Research Article
A Treaty of Narratives: Friendship, Gifts, and Diplomatic History in the British Capitulations of
Abstract
This article examines the hitherto unexamined Ottoman Turkish text of
the Capitulations granted to the British in 1641. As well as containing the articles
governing Ottoman-British trade and diplomatic jurisdiction, the Capitulations contained a historical narrative that provided a formal record of diplomatic encounters
and practices. By emphasising the importance of bringing tributary gifts and royal
letters as a precondition for receiving the friendship of the sultans, the inclusion of the
historical narrative within the treaty text presented an Ottoman worldview that saw
the sultan at the top of a hierarchy of monarchical power, but also created a layered
narrative of precedent that strengthened the rhetoric of alliance through an ancient
friendship. In examining the text of the Ottoman Turkish and English versions of
this treaty, including full translations of the historical narratives in an appendix, this
article makes the case for viewing the Ottoman Capitulations not just as historical
treaties, but as historical texts.
References
- Bibliography Archival sources Archives Diplomatiques (AD), Traités et accords 16730010, 17400002. Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (BOA), Düvel-i Ecnebiye Defterleri (A.DVN.DVE.d) 22/1, 49/1, 57/1. Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (BOA), Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Arşivi Defterleri (TS.MA.d ) 7018.0002. The National Archives, London (TNA), State Papers (SP) 105/109, 108/540, 108/541. Published sources Chalmers, George (ed.): A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and Other Powers. London: For John Stockdale, 1790, 2 volumes. Fransa pādişāhi ile Āl-ı ‘Osmān pādişāhi mābeyninde mun‘aķid olan ‘ahdnāmedirki źikr olunur / Articles du traicte faict en l’annee mil six cens quatre entre Henri le Grand Roy de France et de Navarre et Sultan Amat Empereur des Turcs. Paris : L’Imprimerie des langues orientales, Arabique, Turquesque, Presique, etc., 1615. Knolles, Richard, & Rycaut, Paul: The Turkish History, from the Original of that Nation to the Growth of the Ottoman Empire, 6th edn. London: For Robert Clabell and Abel Roper, 1687, 3 volumes. Martens, G.F. : Receuil des principaux traites d’alliance, de paix, de trêve, de neutralité, de commerce, de limites, d’échange &c. conclus par les puissances de l’Europe tant entre elles qu’avec les puissances et etates dans d’autres parties du monde. Gottingue: Jean Chretien Dieterich, 1791, 5 volumes. The Capitulations and Articles of Peace between the Majesty of the King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland &c. and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. London: For J.S., 1679. Treaties between Turkey and Foreign Powers. London: Foreign Office, 1855. Van Dyck, Edward: Report of Edward A. Van Dyck, Consular Clerk of the United States at Cairo, upon the Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire since the Year 1150. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1881, 2 volumes. Wenck, F.A.W: Codex Iuris Gentium Recentissimi. Lipsiae : Haer. Weidmann et Reich, 1781, 3 volumes. MICHAEL TALBOT 385 Published literature Arı, Bülent: ‘The first Dutch ambassador in Istanbul: Corenlis Haga and the Dutch Capitulations of 1612’, Ph.D thesis, Bilkent Üniversitesi, 2012. Bağış, Ali İhsan: Osmanlı Ticaretinde Gayri Müslimler: Kapitülasyonlar, Avrupa Tüccarları, Beratlı Tüccarlar, Hayriye Tüccarları, 1750-1839. Ankara: Turhan Kitabevi, 1983. Çıpa, H. Erdem & Fetvacı, Emine (eds.): Writing History at the Ottoman Court; Editing the Past, Fashioning the Future. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2013. Davidson, Alan & Thrush, Andrew: ‘CROWE, Sackville (1595-1671), of Laugharne, Carm: formerly of Brasted Place, Kent and Mays, Selmeston, Suss.’ in The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1604-1629, available online via: http://www. historyofparliamentonline.org/. De Groot, Alexander: ‘The Dutch Capitulation of 1612’, in Alexander de Groot, The Netherlands and Turkey: Four Hundred Years of Political, Economical, Social and Cultural Relations: Selected Essays. Istanbul: Isis Press, 2009, 131-154 De Groot, Alexander: ‘The historical development of the capitulatory regime in the Ottoman Middle East from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries’, Oriente Moderno 22:3 (2003), 575-604. Eldem, Edhem: ‘Capitulations and western trade’ in The Cambridge History of Turkey. Volume 3: The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603-1839, ed. Suraiya Faroqhi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 283-335. Fissel, Mark & Goffman, Daniel: ‘Viewing the scaffold from Istanbul: The BendyshHyde Affair, 1647-1651’, Albion 22:3 (1990), 421-448. İnalcık, Halil: ‘İmtiyāzāt’ in The Encyclopaedia of Islam 2. Leiden: Brill, 1971, vol. 3, 1185- 1189. Işıksel, Güneş : ‘La politique étrangère ottomane dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle: le cas du règne de Selîm II (1566-1574)’, Ph.D thesis, EHESS, 2012. Işıksel, Güneş: ‘II. Selim’den III. Selim’e Osmanlı Diplomasisi: Birkaç Saptama’ in Nizâm-ı Kadim’den Nizâm-ı Cedid’e: III. Selim ve Dönemi, ed. Seyfi Kenan. İstanbul: İSAM Yayınları, 2010, 315-338. Kołodziejczyk, Darius: Ottoman-Polish Diplomatic Relations, 15th-18th Centuries: An Annotated Edition of ‘Ahdnames and Other Documents. Leiden: Brill, 2000. Kurat, Akdes Nimet: Türk-İngiliz Münasebetlerinin Başlangıcı ve Gelşmesi, 1553-1610. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Yayınları, 1953. Ménage, V.L.: ‘The English Capitulation of 1580: A review article’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 12 (1980), 373-383. A TREATY OF NARRATIVES: FRIENDSHIP, GIFTS, AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY IN THE BRITISH CAPITULATIONS OF 1641 386 Panaite, Viorel: ‘French Capitulations and consular jurisdiction in Egypt and Aleppo in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries’ in Well-Connected Domains: Towards an Entangled Ottoman History, ed. Pascal Firges, Tobias Graf, Christian Roth & Gülay Tulasoğlu. Leiden: Brill, 2014, 71-87. Poumarède, Gérard : ‘Négocier près la Sublime Porte: Jalons pour une nouvelle histoire des capitulations franco-ottomanes’ in L’invention de la diplomatie: Moyen age à temps modernes, ed. Lucien Bély. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1998, 71-85. Skilliter, Susan: William Harborne and the Turkey Trade, 1578-1582. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. Tabakoğlu, Hüseyin Serdar: ‘The re-establishment of Ottoman-Spanish relations in 1782’, Turkish Studies / Türkoloji Araştırmaları 2/3 (2007), 496-524. Theunissen, Hans: ‘Ottoman-Venetian diplomatics: The ‘Ahd-Names. The historical background and the development of a category of political-commercial instruments together with an annotated edition of a corpus of relevant documents’, Electronic Journal of Oriental Studies 1:2 (1998), 1-698. Van den Boogert, Maurits: The Capitulations and the Ottoman Legal System: Qadis, Consuls, and Beratlıs in the Eighteenth Century. Leiden: Brill, 2005. Van den Boogert, Maurits (ed.): ‘The Ottoman Capitulations: Text and context’, Oriente Moderno 22:3 (2003). Veinstein, Gilles: ‘Le sheikh ul-Islâm et l’ambassadeur: De l’autorité religieuse à la diplomatie’, in L’autorité religieuse et ses limites en terres d’islam: Approches historiques et anthropologiques, eds. Nathalie Clayer, Alexander Papas & Benoît Fliche. Leiden : Brill, 2013, 55-68. Veinstein, Gilles: ‘Les Capitulations franco-ottomanes de 1536 sont-elles encore controversables?’ in Living in the Ottoman Ecumenical Community: Essays in Honour of Suraiya Faroqhi, eds. Vera Constantini & Markus Koller. Leiden: Brill, 2008, 71-8. Veinstein, Gilles: ‘Review: S.A. Skilliter, William Harborne and the Trade with Turkey, 1578-1582: A Documentary Study of the First Anglo-Ottoman Relations, published for The British Academy, by Oxford University Press, 1977’, Journal for the Economic and Social History of the Orient 22:3 (1979), 341-343. Zilfi, Madeline C.: ‘’Review: S.A. Skilliter, William Harborne and the Trade with Turkey, 1578-1582: A Documentary Study of the First Anglo-Ottoman Relations, published for The British Academy, by Oxford University Press, 1977’, The American Historical Review 84:1 (1979), 124.
Year 2016,
, 357 - 398, 27.07.2016
Abstract
Bu makale şimdiye kadar incelenmemiş 1641 yılında İngilizlere verilen
ahdname-i hümayunun Osmanlıca metn ini incelenmektedir. Osmanlı-İngiliz ticareti ve diplomatik nüfuz alanlarını düzenleyen maddeleri içermenin yanısıra, kapitülasyonlar diplomatik karşılaşmaların ve uygulamaların resmi kaydını ortaya koyan
bir anlatıyı da barındırmaktaydı. Sultan’ın dostluğundan yararlanmak için hediyeler
ve kraldan mektup getirmenin öneminin altını çizmek suretiyle, tarihsel anlatının
ahdname metnine dahil edilmesi, Sultan’ı saltanat hiyerarşisinin tepesinde konumlandıran Osmanlı dünya görüşünü göstermekle kalmamakta, aynı zamanda kadim
dostluk yoluyla ittifak retoriğini güçlendiren katmanlı bir öncelik anlatısı yaratmaktadır. Tarihsel anlatıların tam tercümelerini zeylde vermek suretiyle bu ahdnamenin
Osmanlıca ve Türkçe versiyonlarını inceleyen makalemiz, Osmanlı ahdnamelerini
sadece tarihsel antlaşmalar değil, aynı zamanda tarihsel metinler olarak da görmek
gerektiğini savunmaktadır.
References
- Bibliography Archival sources Archives Diplomatiques (AD), Traités et accords 16730010, 17400002. Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (BOA), Düvel-i Ecnebiye Defterleri (A.DVN.DVE.d) 22/1, 49/1, 57/1. Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (BOA), Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Arşivi Defterleri (TS.MA.d ) 7018.0002. The National Archives, London (TNA), State Papers (SP) 105/109, 108/540, 108/541. Published sources Chalmers, George (ed.): A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and Other Powers. London: For John Stockdale, 1790, 2 volumes. Fransa pādişāhi ile Āl-ı ‘Osmān pādişāhi mābeyninde mun‘aķid olan ‘ahdnāmedirki źikr olunur / Articles du traicte faict en l’annee mil six cens quatre entre Henri le Grand Roy de France et de Navarre et Sultan Amat Empereur des Turcs. Paris : L’Imprimerie des langues orientales, Arabique, Turquesque, Presique, etc., 1615. Knolles, Richard, & Rycaut, Paul: The Turkish History, from the Original of that Nation to the Growth of the Ottoman Empire, 6th edn. London: For Robert Clabell and Abel Roper, 1687, 3 volumes. Martens, G.F. : Receuil des principaux traites d’alliance, de paix, de trêve, de neutralité, de commerce, de limites, d’échange &c. conclus par les puissances de l’Europe tant entre elles qu’avec les puissances et etates dans d’autres parties du monde. Gottingue: Jean Chretien Dieterich, 1791, 5 volumes. The Capitulations and Articles of Peace between the Majesty of the King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland &c. and the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. London: For J.S., 1679. Treaties between Turkey and Foreign Powers. London: Foreign Office, 1855. Van Dyck, Edward: Report of Edward A. Van Dyck, Consular Clerk of the United States at Cairo, upon the Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire since the Year 1150. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1881, 2 volumes. Wenck, F.A.W: Codex Iuris Gentium Recentissimi. Lipsiae : Haer. Weidmann et Reich, 1781, 3 volumes. MICHAEL TALBOT 385 Published literature Arı, Bülent: ‘The first Dutch ambassador in Istanbul: Corenlis Haga and the Dutch Capitulations of 1612’, Ph.D thesis, Bilkent Üniversitesi, 2012. Bağış, Ali İhsan: Osmanlı Ticaretinde Gayri Müslimler: Kapitülasyonlar, Avrupa Tüccarları, Beratlı Tüccarlar, Hayriye Tüccarları, 1750-1839. Ankara: Turhan Kitabevi, 1983. Çıpa, H. Erdem & Fetvacı, Emine (eds.): Writing History at the Ottoman Court; Editing the Past, Fashioning the Future. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2013. Davidson, Alan & Thrush, Andrew: ‘CROWE, Sackville (1595-1671), of Laugharne, Carm: formerly of Brasted Place, Kent and Mays, Selmeston, Suss.’ in The History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1604-1629, available online via: http://www. historyofparliamentonline.org/. De Groot, Alexander: ‘The Dutch Capitulation of 1612’, in Alexander de Groot, The Netherlands and Turkey: Four Hundred Years of Political, Economical, Social and Cultural Relations: Selected Essays. Istanbul: Isis Press, 2009, 131-154 De Groot, Alexander: ‘The historical development of the capitulatory regime in the Ottoman Middle East from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries’, Oriente Moderno 22:3 (2003), 575-604. Eldem, Edhem: ‘Capitulations and western trade’ in The Cambridge History of Turkey. Volume 3: The Later Ottoman Empire, 1603-1839, ed. Suraiya Faroqhi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 283-335. Fissel, Mark & Goffman, Daniel: ‘Viewing the scaffold from Istanbul: The BendyshHyde Affair, 1647-1651’, Albion 22:3 (1990), 421-448. İnalcık, Halil: ‘İmtiyāzāt’ in The Encyclopaedia of Islam 2. Leiden: Brill, 1971, vol. 3, 1185- 1189. Işıksel, Güneş : ‘La politique étrangère ottomane dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle: le cas du règne de Selîm II (1566-1574)’, Ph.D thesis, EHESS, 2012. Işıksel, Güneş: ‘II. Selim’den III. Selim’e Osmanlı Diplomasisi: Birkaç Saptama’ in Nizâm-ı Kadim’den Nizâm-ı Cedid’e: III. Selim ve Dönemi, ed. Seyfi Kenan. İstanbul: İSAM Yayınları, 2010, 315-338. Kołodziejczyk, Darius: Ottoman-Polish Diplomatic Relations, 15th-18th Centuries: An Annotated Edition of ‘Ahdnames and Other Documents. Leiden: Brill, 2000. Kurat, Akdes Nimet: Türk-İngiliz Münasebetlerinin Başlangıcı ve Gelşmesi, 1553-1610. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Yayınları, 1953. Ménage, V.L.: ‘The English Capitulation of 1580: A review article’, International Journal of Middle East Studies 12 (1980), 373-383. A TREATY OF NARRATIVES: FRIENDSHIP, GIFTS, AND DIPLOMATIC HISTORY IN THE BRITISH CAPITULATIONS OF 1641 386 Panaite, Viorel: ‘French Capitulations and consular jurisdiction in Egypt and Aleppo in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries’ in Well-Connected Domains: Towards an Entangled Ottoman History, ed. Pascal Firges, Tobias Graf, Christian Roth & Gülay Tulasoğlu. Leiden: Brill, 2014, 71-87. Poumarède, Gérard : ‘Négocier près la Sublime Porte: Jalons pour une nouvelle histoire des capitulations franco-ottomanes’ in L’invention de la diplomatie: Moyen age à temps modernes, ed. Lucien Bély. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1998, 71-85. Skilliter, Susan: William Harborne and the Turkey Trade, 1578-1582. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977. Tabakoğlu, Hüseyin Serdar: ‘The re-establishment of Ottoman-Spanish relations in 1782’, Turkish Studies / Türkoloji Araştırmaları 2/3 (2007), 496-524. Theunissen, Hans: ‘Ottoman-Venetian diplomatics: The ‘Ahd-Names. The historical background and the development of a category of political-commercial instruments together with an annotated edition of a corpus of relevant documents’, Electronic Journal of Oriental Studies 1:2 (1998), 1-698. Van den Boogert, Maurits: The Capitulations and the Ottoman Legal System: Qadis, Consuls, and Beratlıs in the Eighteenth Century. Leiden: Brill, 2005. Van den Boogert, Maurits (ed.): ‘The Ottoman Capitulations: Text and context’, Oriente Moderno 22:3 (2003). Veinstein, Gilles: ‘Le sheikh ul-Islâm et l’ambassadeur: De l’autorité religieuse à la diplomatie’, in L’autorité religieuse et ses limites en terres d’islam: Approches historiques et anthropologiques, eds. Nathalie Clayer, Alexander Papas & Benoît Fliche. Leiden : Brill, 2013, 55-68. Veinstein, Gilles: ‘Les Capitulations franco-ottomanes de 1536 sont-elles encore controversables?’ in Living in the Ottoman Ecumenical Community: Essays in Honour of Suraiya Faroqhi, eds. Vera Constantini & Markus Koller. Leiden: Brill, 2008, 71-8. Veinstein, Gilles: ‘Review: S.A. Skilliter, William Harborne and the Trade with Turkey, 1578-1582: A Documentary Study of the First Anglo-Ottoman Relations, published for The British Academy, by Oxford University Press, 1977’, Journal for the Economic and Social History of the Orient 22:3 (1979), 341-343. Zilfi, Madeline C.: ‘’Review: S.A. Skilliter, William Harborne and the Trade with Turkey, 1578-1582: A Documentary Study of the First Anglo-Ottoman Relations, published for The British Academy, by Oxford University Press, 1977’, The American Historical Review 84:1 (1979), 124.
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Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal Section | Articles |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | July 27, 2016 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2016 |