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) The Ottoman sultanic court, hence 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

• (Ottoman sultanic court etc.): 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