Letter: T-S Ar.38.111

Description

Letter in Ottoman Turkish addressed to Maʿallim Salmūn in Alexandria. Dating: late sixteenth- or early seventeenth-century. Another letter addressed to the recipient contains a seal bearing the year 1030 AH (1620/21 CE). In the introduction to her edition, Jane Hathaway notes that this letter to: "Salmūn al-Iskandarānī, the Jewish director of Alexandria’s customs.... open with the affectionate benim rūḥum (literally, ‘my soul’ or ‘my spirit’), although the formalities that follow imply that both officers are reporting to Salmūn. The power hierarchy is more ob- vious in 38.111, a surprisingly emotive letter from Salmūn’s agent (Ottoman Turkish, vekīl) Süleymān Bostāncı. Ordinarily, this sobriquet would indicate a member of the corps of ‘Gardeners’ (Bostāncılar) at the imperial palace in Istanbul—or, particularly during the second half of the seventeenth century, in Edirne—who had the duty of rowing the sultan’s barge, as well as guarding the palace and the city at large, along with other corps of palace soldiery (Uzunҫarşılı 1945b, 465–87). To judge from his seal, which identifies him as ‘ibn ʿAbdullāh’, a patronymic that typically designates a convert to Islam, Süleymān was also a devshirme recruit.... The main text of TS 38.111 demonstrates that other high-ranking military officers (aghas) looked to Salmūn to pay their salaries, or at least to augment them, when Egypt’s governor would or could not. Being able to fulfil such a role would make Salmūn a supremely powerful figure, comparable to financiers, including other customs directors, in other parts of the seventeenth-century Ottoman Empire.... Like these other financiers, he also seems to have played a role in the supply of critical provisions to Egypt, most notably, at least so far as our first document is concerned, wood. In the main text of his letter, Süleymān notes that he, presumably on Salmūn’s behalf, provided unspecified ‘men of state’ with wood. His marginal emendations, in addition to mentioning Salmūn’s sale of wood on behalf of Meḥmed Agha, question Salmūn about sales to the son of ʿĀmir Abū ʿAlī and to the son of ʿImmiyā ʿAlī, who may be the same person. Since Egypt was deficient in wood, supplies routinely reached the province by ship from Anatolia, and this sort of shipment may have been key to Süleymān Bostāncı’s work for Salmūn." (Hathaway, Ottoman-Era Documents from the Cairo Geniza, 126-128) Previous PGP description: Letter in Ottoman Turkish addressed to Maʿallim Salmūn in Alexandria from Sulaymān Bostancı[?] dating from the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. There is some damage to the sender's signature but if this reading of his title is correct, this may be a letter sent from Istanbul by a member of the Imperial Guard / Bostancı corps. This seems plausible given that the letter mentions at least four other members of the Ottoman military– Sinān Ağa, Qāsim Ağa, ʿİssa Ağa, and Meḥmed Aǧa. These state functionaries, are occasionally referenced as such i.e. "Sinān Ağa ṣaḥib-i devlet / protector of the state" (l. 8). One other business partner is mentioned in line four, a certain Maʿallam İsḥāk. Much of the letter's contents are related to payments and other correspondence between those referenced. The verso bears two ink stamps and an address on the upper fold, which suggests that this letter was likely sent and received by the recipient Muʿallim Salmūn Iskenderānī who appears in other Ottoman Turkish fragments. MCD.