Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 41. (1990)
BEVERIDGE, Kent D.: „Worthy Representative of Europe“. Anton Graf Prokesch von Osten
Rent D. Beveridge appointed Chief of the Eastern Mediterranean section of the Austrian navy’s General Staff. Following the termination of the Greek war of independence, Prokesch was ordered to return to Vienna, arriving in February 1830. The success of his campaign against pirates in the area, during which he sank thirty-six pirate vessels with only two Austrian warships at his command, earned him the Leopoldsorden and knighthood. He took the surname „of the East“ at his juncture: Anton Ritter Prokesch von Osten7). The first of his numerous works on the Orient, which clearly express his love for the East, were published at this time: Erinnerungen aus Aegypten und Kleinasien8); Das Land zwischen den Katarakten des Nil, which included the results of his painstaking research on Egyptian antiquities and the first astronomically determined map of Nubia9); and Die Reise ins heilige Land im Jahre 182910). Prokesch-Osten returned to Egypt as the Austrian envoy to the Viceroy’s court in 1833, following Muhammad-‘Ali Pasha’s conquest of Syria. His instructions were to join the British envoy in attempting to convince the Viceroy to reduce his demands upon Sultan Mahmud II. The damage caused by Muhammad-‘Ali Pasha’s Syrian campaign had nearly given the coup de grace to the entire Ottoman Empire11) and had therefore to be minimized lest Russia move into the void created by the weakening of the Sublime Porte’s control over the area. Although the mission was successful - the Egyptians eventually withdrew from Syria under pressure from the European powers - the respite for the Sublime Porte proved to be temporary. Once Prokesch-Osten turned from Egypt, he was viewed in Austria and Germany as the leading specialist in Oriental affairs due to his diplomatic activities, as well as to his careful research on Egyptian, Greek and Etruscan antiquities12). His next appointment, therefore, was to the unfilled post of minister to Greece, where he spent 1872 (Ph. D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1973) 2. At Prokesch’s suggestion, Metternich intervened with the Sultan to have the cause of the feud, Admiral Khusraw Pasha, dismissed. Cf. Anton Berger Prokesch-Osten: Ein Leben aus Altösterreich (Graz 1921) 62. 7) Beaber Prokesch-Osten 3. 8) This book, published by Armbruster in 1829, was well received by the orientalists of the day. 9) Berger Prokesch-Osten 63. The book was published in 1831. As a result of his findings, Prokesch-Osten was invited to join the Institute of Archaeological Correspondence in Rome as well as the Imperial Academies of Science in Vienna and Berlin. 10) Published by Gerolds in 1831. Prokesch visited ‘Akká during this journey and forced ’Abdu’Uáh Pasha, the Governor of ‘Akká who had desecrated the flag flying above the Austrian consulate, to make restitution. Berger Prokesch-Osten 64. 11) Hitti History 723. 12) Kissinger calls Prokesch-Osten „the Austrian diplomat best acquainted with the Ottomane Empire“ and „Metternich’s expert on the Eastern question“ World restored 335. 140
