Sublime Porte

English

Alternative forms

• High Porte
• Ottoman Porte
• Porte (shortening)

Etymology

From French Sublime Porte (“high gate/portal”).

Proper noun

Sublime Porte

1. (literally) The monumental portal at the Ottoman palace where the supreme tribunals were held; became the surname of the first palace in Bursa, transferred to the even grander Topkapı palace after the capital's transfer to Istanbul (the former Byzantine imperial capital Constantinople)
2. (figuratively) A pars pro toto for the Ottoman sultanic court, hence for the imperial government, notably the vizierial divan and the entire empire, or a personage with a similar standing.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Matrimonial Tête-à-Tête”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 170:

     He liked the pleasures of the table, and he liked attendance; he was a sort of Sublime Porte to his valets.

Synonyms

• (pars pro toto) Istanbul

Translations

Ottoman imperial government

• Arabic: البَاب العَالِي m (al-bāb al-ʕālī)
• Danish: Den Høje Port c (definite form), Porten c (definite form)
• Dutch: Hoge Porte, Sublieme Porte, Verhevene Porte, Porte
• French: Sublime Porte (fr)
• German: Hohe Pforte (de) f
• Macedonian: Висока порта f (Visoka porta)
• Persian: باب عالی, عالی قاپو
• Swedish: Höga porten c, Porten c
• Turkish: Babıali (tr)

See also

• mikado, pharaoh (terms related to buildings that are also titles of monarchs)

French

Etymology

Calque of Ottoman Turkish باب عالی (Babıali).

Proper noun

Sublime Porte f

1. the Sublime Porte, Ottoman sultanic palace, court, capital and empire

Descendants

• → English: Sublime Porte