Spies for the sultan : Ottoman intelligence in the great rivalry with Spain / Emrah Safa Gürkan ; translated by Jonathan M. Ross and İdil Karacadağ.

"This book was originally published in Turkish as Sultanin Casuslari: 16. Yüzyılda İstihbarat, Sabotaj ve Rüşvet Ağları."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"In the sixteenth century, an intense rivalry between the Ottoman Empire and the Spanish Habsburg Empire and its allies spurred the creation of early modern intelligence. Translated into English for the first time, Emrah Safa Gürkan's Spies for the Sultan reconstructs this history of Ottoman espionage, sabotage, and bribery practices in the Mediterranean world. Then as now, collecting political, naval, military, and economic information was essential to staying one step ahead of your rivals. Porous and shifting borders, the ability to assume multiple identities, and variable allegiances made conditions in this era ripe for espionage around the Mediterranean. The Ottomans used networks of merchants, corsairs, soldiers, and other travelers to move amongst their enemies and report intelligence from points far and wide. The Ottoman sultans invested the novel technologies of cryptography and stenography. Ottoman intelligence operatives not only collected information but also used disinformation, bribery, and sabotage to subvert their enemies. This groundbreaking history of early modern intelligence is based on extraordinary archival research in Turkey, Spain, Italy, Austria, and Croatia"-- Provided by publisher.