Gifts of time: Watches and clocks in Ottoman-British diplomacy, 1693-1803

Gift-giving was a crucial part of the regulation and practice of relations between European ambassadors and Ottoman state officials in Istanbul. Although largely dominated by textiles, timepieces played a crucial role in gift-giving practices on a number of levels. Taking the example of the British embassy in Istanbul in the eighteenth century and examining the detailed financial records of that institution, this article considers the significance of watches and clocks gifted by the British to different Ottoman officials on different occasions. By considering timepieces as social gifts to build individual relationships, as ceremonial gifts conforming to Ottoman expectations and practices, and as objects used to stimulate commercial interest, this article emphasises the importance of financial records and material objects as sources for reconstructing the practice of diplomacy, and demonstrates the shifting role of time pieces in British-Ottoman relations in the eighteenth century

Accessing the shadow of God: Spatial and performative ceremonial at the Ottoman Court

This paper examines Ottoman notions of access to the sultan at the end of the seventeenth century. Focusing primarily on the British experience, this paper examines Ottoman court ritual surrounding ambassadorial audiences with the sultan through two main questions. The first will examine the essential role of gift-giving in enabling access to the Ottoman court, and argues that these were a central aspect of Ottoman court patronage networks. The second considers the ceremonial and spatial elements of access, from the laying on of feasts demonstrating imperial benevolence to the humiliation of ambassadors in the audience chamber as they were forced to the ground before the sultan. Movement between public and private spaces were determined by participation in particular events and rituals, conformity to which demonstrated the universalism of Ottoman monarchy. In discerning the rationale for these particular practices that were designed to include foreign ambassadors in Ottoman notions of patronage and social hierarchy, it is argued that that these ceremonials formed a crucial part in articulating the Ottoman world-view to Christian allies and enemies. Moreover, these Ottoman court practices demonstrate the heterodox nature of the Ottoman court and monarchy in borrowing from earlier Islamic, Byzantine, and Turkic customs

İngiliz Whig Tarihçiliği ve Thomas Carlyle

This chapter formed part of a major new book in Turkey on global historiography. It explores a particular aspect of British historiography, the 'Whig' school of thought, and the ideas of Thomas Carlyle, especially his 'hero' narratives. The chapter was written in Turkish, aimed at an interested by general audience

When proof is not enough: An Ottoman merchant in the Gibraltar Vice-Admiralty Court in the 1760s

This article examines the litigation of an Ottoman merchant based in Algiers in the vice-admiralty court of Algiers in 1760. It examines the importance of legal proofs for merchants traversing the Mediterranean world, and the ability of such merchants to record transactions and interactions along the way, as well as to subsequently call on witnesses from near and far. The case examined here sees documents compiled in Italian, Spanish, Arabic, and English, constructing a solid legal case, which was rejected by the British on the grounds of setting a precedent and privileging a «Moor» over a British subject. This then raises the question of the validity of proofs in different Mediterranean settings, with the Ottoman merchant’s diverse and thorough documentation rejected in Gibraltar when it would have been entirely admissible in another legal setting

Separating the waters from the sea: The place of islands in Ottoman maritime territoriality during the eighteenth century

The Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century faced challenges in the Mediterranean from domestic and above all foreign pirates that forced it to articulate its notions of maritime territoriality, that is, the parts of the sea over which it claimed imperial and legal authority. This article will examine the role of islands in defining that territoriality, examining several cases involving the imperial response to piracy for their articulation of maritime space. The most important distinction was between the open sea and domestic waters, which were above all delineated by the shoreline, apart from exceptional responses to European privateers. Consequently, it is argued that the place of islands in Ottoman maritime territoriality is largely littoral in nature, and that littoralité is an essential component of the Ottoman understanding of insularité

"Jews, Be Ottomans!" Zionism, Ottomanism, and Ottomanisation in the Hebrew-Language Press, 1890-1914

In recent years the study of national and civic identities in the later Ottoman period has revealed huge degrees of complexity among previously homogenised groups, none more so that the Jewish population of the Sublime State. Those Jews who moved to the Ottoman Empire from the 1880s as part of a burgeoning expression of Jewish nationalism developed a complex relationship with an Ottomanist identity that requires further consideration. Through an examination of the Hebrew-language press in Palestine run largely by immigrant Zionist Jews, complemented by the archival records of the Ottoman state and parliament, this paper aims to show the complexities of the engagement between Ottoman and Jewish national identities. The development of Jewish nationalism by largely foreign Jews came with an increase in suspicion from the Ottoman elites, sometimes manifesting in outright anti-Semitism, and strong expressions of nationalism in the Hebrew press were denounced both by Ottoman and non- and anti-nationalist Jewish populations. The controversy over immigrant Jewish land purchases in Palestine from the 1890s led to a number of discussions over how far foreign Jews could and should embrace an Ottoman cultural and political identity, with cultural, labour, and political Zionists taking different positions. The question of Ottomanisation should also be taken in the context of the post-1908 political landscape in the Ottoman Empire, with separatist nationalisms increasingly under the spotlight, and the debates among the different forms of Jewish nationalism increasingly focusing on the limits of performative and civic Ottoman nationalism

A treaty of narratives: Friendship, gifts, and diplomatic history in the British Capitulations of 1641

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

Marljivi prepisovalec in skromni skladatelj: dva obraza Francesca Barsantija (ok. 1690–1775)

Francesco Barsanti, an Italian immigrant musician in Britain, worked as a copyist to supplement his income from orchestral playing and teaching. Whereas his instrumental music was published, his vocal music survives almost entirely in manuscript, being interspersed, often anonymously, among music by other composers that he himself copied.Francesco Barsanti, italijanski glasbeni imigrant v Britaniji, je za dodatni zaslužek ob igranju v orkestru in učenju delal tudi kot glasbeni kopist. Medtem ko je bila njegova inštrumentalna glasba natisnjena, so njegova vokalna dela večinoma ostala razpršena v rokopisih, pogosto brez navedbe avtorja, med deli drugih skladateljev, katerih dela je prepisoval

Sparks of happenstance: Photographs, public celebrations, and the Ottoman military band of Jerusalem

This paper explores the depiction of public celebration in the late Hamidian period in Ottoman Jerusalem through the relationship between textual and photographic sources, and between state performers and the viewing public. The joy of public celebrations on the sultan’s birthday and accession day conveyed in the Ottoman Turkish and Hebrew press was at odds with formal, flat photographs of the occasion, but in fact shared that aesthetic through its formulaic tropes and language. A key part of the narratives of these occasions in Jerusalem was the performance of music by the military band of the garrison. Through a close reading of these and other images, the uniform images and narratives of these public events of the state can be penetrated, and snapshots of discord, emotion, and reaction emerge that show performances to be perhaps cacophonous affairs, and the attending crowds a part of the scenery rather than active participants. As such, this paper will consider the role of these photographs in reconstructing both the experiential and political atmospheres of these formal state occasions. In particular, a stereographic image of a concert of the Jerusalem band in 1903 permits an alternative reading of these occasions. Using the chance details captured in the shot, the value of close readings of photographs as microhistories can be found in exposing narratives beyond those peddled by the state, and the flaws and tensions of the relationship between ruler and ruled thus becomes more readily apparent