Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont, 1689–1762), the daughter of an English aristocrat, was the author of a series of letters which, although they do not deal exclusively with the Ottoman Empire, are known as the “Turkish [Embassy] Letters.” They instantly became famous, particularly because of their first-hand descriptions of female Ottoman high society. Lady Mary wrote the letters during and after her stay in Istanbul, where she had accompanied her husband, Edward Wortley-Montagu, the British ambassador to the sultan’s court from 1716 to 1718. During her lif…