ABSTRACT
Ottoman historical studies, as a coherent field of intellectual endeavour, are only a little more than a century old. Under the terms of the English Capitulations, the series of solemn ‘ ahd-names which were first granted to the English Crown in the reign of Elizabeth I and were renewed and extended by successive Ottoman sultans on several occasions down to 1675, only to be finally abrogated on the Ottomans’ entry into the Great War, it came to be expressly provided that English ambassadors and consuls possessed the right to take dragomans into their service. In order to secure the privileges and exemptions from taxation to which, under the terms of the Capitulations, individual dragomans were entitled as members of a particular ambassadorial or consular ‘household’, it was necessary that they, and the properties which they owned or occupied, should be periodically listed for the relevant Ottoman financial officials who were charged with overseeing these fiscal immunities.
