The Ottomans considered a Suez canal but were outmatched by European naval power

Evidence

The idea of a canal through the isthmus of Suez received serious consideration, and in 1568 the project is mentioned in a ferman from the Sultan to the governor of Egypt. But such a canal was beyond the technical resources of the time, and finally the Ottomans abandoned the unequal struggle against the superior naval power of the Europeans in the East. From the end of the 16th century Ottoman relations with India were purely commercial and diplomatic. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 598

Categorization

• XREF: Counter-narrative to European maritime dominance being total from the outset; connects to reader’s cluster on how regions became legible/contested between empires. — connects to: Ottoman statesmen recognized European naval superiority as early as the sixteenth century; European ocean-going vessels outmatched Ottoman fleets by carrying heavier armament
• CANDY: The Ottomans discussing a Suez canal in 1568, three centuries before de Lesseps, is a striking elevator fact.