ABSTRACT
Catholic clerics make up the second religious group for which Ottoman capitulations provided articles. As with Catholics laymen, the goal of this chapter is to determine whether religious articles covered zimmi or muste‘min Catholic clerics, and what was their area of applicability. Provisions for foreign Catholic clerics originally appeared in the French ‘ahdname and Venetian nisan of 1604, along with those regarding pilgrims, and they were also applicable strictly to a specific area, they did not cover all of the Well-Protected Domains. The Russian ‘ahdnames, however, were a different story. While treating monks and commoners as a single category when going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, some provisions nonetheless were addressed only to clerics. Terminological developments form an essential aspect of the Ottoman-Habsburg peace agreements. The Russian clerics were treated very differently in capitulations than their Catholic counterparts. While ‘ahdnames and nisans provided the general framework, it was ultimately berats that regulated the activities of Catholic clerics in practical matters.
