This paper utilizes a social biography approach to examine the professional efforts of a minor Ottoman diplomat, Mustafa Shekib Bey, who represented the Ottoman Empire in the United States at the end of the Hamidian era. Like most Ottoman ambassadors, Shekib Bey did not play a central role in formulating Ottoman-U.S. policy, which was handled through the Porte and the American ambassador in Istanbul, but he worked extensively trying to influence American public opinion, explain Ottoman views, and personally represent the empire in a positive light through the American press. Shekib Bey’s work in the United States mainly focused on countering the efforts of American missionaries who were also trying to mold public opinion. He responded to missionaries' allegations through the press on numerous occasions, presenting an Ottoman point of view and using analogies drawn from American experiences in an attempt to persuade readers. During the Magelssen incident of 1903, which included American intervention in the form of warships sent to Beirut, he desperately tried to influence American diplomatic and public opinion through the press, eliciting a sharp public response from a missionary, Rev. Edward B. Haskell. Shekib Bey also attempted to counteract the flood of negative stories published about the empire during this period through personally representing the empire in a positive light; during his tenure in Washington, newspapers from San Francisco to Boston published numerous generally sympathetic stories about his professional and social activities. This paper argues that Shekib Bey’s work in Washington was shaped by multiple diplomatic, political, and cultural developments including the growing importance of public opinion in diplomacy from the late nineteenth century, the increasing Ottoman integration into the Western dominated “community of nations” during the Hamidian era, increasing American interventionism from the late nineteenth century, and American (and Ottoman) Orientalism during reign of Sultan Abdülhamid. At the same time, the paper gives voice to an individual diplomat. Through examining how an Ottoman diplomat attempted to counter the religious propaganda, rhetoric, and intervention discussed by the other scholars, this paper brings a comparative perspective to the panel. The research is largely drawn from articles and interviews with Shekib Bey published in American newspapers and as well as online and archival State Department records, memoirs, and Turkish biographical dictionaries.