The Builder of Rome
Military might and shrewd diplomacy created an empire with immense staying power July–August 2005
Four and a half centuries ago, a Flemish diplomat with the mouth-filling name of Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, whom horticulturists know as the man who introduced lilacs and tulips into Europe, was making a slow progress through Turkey to negotiate with the Ottoman sultan, Soleiman the Magnificent, and along the way he dropped in at…