State document: JRL Gaster ar. 197

Description

Practice of drafting a state document, Ottoman-era. Probably an instance of someone practicing an epistolary address to the Ottoman Sultan rather than an honorific of subordinate-higher up exchange. A probable reading is as follows. سعادتلو مروتلو رأفتلو والعز وقادرم سلطانم حضرتلرى / همواره قربت توفيق عزت و مقارن قبض وعافيت اولملرى وعواقي سياقنده سخوده محبانه مزدركه طرفمزه دركار. A translation of these lines is "My benevolent, generous, gracious, powerful, almighty, Sultan, His Excellency, There is always closeness, progress, strength, associated with and received [by you], and in this context of delay, it is in our friendliness and in munificence that we are occupied [and have been unable to write]." (Information, transcription and translation by Matthew Dudley).