ued to live in the houses built by their individual nations near St. Mark’s Cathedral. Since the original Fondaco dei turchi could not host all the Muslims present in Venice, another building was chosen for that purpose. It was the ancient Palmieri Pal- ace, on the Grand Canal, in the parish of San Giacomo dell’Orio, which then belonged to the Pesaro family. It was rented by the Venetian Republic, restored, and opened in 1621 as the new Fondaco dei turchi. Main- tained and guarded by the Venetian Republic, the new Fondaco dei turchi had 24 rooms to store goods, 50 bedrooms that could accommodate four to six persons each, kitchens, courts, closets, and a bath and prayer hall. About 300 merchants could be sheltered there. Like the Jewish Ghetto, the Fondaco dei turchi was locked during the night. Christian boys and women could not visit it and the residents were not permitted to leave. However, during the day the merchants who lived there could go freely wherever they liked in the city. Since Persian merchants were also Muslims, they were officially required to stay in the Fondaco dei turchi, together with the Muslim subjects of the sultan. However, they never agreed to move to the Fondaco. In 1662, when Venetian authorities tried to force them to do so, they left the Rialto market permanently. The last Ottoman subject was forced to leave the Fondaco in 1838, about 50 years after the fall of the Venetian Republic (1797) when the owners of the building, no longer obliged to rent it to the state, sold it. After many years it was restored and turned into a museum. Now it is the Museum of Natural History. Maria Pia Pedani Further reading: Cemal Kafadar, “A Death in Venice (1575): Anatolian Muslim Merchants Trading in the Sereni- ssima.” Journal of Turkish Studies 10 (1986): 191–217; Deb- orah Howard, Venice & the East (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2000). food See cuisine. France Relations between France and the Ottoman Empire fall into two different phases. The first period lasted from the late 15th century to the last years of the 18th century, and the second spanned from the very end of the 18th century to the early 20th century. France has often been considered the traditional ally of the Ottoman Empire during the first period. Even though direct mili- tary cooperation was rare and relations seemed to worsen at times, the Ottoman Empire and France considered each other useful for counterbalancing their common enemy, the Habsburgs. This first period came to a close in 1798 when Napoleon invaded Egypt, which was then under Ottoman control. In the 19th century, France conducted a multifaceted policy with regard to the Ottoman Empire in which it tried to prevent the Ottoman Empire’s fall, but only in order to keep Russia and England from enjoying a larger share of the spoils of the Ottoman Empire. It also started to interfere with the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire by supporting the Maronites and the rebellious governor of Egypt, Mehmed Ali, in an effort to increase its own influence. The final confrontation between the two empires came during W orld War I, resulting in the fall of the Ottoman Empire and a victorious France laying claim to Ottoman territory in many provinces. Mutual cultural influences constituted another ele- ment of the relationship between France and the Otto- man Empire. The Ottomans observed French culture as early as the 18th century. In the 19th century, French appeared as the language of modernization and of the intelligentsia in the Ottoman capital, and the western- ization of the empire was modeled on the culture and administrative apparatus of France. Although less stud- ied, the Ottoman culture seems to have also had an effect on French society, especially in the 18th century. POLITICAL RELATIONS: 1482–1797 Relations between the Ottoman Empire and France were initiated by the former. After the death of Mehmed II (r. 1444–46; 1451–81) in 1481, a civil war started between two aspirants to the throne, Cem and Bayezid II (r. Opened in 1621, the Fondaco dei turchi hosted Muslim mer- chants trading and residing in Venice. (Personal collection of Maria Pia Pedani) France 221