An Ottoman Protocol Register, Containing Ceremonies from 1736 to 1808: Beo Sadaret Defterleri 350 in the Prime Ministry Ottoman State Archives, Istanbul.

• Author: Kurz, Marlene
• Position: Book review

An Ottoman Protocol Register, Containing Ceremonies from 1736 to 1808: Beo Sadaret Defterleri 350 in the Prime Ministry Ottoman State Archives, Istanbul. Edited by HAKAN T. KARATEKE. Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt Fund Series. Istanbul: OTTOMAN BANK ARCHIVES AND RESEARCH CENTRE, and London: ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 2007. Pp. xliv + 223, plates.

Hakan Karateke's edition of the BEO (Babiali Evrak Odasi) 350 protocol register is the first ever publication of a defter of this type. The book continues the work of his doctoral dissertation on Ottoman court ceremonies published in 2004 in Istanbul ("Padisahim cok yasa! Osmanli devletinin son yuzyilinda merasimler"). It also adds an eighteenth-century complement to the standard reference of court ceremonies and envoy receptions in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Konrad Dilger's Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des osmanischen Hofzeremoniells im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, published in Munich in 1967 and based mainly on Western sources.

The genre of protocol registers used as administrative handbooks to aid the masters of protocol and their staff to organize ceremonies in a correct manner does not seem to have emerged until the eighteenth century. The register that Karateke has singled out for publication was compiled between 1803 and 1808. It contains 146 documents (plus two in the margins) with descriptions of ceremonies ranging from 1736 to 1808, thus including copies made from older material next to descriptions of contemporary events. The main focus of the defter is on accession ceremonies, funerals, and, most importantly, the reception of foreign envoys.

Karateke begins his edition with a list of the ceremonies described in the register, first by order of the manuscripts, second by type of ceremony, and third by date of ceremony. Next follows an English-Ottoman "key to the technical terms," listing objects, places, and officials taking part in the different ceremonies. In his introduction the editor discusses some aspects of ceremonies in general and the reception of foreign envoys and ambassadors in particular. Karateke's considerations are partly based on material from the edited register, and partly on information from other protocol registers and on accounts by Western observers. He describes different aspects of the reception ceremony and tries to interpret some of the symbols used during the event within their cultural context.

Ceremonies were--among other symbols--a means to help the ruler...