Ottoman commercial tribunals: closer than enemies, farther than friends

Abstract

The Ottoman commercial tribunals remain an enigma for historians. This branch of the Ottoman legal system existed throughout the Ottoman Empire for several decades as an institution of the Tanzimat reforms. This paper presents the form and function of these tribunals, as well as examples of interactions among diverse networks in the Ottoman provinces that took place within the tribunal cases. These interactions provide opportunities to investigate Ottoman resistance against European incursions into local spaces of authority. Thus, the author presents a previously unavailable perspective of provincial imperial interactions. Among other things, at the local level, commercial tribunals created previously unavailable brokerage opportunities for European and Ottoman actors by diluting the legal authority of the Ottoman centre. At the imperial level, the resulting frictions dealt a significant blow to the Tanzimat reforms by sowing discord among the Ottoman reformers and their European allies. At the least, one must reconsider the impact of these events on the consequent strains placed on the Concert of Europe, as well as their role in paving the way to World War I.