The transcription and assessment of 6-numbered sicilyateyn (Düvel-i ecnebiye) defteri

Because of its location in the very heart of Mediterranean and some geostrategic advantages, the island of Sicily have attracted the attention of the neighboring political powers since ancient times. In this context, these distinctive political powers carried out many raids to Sicily in the course of history in order to control Mediterranean through it. Accordingly, the dominating power on the island continually changed till the year of 1740. Following the years characterized with the prolonging crisis, Kingdom of Two Sicilies, with the combination of Sicily and Naples, (Sicilyateyn in Ottoman Turkish) was founded in 1738 with the accession of Bourbon dynasty. The earliest contacts of Ottomans with Sicilyateyn was made in the reign of Mahmud I, and two parties signed in 1740 an ahidname consisting of 21 articles and an epilog. Moreover, another treaty consisting of 17 articles and an epilog was signed between Sicilyateyn and Garp Ocakları on June 3rd of 1741 so as to prevent piracy throughout Mediterranean. However, these treatises did not have a chance to be conducted properly. Both that the officials sometimes did not display loyalty to the agreement conditions and some frequent problems occurred between the citizens of two parties considerably affected the stability and lifetime of the treaties in question. Ottoman State tried to solve the problems as possible as it remained loyal to the agreement texts. 6-Numbered Sicilyateyn Düvel-i Ecnebiye Defteri, which constitutes the basic theme of this thesis, contains 1109 hüküms on the relations of Ottoman with Sicilyateyn. There are different hüküms covering a wide range of topics, such as piracy, matters of public order and of debt-receivables, travel allowances, customs problems and appointment of consulates. This study aims at revealing the scope and direction of Ottoman-Sicilyateyn relations during the related historical limits along with the introduction of the defter, the transcription and assessment of the hüküms.