The Presentation of an Ambassador to the Sultan in the Hall of Petitions of the Topkapi Palace, Constantinople

The Presentation of an Ambassador to the Sultan in the Hall of Petitions of the Topkapi Palace, Constantinople

Has Odasi (Audience Room)

The Has Odasi dates to the fifteenth century and is a building located in the third court of the Topkapi Palace, behind the Gate of Felicity. This chamber was an innovation introduced by Mehmed II and its purpose relates to the implementation of a strictly codified court protocol towards royal seclusion. In the Audience Room, the sultan privately received high officials and ambassadors, a function that had previously been performed in public in the second court. This drawing captures the strict and highly ceremonial quality of the Ottoman court. It represents the sultan receiving audience in person, unlike earlier sultans. He is lavishly dressed and sitting on an opulent gilded throne decorated with hanging ostrich eggs, his two sons standing nearby. The
ambassador and his companions, who are wearing the ceremonial kaftan given by the sultan, stand at a deferential distance from the sultan and are introduced by an Armenian dragoman (interpret).

Louis-Nicolas de Lespinasse

https://www.themorgan.org/drawings/item/260835