From Istanbul with Love

The political and diplomatic contacts established over the course of the 1560s are one of the most important chronological and symbolic landmarks of relations between the Sultanate of Aceh and the Ottoman Empire. Recently discovered documents from several European archives have revealed new protagonists, facts, and political, diplomatic and economic articulations encompassing the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, with important ramifications for Southeast Asia. This chapter focuses, above all, on the activities of the espionage and counter-espionage networks, based in Istanbul, but scattered across various Mediterranean ports. These networks were headed by eminent figures from the Jewish and Portuguese New Christian financial and commercial circles, who were close to Süleyman I as well as his successor Selim II. The intelligence produced by these networks during the 1560s is mainly focused on the spice routes from Southeast Asia (particularly Aceh) through the Maldives to the Red Sea.