Aga Efendi: The First Turkish Ambassador in 18th century London," Youtube (Video)
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