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6 - Commerce and diasporas

from Part 2 - The Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean and European worlds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Daniel Goffman
Affiliation:
Ball State University, Indiana
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Summary

My Exalted Self commands the kadi and bey of Jerusalem: the bailo of Venice petitioned the Sublime Porte that those who visit Jerusalem from the subjects of the nobles of Venice should not be injured. Nor should any one of you interfere with the monks who live in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When they repair and renovate according to their old situation areas of that church which have fallen into ruin, they seek a command that it is in accordance with Venice's capitulations (ahdname and nişan). Such a decree is given to these Frankish monks.

In Pera they speak Turkish, Greek, Hebrew, Armenian, Arabic, Persian, Russian, Slavonian, Wallachian, German, Dutch, French, English, Italian, Hungarian; and, what is worse, there is ten of these languages spoke in my own family. My grooms are Arabs, my footmen, French, English and Germans, my Nurse an Armenian, my housemaids Russians, half a dozen other servants Greeks; my steward an Italian; my Janissaries Turks, that I live in the perpetual hearing of this medley of sounds, which produces a very extraordinary effect upon the people that are born here. They learn all these languages at the same time and without knowing any of them well enough to write or read in it.

One must turn to Ottoman history rather than western European history to explore how Venice and other western European states organized presences in the Levantine world, for the underlying design of Ottoman society did much to accommodate and make possible the development of commercial and diplomatic settlements in the empire.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

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  • Commerce and diasporas
  • Daniel Goffman, Ball State University, Indiana
  • Book: The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818844.015
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  • Commerce and diasporas
  • Daniel Goffman, Ball State University, Indiana
  • Book: The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818844.015
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Commerce and diasporas
  • Daniel Goffman, Ball State University, Indiana
  • Book: The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511818844.015
Available formats
×