Description

By (author) van den Boogert, Maurits

Short /annotation:
This study sheds new light on the legal position of Westerners and their Ottoman protégés (berātlıs) by investigating the dynamic relations between Islamic judges and foreign consuls in the Ottoman Empire, providing detailed case studies and critical analyses of theory, perception, and practice.

:
Pre-modern Western sources generally claim that European mercantile communities in the Ottoman Empire enjoyed legal autonomy, and were thus effectively immune to Ottoman justice. At the same time, they report numerous disputes with Ottoman officials over jurisdiction (“avanias”), which seems to contradict this claim, the discrepancy being considered proof of the capriciousness of the Ottoman legal system. Modern studies of Ottoman-European relations in this period have tended uncritically to accept this interpretation, which is challenged in this book.

Table of contents:
Introduction1. The Sultan’s Promise2. The Protection System3. Avanias: Misrepresentations of the Ottoman4. The Division of Estates5. Bankruptcy6. Theft7. Conclusion

Review quote:
“[…] Boogert”s analysis is clear, without any logical or methodological fallacies, based on extensive documentation while his conclusions are well founded, illuminative and innovative.”
Demetrios Papastamatiou in Journal of Oriental and African Studies (JOAS) 20 (2011), 321-324.

Biographical note:

Maurits H. van den Boogert, Ph.D. (Leiden, 2001) is the (co-)editor of four volumes on Ottoman-European relations, including The Ottoman Capitulations: Text and Context (Rome, 2003, with Kate Fleet) and Friends and Rivals in the East (Brill, 2000, with Alastair Hamilton and Alexander de Groot). In 2010 he published Aleppo Observed: Ottoman Syria Through the Eyes of Two Scottish Doctors, Alexander and Patrick Russell (Oxford University Press). He is now the Publishing Director for Middle East, Islam, and African Studies at Brill.