The Interviewees
Interview with Viorel Panaite - January 2023
1- You focussed on one narrow and poorly documented period in examining the Islamic-Ottoman view of Western European merchants in the Eastern Mediterranean, held at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. The French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, François Savary de Brèves (tenure 1591-1605) conceived a manuscript as a guidebook for the representatives of France in the Ottoman Mediterranean ports and towns. Was this key manuscript studied in any detail by earlier scholars or was it missed in the extensive archives held in that library?
With the exception of occasional references to a few documents (such as the Polish ahdname of 1598 copied in MS.), this manuscript has so far remained unvalued. Obviously, until now I myself have made full use of documents from this manuscript, such as covenant-letters, legal opinions and sultanal decrees, in studies on capitulations, consuls, piracy or commercial navigation that have been published in specialist periodicals or collective volumes.
2- Within 8 years of his arrival in Constantinople in 1593 François Savary de Brèves is referred by the resident Venetian Bailo Matheo Zane as ‘not having the necessity of employing interpreters in his discourse with the Turk’. Considering how different these two languages are does this show us that this ambassador was almost unique in diplomatic history of the city and an intellectual who wanted not only to perform his duty to a high standard but learn from this alien culture in a deeper level? In addition to this diplomatic guide do we have more personal details of this drive in his autobiography?
Other Western ambassadors (such as some Venetian bailiffs) also sought to learn Turkish-Ottoman so as to communicate with Ottoman dignitaries during official negotiations without translators (tercüman), but perhaps more importantly during behind-the-scenes discussions with Ottoman officials (which are mentioned in diplomatic and consular correspondence) to resolve conflict situations quickly or to prepare for official meetings.
Savary de Brèves is perhaps unique in his involvement in founding Oriental studies in France, alongside and followed by his disciple André du Ryer de Malzair. And this involvement is evidenced by his deliberate acquisition of Ottoman, Arabic and Persian manuscripts (now held at the BnF, Paris), as well as the establishment of the first Arabic type printing press, which operated in Rome.
Here are a few facts from his biography. François Savary, Count and Seigneur de Brèves, was probably born in 1560 in Maulévrier, in Bourbonnais, and died in Paris on 22 April 1628. Between 1585 and 1605, he stayed in Istanbul, first as a member of the French embassy, then as ambassador. The second, long absence of François Savary de Brèves from France was from 1608 to 1614, when he fulfilled the mission of French ambassador in Rome. In 1615, he was recalled to France and appointed “governor” (teacher) of Jean-Baptiste Gaston, the third son of King Henri IV and Marie de Médicis. Due to his domains, he was granted more noble ranks, such as Baron de Semur and d’Artaix, Seigneur and Count of Brèves, and Marquis of Maulévrier.
3- In the late 16th - early 17th century the chief rivals for trade in the Ottoman realm were presumably England and Venice and presumably one of the important jobs of an ambassador is to promote and increase the trading volume with the Empire. Do we have instances where Savary de Brèves was able to draw up petitions to the Sultan where presumably speed was of the essence and thus faster than his rivals to gain French trade advantages?
Yes, obviously. In the manuscript at the BnF there were also copied some petitions (arz-u hals) submitted to the Porte by Savary de Brèves. But, in fact, almost all of the sultanic commandments (hüküms), and they actually make up the majority of the documents in the manuscript, begin with a standard formula stating that the French ambassador had sent a petition to the Gate of Happiness, and the first part of the commandments actually reiterated the content of these petitions and the demands made by the ambassador.
Diplomatic competition with the English ambassadors of his time (namely Edward Barton and then Henry Lello) was fierce around 1600, particularly in matters relating to non-treaty merchants and English piracy affecting French trade.
Thus, obtaining sultanal commands as quickly as possible, making full use of personal relations with Ottoman dignitaries as well as bribery, became the rule of the time. The result was often the issuing of orders with opposite contents on the same issue, some in favour of the French, others in favour of the English.
4- At this time piracy was presumably rampant across the Mediterranean and it seems again from Venetian sources Savary de Brevès interventions in freeing captive Muslim slaves was much appreciated by the Ottomans, so helping friendly relations develop. In addition the Ambassador is reported to have close relations with many important Mullahs, which presumably was also highly unusual for a diplomat of the age. Do we know if rival powers also tried to curry favour with return of Muslim captives or other such gestures to build up soft-power?
The Ottoman government could directly intervene for the release of Muslim prisoners with Western powers, such as Venice or France, if they were involved in the capture of Ottoman subjects (Muslim or non-Muslim), just as the Western powers that had been granted trade privileges demanded from the Sultan the release of their own subjects held captive in Ottoman lands. And obviously the effort to setting free Muslim captives was appreciated in Istanbul. But there was a difference between war captives and peacetime captives.
Anyway, historical sources prove that most often actual exchanges of prisoners were small-scale and arranged through intermediaries (and Savary de Brèves was one of them). These intermediaries acted in places where Muslim captives were held, such as Marseille, Livorno, Malta, Messina, in order to free them, either by ransom or by exchange with Christian captives.
5- François Savary de Brèves was the first publisher of Ottoman texts in Europe and during his later tenure as ambassador in Rome (1608-1614) where he founded a printing house with Ottoman characters manufactured at his demand. Do we know what sort of publications emanated from this printing house?
Savary de Brèves founded a printing house with a set of Arabic characters engraved at his demand. Thus, he became one of the first publishers of Ottoman texts in Arabic scripts in Europe. Some of Savary de Brèves’ translations of Oriental writings into Latin or French were also printed in this typography, such as the Psalms of King David (Liber Psalmorum Davidis ex arabico idiomate in latinum translatus a Victorio Scialac Accurensi et Gabriele Sionita Edeniensi Maronitis in lucem editus D.D. F.S. de B., Rome, 1614). When he left Rome in 1614, he brought the Oriental letters to France, and tried to found an Oriental printing house in the College of the Lombards, in Paris. Here he published in a rare bilingual edition the covenant-letter (ahdname) granted by Sultan Ahmed I to King Henri IV in 1604 (Articles du traicté faict en l’annee mil six cens quatre, entre Henri le Grand, Roy de France, & de Navarre, et Sultan Amat Empereur des Turcs. Par l’entremise de Messire François Savary, Seigneur de Breves, Paris, 1615). After Savary de Brèves’ death in 1628, the Arabic characters became a part of the royal printing press in Paris.
6- The ‘Manuscrit Turc 130’ held at BNF Division Orientale covering 1596-1602 of around 250 documents of various typologies issued mostly by the various chancelleries in Istanbul. How unique is this bundle of documents in terms of scope within this short space of time in illuminating the machinations of Ottoman governance and regulations regarding the status of Western merchants?
Considering its structure, one can say MS Turc 130 is a unique composition. Here then - apparently for the first time in a surviving Ottoman manuscript - we clearly and undoubtedly find the necessity to offer legal support to the stipulations of the peace agreements through legal opinions (fetvas). At the same time, these documents prove the existence of a permanent tension between theory and practice, between the diplomatic text of imperial covenant-letter (ahdname-i hümayun) and the abusive circumstances, that sultanic commands (hüküms) and official correspondence sought to remedy but whose very reality they thus illustrate. Thus, the documents from MS Turc 130 offer - for the first time - a complex picture of the Western trade and merchants (especially the French ones) in the Ottoman Mediterranean around 1600. They illustrate the practical aspects of commercial diplomacy at the Ottoman Court and reveal the abuses of provincial authorities towards French merchants and their protégés.
7- The Ottoman state was based on the principle of Dar-al Islam, so the Moslem World beyond which the non-Moslem world was seen as the place of war and potential future conquest. Yet these Capitulation treaties and its recurring adjustments show that the Ottomans welcomed trade and allowed for a degree of bending the rules such as ‘the protection by France of non-treaty Western merchants’. What were the crucial goods the Ottomans sought that made it imperative for them to maintain this free trade?
It’s a bit of a misguided question, especially related to non-treaty merchants. Trading with the infidels was a debatable and controversial topic in the Middle Ages and the early modern age, for both Christians and Muslims. The conclusion of “treaties” with the infidels has found its diplomatic solution in both Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire, being legitimized in terms of political and commercial interests.
The types of goods that the Ottomans imported from the West or exported there by the Ottomans depended on the historical era to which we refer. Obviously, the Ottomans imported goods that they did not produce themselves, such as woollen fabrics, glassware and some special manufactured goods such as medicines, gunpowder and watches. They exported luxury goods such as silk, furs, tobacco, spices and cotton. There was an official policy of prohibited export goods, but through trade privileges included in the Ottoman capitulations the Ottomans allowed the export of such goods.
The granting of trade privileges to merchants was not necessarily linked to the need to import certain goods from the West, but the granting of ahdnames was frequently used by the Ottomans more as a political-diplomatic tool in relations with European powers. Westerners were the ones interested in selling and buying goods in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Ottomans sought to make as much and steady a profit as possible from the customs duties paid on goods imported and exported from the empire.
8- ‘Manuscrit Turc 130’ includes following the chapter of capitulations a section of Islamic legal opinions ‘fetvas’. Presumably this was done at the instigation of Savary du Breve who knew about Islamic view interpretation. To what extend did these Islamic pronouncements by the Grand Mufti (șeyh ül-Islam) carried weight in the Ottoman court when dealing with treaty privileges for foreigners and does their inclusion in this manuscript give you extra detail on the Ottoman courts inner tensions between pragmatism and following Islamic tenets?
In order to define the legal status of their countrymen, as well as their protégés, and to combat the local authorities’ abuses, some ambassadors in Istanbul, including Savary de Brèves, realised that it was an advantage if they also had Islamic legal legitimacy for pragmatic political and diplomatic decisions.
Specific to the legal opinions of MS Turc 130 is that they were deliberately included by Savary de Brèves after the diplomatic section of his guidebook, to explain and legitimate - from the point of view of the Islamic-Ottoman law - the commercial privileges and the legal condition of Western merchants in the Ottoman Mediterranean, as they were stipulated in the ahdname granted by Sultan Mehmed III to King Henri IV in February 1597.
9- Savary du Breve was successful in his efforts of bringing under French protection (and therefore receiving consulage fees for his nation) to non-treaty foreign merchants such as the Dutch in 1598 away from the earlier English cover. Did the Dutch not have a consul at the time or was it a case that they were slow going in terms of organising their own capitulation treaties with the Ottomans?
In the first decade of the seventeenth century, the Dutch constantly attempted to obtain the same commercial privileges as other Western Powers enjoyed and to appoint consuls in the main commercial centres. The Dutch design met the opposition of France, England and Venice. The Dutch were not granted ahdname until 1612, so they had neither a permanent ambassador in Istanbul and nor consuls in the major Mediterranean trading centres. To avoid being attacked, plundered and enslaved, Dutch merchants had to sail in the Ottoman seas under the flag of a Western power that had a permanent ambassador at the Porte, such as France, and refer to the French consuls stationed in Ottoman cities to pay their consulate fee. From there, a strong Franco-English rivalry for the protection of the Dutch was sparked until 1612, when they were granted their first covenant-letter (ahdname) by Sultan Ahmed I, despite French opposition. According to its terms, the Dutch could appoint a permanent ambassador to the Ottoman Court and consuls in Ottoman harbours.
10- The manuscript also reveals a ruling that French consuls have precedence over other Western nation consuls in towns in controlling caravansaries and khans. Does this mean ease in terms of securing lodgings or something more substantial such as part collection of income from residing Western merchants in those properties?
In their relations with other Western consuls and nations, two privileges of the French consuls were mentioned in the hüküms issued around 1600 on the occasion of the renewal of their mandates in Egypt, namely the precedence of French consuls over other Western consuls, and the exclusive right of French consuls to control certain caravanserais in Alexandria. While the first privilege was recorded in the French covenant-letters, the second is not. Just as the French ambassador took precedence over other Western diplomats on official occasions at the Ottoman court, such as audiences with the Grand Vizier, so French consuls were to take precedence over other consuls established in Ottoman cities. In the sultanic orders confirming the appointments of French consuls, reference was made to the clause in the 1597 ahdname about precedence, but the comparison with the respect to be shown to the Ottoman officials in Alexandria was added in a novel way. Likewise, the French Consul in Egypt may precede other consuls, who shall respect him as they respect the Muslim officials (İslam beyleri).
11- Do you have a date when your book on this subject will be published?
I hope to finish the text of the book by the middle of this year and send it to the publisher in early summer. Obviously, then the actual publication of the book depends on the reviewers and the editing process. Inșallah!
Interview conducted by Craig Encer