porte
(pɔət)
Also 6–8 port.
[a. F. porte, in full la Sublime Porte = It. la Porta Sublima, transl. Turkish (Arabic) bāb i-ﻋāliy, lit. ‘the sublime, high, or lofty gate’, the official title of the central office of the Ottoman government, comprising the office of the Grand Vezir, of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and of the Council of State (Redhouse, Turkish Lex. 1890). ‘Gate’ is supposed to refer to the ancient place of audience, etc., at the gate of the tent, or the king's gate; the attribute ‘high’ or ‘lofty’ is not literal, but the honorific attribute of the Turkish government. According to Zenker, the Western application of ‘Sublime Porte’ to the Turkish government or Ottoman state answers rather to the Turkish dawlet-i-ﻋāliye, ‘the sublime empire or state.’
In the 17th and 18th c., often erroneously taken as referring to the position of Constantinople as a sea-port.]
(In full, the Sublime Porte or Ottoman Porte.) The Ottoman court at Constantinople; hence transf. the Turkish government.
| 1600 R. C. Fumée's Hist. Hungary 248 [Sultan speaks] Send your Ambassadours, as well towards our royall Port, as also to him. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. i. 48 Some Vizers of the Port. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1650) II. 44 He that had bin Ambassadour at the Port to the greatest Monark upon earth. [1671 Charente's Let. Customs Mauritania 48 The King of Morocco usually gives audience at the Gate of this Palace, and here, as well as at Constantinople, La Porta signifies the Court or Kings Palace.] 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1145/1 Articles of Peace concluded between the King of Poland and the Ottoman Port. 1706 Phillips, The Port, the Court of the Grand Seignior..at Constantinople. 1721 Lond. Gaz. No. 5983/1 Before the Port has had any Account of it. 1747 Gentl. Mag. Nov. 350/2 Report of which being made to the sublime Porte, the sultan advanced him to the post of Cadi. 1772 Hist. in Ann. Reg. 78/2 That haughty capital, which had been named the Porte by way of eminence, from its incomparable naval and commercial situation. 1847 Mrs. A. Kerr tr. Ranke's Hist. Servia 210 A better understanding was in consequence soon established between him [Napoleon] and the Porte. 1886 Queen's Speech in opening Parlt., Under a convention..concluded with the Ottoman Porte, Commissioners have been appointed, on behalf of England and Turkey, to confer with His Highness the Khedive. 1891 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 470 The Sublime Porte is a time-honoured institution. |