My story on Western merchants in the Ottoman Mediterranean has chronological, geographical and legal limits imposed by MS Turc 130 (BnF, Paris). This manuscript proves the necessity to legitimate the clauses of capitulations (ahdnames) by legal opinions (fetvas). MS Turc 130 illustrates also practical aspects of commercial diplomacy at the Ottoman Court, and reveals the abuses of provincial authorities towards Western merchants. My working plan follows the directions outlined by the Ottoman unpublished documents of this manuscript: French capitulations; foreigners (müstemins) and capitulatory regime; non-treaty merchants; trade, merchandise, taxes; navigation; consuls; piracy and captives. 

About the author:
Viorel Panaite is Professor in Islamic Ottoman History, Head of Doctoral School of History at the University of Bucharest; senior researcher at the Institute of South-East European Studies (Romanian Academy). He has published extensively on legal condition of tribute-payers in the Ottoman Empire and commercial diplomacy in the Ottoman Mediterranean: Ottoman Law of War and Peace. The Ottoman Empire and Its Tribute-Payers from the North of the Danube. Second Revised Edition, Leiden-Boston: BRILL, 2019; “French Capitulations and Consular Jurisdiction in Egypt and Aleppo in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries” (2014); “Being a Western Merchant in the Ottoman Mediterranean. The Evidence of a Turkish Manuscript from Bibliothèque Nationale de France” (2013).