Ottoman Decree Reveals French Merchants in Jerusalem and Erzurum
A Hijri 1259 decree ordered officials to assist agents of French traders, researcher Taner Özdemir says.
An Ottoman decree dated Hijri 1259 shows that officials in Jerusalem and Erzurum were told to assist two men who handled French merchants’ business. Researcher Taner Özdemir presented the document, and it adds a small but concrete record to the Ottoman decree on French merchants and the empire’s trade history.
The Hijri year 1259 corresponds roughly to 1843-1844 in the Gregorian calendar. That places the order about 180 years ago, in a period when Ottoman economic and diplomatic contacts with European states were growing busier.
What the Ottoman decree on French merchants says
A decree (hüküm) was an official order issued by the central government. This one names two people, written in Turkish reports as Mösyö Zaptivi and Mösyö Caksı. They were appointed to look after the commercial affairs of French merchants travelling to and from Jerusalem and Erzurum.
According to Özdemir, the order told the Jerusalem governor (mutasarrıf) and the Erzurum deputy judge (naib) to give the two men the help they needed. In his reading, this shows that people who followed foreign merchants’ affairs had an official point of contact within the Ottoman administration.
The Turkish report does not say which archive holds the document or give a catalogue number. The spelling of the two names may also follow a modern transcription of the original text.
Why Jerusalem and Erzurum appear together
Özdemir calls the pairing of the two cities the most notable feature of the document. Jerusalem and Erzurum lay far apart, so the shared order suggests the two agents worked with commercial activity across several Ottoman cities.
He argues that the record does more than name two French officials. It also shows how foreign traders’ activity connected with local administrations. Erzurum, he says, is documented here as one of the centres where foreign merchants operated.
A new angle on Erzurum’s trade history
Özdemir, a board member of the Erzurum branch of the Türkiye Dil ve Edebiyat Derneği (Turkish Language and Literature Association), notes that Erzurum was an important stop on trade routes between East and West. Studies of the city’s commerce usually stress links with Iran, the Caucasus and Russia. He says archival records should also be used to study European merchants.
He describes this decree as one of the records that directly document Erzurum’s contact with French traders. In his view, Erzurum’s history should be read through trade and economic ties, not only through political and military events.
The findings so far come from Özdemir’s own assessment. Further study of the full text, and of related records, would show how widely such arrangements applied. The report offers no wider claim, and none should be assumed.
Source: SonDakika (İHA)
Featured image: Dosseman / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
