Petitions of the Supplicant Ambassador: British Commercial Representations to the Ottoman State in the Eighteenth-Century

Abstract

This article examines the body of takrirs – written representations – from the British ambassadors in Istanbul to the Ottoman government in the mid- and late eighteenth century, aiming to place these diplomatic representations within the wider Ottoman petitionary framework, and to illustrate the role of the ambassador in providing consular functions. It discusses the form and linguistic style of these documents, before analysing the two main types of cases found. The first concerns the freedom of movement and freedom from harassment requested by British travel- lers on land and at sea, in accordance with the rules of the Capitulations and custom. The second group of cases dealt with more complex legal disputes between British merchants and Ottoman subjects and officials involving the Capitulations and other sorts of legal practices. Examining these documents permits a view of the practice of diplomacy, and demonstrates how text and custom combined through the fluid interpretation of the Capitulations in order to regulate the rights and freedoms of British merchants through the Ottoman petitionary system.