The Foreigners’ Right to Petitioning: Venetian Subjects and their Identification in the Ottoman Empire (Izmir, 1670-1715)

This presentation aims at an analysing the status of foreigners in early modern Ottoman society by focusing on identification practices and conflicts. Firstly, I will analyse identification disputes dating from 1670 to 1715 between Venetian consuls and Ottomans officials concerning the freedom of movement and the exemption from poll tax-paying of Venetian subjects. Secondly, I will focus on the cross-cultural diplomatic negotiations of these disputes through the Ottoman petition system, where the validity of some aspect of Capitulations often became an issue. The case presented will provide an important insight on the instability of belonging, in which the corresponding fiscal and legal categories of classification were also defined by social relations. The primary resources at the core of this paper are letters sent to the Venetian representative in Istanbul by the Venetian consuls in Izmir, and of petitions from the bailo to the Ottoman government.