Ottomans refused European rulers imperial titles, addressing them as provincial kings

Evidence

Thus, in letters addressed to Queen Elizabeth—polite, friendly letters—she is addressed as ‘Queen of the vilayet of England’. The Holy Roman Emperor him­ self, in Vienna, is called ‘the king of Vienna’. The words used for ‘king’ and ‘queen’—kural and kiralic¸e—are European, not Turkish or Islamic. The Ottomans in Europe, like the British in India, used native titles for native princes. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 191

Categorization

• XREF: Ottoman diplomatic rank-denial mirrors asymmetric recognition patterns in Said’s East-West analysis but from the reverse direction — the non-Western power asserting superiority.
• SHARE: A colleague studying diplomatic protocol and sovereignty recognition would enjoy this precise case of title-downgrading.