The Ottoman Archives as a Source for Egyptian History

Abstract

AFTER A CENTURY of neglect and depreciation, Ottoman Egypt is once again becoming a subject of historical study. The pioneering works of Etienne Combe1 and Henri Deherain2 have been followed in more recent years by Islamic Society and the West, by H. A. R. Gibb and Harold Bowen,3 and a number of other monographs and articles.4 While this reopening of a closed door in Middle Eastern History is to be welcomed, it must be observed that almost all the studies hitherto published have relied entirely upon local Egyptian sources in Arabic and a certain number of reports by European visitors. To be sure, these must not be neglected, but it is high time to insist that no serious scholarly work on this period of Egyptian history can now be done without investigating not only such archival materials as still exist in Egypt,5 but even more especially the vast Ottoman archives in Istanbul,6 and that an acquaintance with modern Turkish studies of Ottoman institutions must be counted an essential prerequisite for such work. It scarcely needs to be recalled that Ottoman Egypt was ruled almost entirely by foreigners whose native language was not Arabic, that the language of administration was Ottoman Turkish, and that all official documents were written in that language, with the exception of those issued by the courts of justice. As will be seen later, varying usages of similar terms, errors in reference to administrative and financial matters, and lack of precise information on political and military affairs, all affect the reliability of local Arabic sources, even those of such genuine value as that of al-Cabarti,7 which describes Egypt in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. To disregard the Arabic chronicles would be foolish, but to accept their statements uncritically and without consulting the Turkish records is a proceeding no longer acceptable for reputable scholarly study, all the more so that the printed edition of Cabarti, when compared with the author's manuscript,8 shows a considerable number of changes, inaccuracies and omissions in names, dates, and technical terms.9 The argument may be illustrated by examples from all the works cited above, but it is perhaps more particularly applicable when writers on the subject deliberately reject the Ottoman evidence in favor of the unreliable and incomplete Egyptian Arabic materials. A number of examples should suffice to demonstrate the errors which result from such a procedure. 1) The Egyptian Arabiclanguage sources are often inexact in their use of official Ottoman terms. Shortly after the Ottoman conquest, Sultan Selim I established the Vaqf-i Haremeyn (Foundation of the Holy Cities), in which he included various foundations surviving from Mamlilk times, including the TIdsekiyye vaqf,'0 which was originally donated by the rulers' personal servants, the Hasekcs, who lived in the Citadel of Cairo and guarded the imperial palace.'1 1 L'fgypte Ottomane, de la conque'te par Selim (1517) a l'arrive The Exalted Lineage of Ridwan Bey: Some Observations on a Seventeenth Century Mamluk Genealogy, BSOAS, XXII (1959), 221-230; David Ayalon, Studies in al-Jabarti: Notes on the Transformation of Mamluk Society in Egypt under the Ottomans, JESHO, III (1960) 148-174, 275-325. References in this article are to S. J. Shaw, The Financial and Administrative Organization and Development of Ottoman Egypt (Princeton, New Jersey, 1962). 6 See S. J. Shaw, Cairo's Archives and the History of Ottoman Egypt, Report on Current Research, Spring, 1956 (Middle East Institute, Washington, 1956), pp. 59-72. 6 S. J. Shaw, Archival Sources for Ottoman History: The Archives of Turkey, JAOS, vol. 80 (1960), pp. 1-12. 7 cAbd ur-Rahman b. Hasan al-Cabartif, cAcadib ul-Aqdr fit-Taracim wal-Ahbdr, 4 vols., Cairo, 1880-1881. 8 MSS, 79, 80 and 81, Ahmed Cevdet collection, Veliuddin Library, Bayezid General Library in Istanbul. 9MS Cevdet 79, fol. 37a gives the year 1174 for All Bey's appointment as Emir ul-H1cc, while the printed edition (I, 250) says 1173. 10 Belediye Kitfilphanesi, Istanbul, Cevdet MS 083. 1 Makrizi, Histoire des sultans mamlouks de l'Pgypte,