Charles de Ferriol was a French ambassador sent by Louis XIV to the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 from 1699 to 1711, during the rule of Sultan Ahmed III

Ahmed III

Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV . His mother was Mâh-Pâre Ummatullah Râbi'a Gül-Nûş Valide Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hajioglupazari, in Dobruja...

.

A painting by Jean-Baptiste van Mour

Jean-Baptiste van Mour

Jean-Baptiste van Mour or Vanmour was a Flemish-French painter, remembered for his detailed portrayal of life in the Ottoman Empire during the Tulip Era and the rule of Sultan Ahmed III.-Biography:...

, who had accompanied him on his mission to Istanbul, shows his reception by the Sultan.

Ferriol is also known as the man who brought to France the epistolary writer Mlle Aïsse, a Circassian slave he had bought in Istanbul. His attempts to gain sexual favors from her became the subject of numerous books and biographies, notably the Abbé Prévost's Histoire d’une Grecque moderne (1740).