The Capitulations and the Ottoman Legal System: Qadis, Consuls and Beratlıs in the 18th Century - Paperback

by Maurits Van Den Boogert (Author)

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.

Author Biography

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.