A qualitative leap in knowledge about the Ottoman Empire and Islam achieved under Peter I was due not only to a subjective factor — the decision of such statesmen and scholars as P. A. Tolstoy, D. Kantemir, P. I. Yaguzhinsky and S. L. Vladislavich-Raguzinsky to join the tsar. In many ways, it was dictated by an objective factor, namely the practical need for knowledge of the Turks and Islam in the context of a military confrontation between two powers and two worlds: Russian Orthodox civilization and Muslim civilization in its Ottoman form.
Keywords:
Peter I; oriental advisors; the Ottoman Empire; Russia; oriental studies; Islam; Muslim world; Porte; Posolsky prikaz (ambassadorial office); Treaty of the Pruth; Persian campaign of Peter the Great
