Secondary literature about the Ottoman Empire and the Enlightenment diverges in two directions: historians of the Ottoman Empire have often assumed the Ottoman Muslim elite disregarded the Enlightenment, while historians of Europe have recently turned their attention to the Enlightenment’s global connections. This paper offers a new perspective on Ottoman participation in the Enlightenment by examining the involvement of three Ottoman diplomats in central European Enlightenment society: Ahmed Azmi Efendi (Berlin, 1791-2), Ebubekir Ratib Efendi (Vienna, 1792) and Ali Aziz Efendi (Berlin, 1796-8). These diplomats served two political functions for the Ottoman state: first, to cement ties with the Prussian and Habsburg states as Ottoman alliances began to shift towards the German-speaking world in the wake of the French Revolution; second, to observe and report military and scientific institutions that would be of use for Ottoman reforms known as the Nizam-i Cedid (New Order). However, in addition to their political functions, these diplomats can also be seen as intellectuals who engaged with key debates of their time. In their host countries, their political objectives also intertwined with Enlightenment philosophy, since the diplomats’ political and military counterparts in Berlin and Vienna were also society “men of letters” who were engaged in Enlightenment discussions relating to key themes such as reason, language, religion and human nature. Through social invitations from these figures, Ottoman diplomats participated in Enlightenment society in Berlin and Vienna in spaces where these ideas were discussed: salons, gatherings, philosophical correspondence and the theater. Drawing from the diplomats’ accounts in letters, diplomatic dispatches and travelogues (Sefaretname) in Ottoman Turkish, as well as German-language newspaper articles, letters, and memoirs of the people they met, this paper traces Ottoman diplomats’ participation in, and contribution to, Enlightenment discussions. By combining these sources with recent literature about global connections in the Enlightenment, this paper offers a new perspective on Ottoman participation in the Enlightenment.