A LETTER FROM CERRAH MUSTAFA PASHA,

VALIOF TUNIS, TO SIR WILLIAM TRUMBULL

(A.H. 1099/A.D. 1688)

COLIN HEYWOOD

T H I R T Y years ago, when I first studied the papers of Sir William Trumbull in theBerkshire County Record Office, it was a particular pleasure to discover that amongst theDownshire Manuscripts which derived from his years as English ambassador at the Portewere a number of Turkish documents.^ Through the kindness of the County RecordOffice staff at the time, I was able to obtain photocopies of the documents, and thesuggestion was also made that a handlist might be compiled. Unfortunately, theTrumbull manuscripts, both *old' series and Additional, were only on deposit atReading, and it was at about this time (the exact date I now disremember) that their thenowner placed severely restrictive conditions on their use by historians. Any furtherphotography of the Turkish documents, together with plans for their future publication,was out of the question. The draft handlist and the photocopies already in my possession,together with the other results of my study of Trumbull's embassy to the Porte, wereobliged perforce to remain unpublished.^ More than a quarter of a century elapsed beforethe sale of the Downshire Manuscripts and their purchase on behalf of the nation at lastrendered them fully accessible to disinterested scholarship.^ ^

To mark the acquisition by the British Library of the Downshire MSS, and in defaultof the handlist of the Turkish documents in Trumbull Add. MS. 96, which for reasonsof space cannot be published on this occasion, I offer here a preliminary study of the soleOttoman document in Trumbull Add. MS. 96 which possesses a North Africanprovenance. Trumbull Add. MS. 96,4 (flg. i) is a letter (mektub), sent from Tunis and datedI Receb 1099 (22 April 1688 O.S.). The author is Cerrah Mustafa Pasha, a former Agaof the Janissaries newly appointed muhafiz (governor) of the de jure Ottoman provinceof Tunis. The document is published below, together with its contemporary translationinto Italian (Trumbull Add. MS. 96, 23) and a new English translation of the original.

THE DOCUMENTS

(i) Letter (mektub) of Cerrah^ Mustafa Pasha, muhafiz of Tunis, to [Sir WilliamTrumbull], English ambassador at thie Porte. Tunis, ist (gurref of Receb 1099 (= 22April 1688, Old Style). Ottoman Turkish. Ftg. i.

218

^ ^ ^ ^ c > 4 4 3 ; • ^ .

/. Trumbull Add. MS. 96, 4 recto

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British Library (formerly Reading, Berkshire County Record Office), DownshireManuscripts, Trumbull Additional MS. 96, no. 4.

Greyish horizontally laid paper of European manufacture. Watermark: tre lune.^Dimensions: 435 cm x 295 cm (external); 19*5 cm x 28 cm (written area of recto). Noinvocatio; 8 lines text+ 8 lines, inverted, in the right margin {der kenar). Signature ofMustafa Pasha in lower left corner. Small rectangular seal-impression (14x10 mm;fig. 2) of same on verso, behind signature. The document has been folded forwardlaterally from the bottom eight times, making sections of 3-2, 45, 47, 4*9, 5-0, 5-1, 5*2,5-3, and 5-2 cm.

A letter of compliments from Cerrah Mustafa Pasha to an unnamed English ambassador(scil. Trumbull), thanking him for arranging his voyage from Istanbul to Tunis via Malta,and promising good treatment for the English merchants in Tunis. Trumbull is also requestedto send news of any future political developments at the Porte which might affect the sender.

[recto:]

"> *- * [II]

/ iSJ-i u>^ j '

[V]

220

J > -

i (V)

J I "• • • J ' [VIII] J

^.^^ < (A)

[X]

* L .^ «

L i ; i ^ .

[in the right margin, inverted:]

j - l j l Ji * j ^ V

^1 J [ X I I ] J.M* 6XJI jLu«iji (^^)

/ ^ J-* J l

[XIII]

2 2 1

[XIV]

[verso:][seal impression, inlower right corner]

JI

' ^ ' v - ^ j J

[^•]^v

(2) Contemporary translation. Italian. Single sheet, folded vertically to make a doublefolio, 20 cm X 295 cm, and refolded (after writing) once laterally and four timesvertically to make a flattened tube 6-5x15 cm, which formerly enclosed the previousdocument.'' 1-5 pp. text (f. ia-b); f. 2a blank; f. 2b endorsed (in TrumbuU's hand): /Transla[ti]on o[f] the L[ette]re / o[f] the Pasha of/Tunis, th[a]t went/in Capt.Leth[er]Iand[*s ship]. / [slashes]/r[eceive]d the 4. June. [i6]88./[slashes]/.

Watermarks: (i) Cross keys over 'ROMA'; (2) Trifolium with elongated stemseparating the letters CM over Z.

Trumbull Additional MS. 96, 23.

[I]

[II] Doppo li Salutj et Riuerenze fatte verso di \ostra Y^ccellenza IllM5/m.sima [III] Ladiamo parte se domanda Amicheuolm^wte per noj, che per Gratia d'Iddio, dopo d'esserciimbarcati nel Vascello in quelle parti et Inviaticj per costa; In qualonque luogo che siamoCapitati, per mezzo della Sua Lettera Concessarj, sempre ci portono grand' honore eRespetto; [IV] Si il Console di Malta, come de Tunis, et cj hanno trattato et honoratoAmicheuolm^Kte[.] [V] Amicitia tale, si troua Solam^wte zpx^resso di lej, et li Suoi: siateprosperj. [VI] La preghiamo di Continouarla, et per Tauuenire speriamo simile Amistada lej, desiderando di soccorrerij in tuttj lj nostrv) negotij ch' accadano. [VII] Et tanto perlj suoi negotij, ch' accaderanwo, quanto di quellj che son appartenenti all Natione Inglese,et si ritrouano appr^^^o di Noj cj affaticaremwo quanto siamo degnj; [VIII] solam^wtedesideriamo d'esser fermi et Constanti nella di lej Amista.

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[XI] Et mio Amoreuolissmo Amico desideriamo di far notare et Inuiarcj costi tutte leNouita et Cangiam^wti che nascon et succedon' in quelle partj [XII] et Inviarci[mandarcj] quanti prima tutte le Lett^re de nostr'] Amicj [XIII] et se potra hauer qualcheauuiso dalla parte del Dominio, / toccante il nostro Dimorare o Leuarcj di quj ci far a laCortesia di notificarlo Incontinente se sara vero. [XIV] Et sopra questi Negotijpreghiamo la Sua Cortesia, [XV] Et desideriamo di non far Procrastinatione in questo.[IX] S'e notato allj Vltimj^ della Luna di Regeb L'Anno 1099. [X][XVI]

Translation[recto:]

[I] [He!]

[II] Having enquired, with abundant amity-bearing friendship, of the sweet musk-scented mind of His Excellency the Lord Ambassador, my affectionate sincere friend,and having duly performed the offering of friendship based on inmost affection, may[this letter find] you in [possession of] enjoyment and pleasure joined with health andprosperity and in cheerfulness of heart.

[III] Should you be enquiring as to how we are in these parts (taraftmtzdan); [well], praisebe to God - He is exalted - we embarked (kalyona bin-) at those parts {ol tarafdan [scil.Istanbul]), [and] while [we were] on the way here, by reason of the letter [of introduction]{kagtd) which you gave [us], in every place at which we arrived, they showed us theutmost consideration {re'ayet). [IV] Both the [English] consul {baylos) at Malta and theconsul here at Tunis showed us friendship and consideration. [V] Such friendshipshowever, is found only from you and those [contacts of yours]: may you be blessed [forit]. [VI] And moreover we hope and request that henceforth [we may continue to enjoy]friendship from you and from those [contacts of yours].

[VII] In our present affairs, to this end both you and your [contacts] and other[s] of theEnglish nation should also let us know [and] whatever their concerns and affairs maybe, as far as we are able we shall extend our best efforts. [VIII] Only with you [too] letfirm and constant friendship be maintained.

[IX] Written on the first (gurre) of the month of Rajab the Venerated, anno [hijrce] 1099.

[X] The sincere friend / Mustafa / governor of /Tunis /a t present

In the right-hand margin^ inverted:

[XI] And, my affectionate friend, whatever may be the state of affairs in those parts {oltaraf {scil at the Porte]), and what the news may be, who may be in or out of office {tebdtlve tagayyur), write and tell me everything about it {cumle kimaht yazub irsal edesiz). [XII]And whoever from amongst our friends may write a letter to us, by whatever means there

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may be [for you] of sending it, take [it] and send it to us as soon as possible. [XII] Andif there shall be any news at the Porte of our coming or going or staying on [here] and of[any political] good luck or misfortune, if it should be verified, whatever news comes tohand, write and immediately make [it] known [to us]. [XIV] [Assistance in] thisparticular point is greatly desired. [XV] May you not refuse or be negligent [in this].

[XVI] 'Attested' {sahh).

[verso:]The seal of Thy love, O Lord / of Mankind, [alone] /

is [engraved] in Mustafa's heart / like an inscription in stone[A.H. io]97

COMMENTARY

(i) Diplomatics

In Ottoman diplomatic usage this document may be classified as a mektub, or letter, beingin this case essentially a private (or at the most a semi-official) document.^ As such, itdiffers in certain details from the official communications between a provincial officialand a representative of a Christian state. The invocatio [I] ** appears to be missing. Theforms of address [II] (11. 1-2) are cordial; the tone is friendly. There is no expressed orimplied wish for the recipient's conversion to Islam, neither the customary du^a-formula (i.e. khutimat ''awakibihi biU-khayr).^^ which follows the elkab (the name andhonorific appellations of the addressee),^^ nor the so-called ' Schliissformel' (i.e. maU-salam 'alaman ittaba'a U-huda)^'^ being employed.^* The actual name of the addressee is,as commonly, omitted.^^ The words el^i beg ('Lord Ambassador') in 1. i are elevatedabove the other words in the line, the space which they would have occupied being leftblank. This usage, known as honorific elevation {elevatio)^ was designed to show respectto the recipient and was frequently employed in Ottoman chancery practice, ® mostcommonly for the term sultamm., *my Lord', in ^arzuhals and similar documents. In thiscontext it is mentioned, but without explanation by Fekete {Einfiihrung, p. lix), but theorigins and ramifications of the usage lie at a much deeper level of symbolicsignificance.^^

The document displays certain elements with regard to Cerrah Mustafa Pasha's rank.Although described by Trumbull as the 'pasha' of Tunis, he employs in his signaturethe term muhafiz}^ He employs no penge in his document, but only the signature {imza)in the lower left corner. The seal-impression {muhr\ fig. 2) is placed on the verso of thedocument, directly backing the signature, if the document is signed personally by thesender: these are all attributes of lesser provincial officials not of vizirial rank. ^Nonetheless, the document bears the sahh {vidimus), which is said by Fekete to be placedon letters which will bear a penge, or cypher/signature of the issuer. In such cases it isset in the 'bow' of the penge. This is not the case in the present document, where the

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sahh is apparently employed solely to authenticate the 'postscript' ( =11. 9-16) der kenar,i.e. in the right margin. **

Fig. 2. Trumbull Add. MS. 96, 4 verso (detail of lower right-hand corner)

(ii) Historical Note

The short notice on our Mustafa Pasha in Mehmed Sureyya's biographical dictionary ofOttoman statesmen may be to a certain extent supplemented.^^ According to the Sicill-i ^Osmani, Cerrah Mustafa was a product of the Outside Service of the Palace, achievingthe rank of Imperial Swordbearer {silihdar-i ahriyar). In Muharrem 1099 (beg. 28Oct./7 Nov. 1687) he was given the appointment of Aga of the Janissaries, but onaccount of his incapacity in not punishing the mutinous soldiery in the violent emeutesin Istanbul which had accompanied the deposition of the Sultan Mehemmed IV, he wasin the same year dismissed and appointed pasha of Tunis. Later, in A.H. I 106 (beg. 12/22Aug. 1694) he was appointed muhaftz of Kars, but died in the following year, A.H. 1107(beg. 2/12 Aug. 1695).

The background to Cerrah Mustafa Pasha's fall from grace after the accession ofSuleyman II may be taken a little further. The war with Austria and her allies in the HolyLeague in which the Ottomans had found themselves after the failure of Kara Mustafa'sill-considered attempt in 1683 to seize Vienna had been a catalogue of disasters. Buda,the seat of a beglerbegi, and the administrative centre of Ottoman Hungary, had fallen toa siege by Austrian and allied forces late in the campaigning season of 1686; less thana year later the Ottomans were to sustain a bloody defeat in the field at the hands ofAustria in the second battle of Mohacs (12 August 1687), the news of which reaching thePorte had coincided with the arrival there of Trumbull. ^ The defeat had led to awidespread mutiny in the army and the flight of the Grand Vizier Suleyman Pasha from

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the front to refuge at the court. Serious social and political unrest broke out in Istanbul.On 25 August a large fire devastated a great part of the city; a week later, on i September,part of the Topkapi palace was burned down. The Grand Vizier Suleyman Pasha, towhom Trumbull had written on 29 August to accompany his formal letters ofaccreditation,^^ was sacrificed by the Sultan Mehemmed IV to the mob and the army,and was replaced by Siyavush Pasha, the army's nominee. The political situation,however, rapidly worsened, leading on 2 Muharrem 1099 (29 October 1687, O.S.), to thedeposition of the Sultan and the placing of his brother on the throne as Suleyman 11. ^The accession of the new Sultan was followed by far-reaching changes of personnel bothin the immediate entourage of the Sultan, and in the Ottoman 'ruling institution'generally. These developments took place against a background of continuous unrest inIstanbul, particularly amongst the janissary and sipaht troops stationed there. Insofar asthey concern Cerrah Mustafa Pasha, they may be recapitulated as follows.

On 6 Muharram/2 November, Morali Hasan aga, the then Swordbearer to the Sultan{silihdar-i ^ahriyar; silihdar-i padi§ahT), who had been Swordbearer to Mehemmed IVsince 1095/1684, was dismissed and appointed z a/r of Egypt.^^ The vacant position wasfilled by Cerrah Mustafa, but he held office for only nine days, for on 15 Muharram/iiNovember the mutineers, enraged at the non-payment of the customary donative on theaccession of a new Sultan, rioted, and demanded the deposition of the Aga of theJanissaries, Cado Yusuf a z, who was quickly sent into exile at Jiddah.^^ Cerrah Mustafawas now appointed Aga of the Janissaries, while his former post was given to ElmasMehmed aga, a future Grand Vizier under Suleyman IPs successor, Mustafa I I . "Cerrah Mustafa remained Aga of the Janissaries until i Rabl' II, 1099 (25 January 1688),when he was appointed commandant {muhafiz) of the Dardanelles fortress of Seddulbahr.This appointment he never took up, for on the seventh of the same month (31 January)the post was given to the Grand Vizier's locum tenens at the Porte {ka^im-makam-i rekab-i humayun), Kopriilli-zade Mustafa Pasha, and Cerrah Mustafa was made valt of thedistant and largely autonomous province of Tunis.^^

This effective exile from the centres of power and influence to a remote and largelynominal provincial posting was the development which brought Cerrah Mustafa Pashainto contact with Trumbull. In his diary for i February 1687/8 (O.S.), that is to say, onthe day following Mustafa Kopriilti's appointment as commandant of Seddulbahr,Trumbull noted that '[the Imperial Dragoman Alessandro] Mauro Cordato came in[the] morning ab[ou]t a ship to carrie [a] Bascha to Tunis'.^^ The Porte, as always, hadmoved fast to rid itself of politically disgraced functionaries: within hours of hisdismissal, steps were taken to find a convenient means of conveying Cerrah Mustafa intogilded exile.

Mavrocordato's enquiry of i February eventually bore fruit. Evidence for this is to befound in a letter dated i March 1687/8 from Trumbull to Goodwyn, the English consulin Tunis, which was sent by the hand of the 'Hasnardar'^*^ of the new Pasha of Tunisand on an English ship commanded by one Capt. ^

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The bearer hereof being Hasnardar to Gerah Mustapha (late Janisar Aga but now made Pachaof Tunis) desired me to give him this L[ette]re to addresse him to you; w[hi]ch by reason of manycivilities shewed by his Master to my self & o[u]r Nation, I could not refuse, perswading my self,that It can be no disadvantadge to you but rather of use to keepe a freindly Correspondence withhim, I hope you will accordingly let him know that my recommendations have had some weightwith you; And w[hat]t kindness you shall shew him, shall upon the like occasion be returned toany friend of yours in these parts...^^

The further course at Tunis of Cerrah Mustafa Pasha's rather unsuccessful career, andhis relations there with Consul Goodwyn and the English merchant community, lieoutside the scope of this short note. The ongoing correspondence which he sought withTrumbull appears not to have been continued, if the negative evidence of TrumbuU'sown Turkish Letter-Book may be taken at face value ; ^ however, it may not be withoutsignificance that Cerrah Mustafa's own letter to Trumbull, published above, also fails tofind a place in it, and further research, for which at present both time and space arelacking, may yet allow reconstruction in greater detail of this seventeenth-centuryAnglo-Ottoman encounter.

1 The twenty-five Turkish documents in theuncalendared Trumbull Additional Manu-scripts, together with a number of contemporarytranslations and some other material, have beengathered together in an unbound bundle underthe rubric 'Turkish Letters and Documents'and classified as Trumbull Additional Manu-script (henceforth TAMS) 96.

2 Cf. my 'English Diplomacy between Austria andthe Ottoman Empire in the War of the SacraLiga,... 1689-1699', unpublished London Ph.D.dissertation, 1970.

3 My grateful thanks are due to Miss SoniaAnderson, of the Royal Commission on His-torical Manuscripts (H.M.C.), for kindly draw-ing my attention to the acquisition of theDownshire MSS by the British Library.

4 Cerrak ( < Arabic jarrah), in Ottoman usage =*surgeon', 'dresser of wounds'. The cerrah-bapwas the chief surgeon at the Ottoman court.

5 Gurre (Ar. gurra), the first day of a lunar month.On the non-numerical denominators {gurre.,muntasaf {'middle')y and selh Mast day') in thedating of Ottoman documents see Ludwig [ =Lajos] Fekete, Einfuhrung in die Osmanisch-Turkische Diplomatik der Turkischen Botmds-sigkeit in Ungarn^ iste. Lieferung (Budapest:Universitatsdruckerei, 1926), p. xl.

6 This well-known watermark of three sequentiallydisposed crescent moons, found particularly inpaper of European, especially Venetian, manu-facture destined for the Ottoman market, ischaracteristic of Ottoman documents of theperiod (cf. Franz Babinger, Das Archiv desBosniaken Osman Pascha (Berlin: Reichs-druckerei, 1931), pp. 30-2, and V. Nikolaev,Watermarks of the Mediaeval Ottoman Documentsin Bulgarian Libraries, vol. i (all published)(Sofia, 1954). I have not attempted to identifyhere either the particular tre lune watermark onTAMS 96, 4, or the watermarks in the succeed-ing document below (TAMS 96, 23). I remitthese identifications to a fuller study and editionof the Turkish documents in the TrumbullPapers, long ago begun, on which I am now in aposition to resume work.

7 Although the letter of Cerrah Mustafa and itstranslation were found separately when TAMS96 was examined c. 1963, the ingrained discolor-ation affecting all of what had obviously been atleast for many decades previously the upperexternal surface of the translation, and all exceptthe corresponding (and unaffected) mid-sectionof Cerrah Mustafa Pasha's letter, shows this tohave been the case.

8 Sic, for 'primi' {gurre).

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9 On the mektub type of document see Fekete,Einfuhrung, pp. xlviii-liv; for a short discussionof the diplomatics of private letters, op. cit , pp.lx-lxi.

10 The Roman numerals supplied (in squarebrackets: ' [ I ] ' , etc.) refer to the relevant sectionsof the document and its translations. On theinvocatio {= da^vet; Ar. da'wa, 'a calling upon[God]') in its simplest form, the initial letter 'A'of hiive (Ar. huwa, 'He ! ' - 5«7 . Allah), seeFekete, Einf, pp. xxx, ff. The Muslim invocatiowas also employed in documents emanatingfrom, e.g., the Turkish chanceries of Christianembassies at the Porte (cf., for English usage -in this case, 'A'-cf. TAMS 96, 6a, [Trumbull]to [Siyavu§ Pa§a, Grand Vizier], 'duplicat[e]',n.p., n.d. The Italian version-or original(.^)-(TAMS 96, 6b), which impHes an issue dateof 11 Oct. 1687, O.S., does not bear aninvocatio.

11 Arabic:' May his ends (Ar. ''awakib, pi. of 'akiba)be terminated in good' - i.e., may he become aMuslim in his lifetime (on the du'a formulae cf.Fekete, Einf, pp. xxxvii, xlix).

12 On the elkab formulae in general, see Fekete,Einf, pp. xxxiii, ff. (for Christian rulers, pp.xxxv-vi, xlviii-ix).

13 Arabic:' And peace be upon him who follows theright path' (i.e. Islam). Cf., for the 'Schluss-begrussungsformeln' in general, Fekete, Einf.,, p.liii.

14 Cf., for the use of these formulae in lettersreferring or addressed to Trumbull, TAMS 96nos. (a) 8a (a firman of Suleyman II, III.Muharrem 1099 to Mustafa, janissary aga (i.e.,*our' Cerrah Mustafa), and —, bostanct-ba^i,regarding the import of wine by the Englishembassy ('khutimat' formula only); (b) 3 (amektub of Siyavu§ Pa§a, Grand Vizier, Edirne,n.d.); (c) II (a mektub of Tekirdagli MustafaPa§a, Grand Vizier, Edirne, n.d.).

15 This common Ottoman usage in secular docu-ments seems not to have been observed inlegal-religious documents: cf. TAMS 96, 8b,the hiiccet ('legal attestation', 'legally authen-ticated act') issued on 5 Rebl* I, 1099, by ^eyhMehmed, cadi of the Istanbul port quarter ofTophane, in certification of the provisions ofTAMS 96, 8a ( = doc, (a) in n. 13 supra), whichrefers by name to the 'English ambassador'{Ingiliz [< Fr. 'anglais'?] Wfm; but cf., inOttoman secular documents, the almost uni-

versal usage of Ingiltere {< Ital. Inghilterra)elgisi), 'Sir WilliamTnimbuir (S[e]R VlL[yi/ye?]MTUR[u]MBAL).

16 And also, of course, by non-Muslim chancerieswhich imitated Ottoman usage in their owncommunications in Turkish to the Porte (cf., forEnglish usage TAMS 96, 6a (see n. 13, supra):elevatio in 1. i of sultamm, 'My Lord').

17 For the Far Eastern, specifically Chinese, originsof 'honorific elevation', see Joseph E. Fletcher,'China and Central Asia, 1368-1884*, in JohnK. Fairbank (ed.). The Chinese World Order:Traditional China's Foreign Relations (Cam-bridge, Mass., 1968), pp. 206-24, 337-68, at pp.212, 352-3 (a discussion of the diplomaticsubtleties inherent in the Chinese practice, in thecontext of the surviving Persian version of aletter sent in 1418 from the Ming Emperor ChuTi to the Timurid ruler Shah Rukh). Theadoption and practice of elevatio in the Ottomancontext has been exhaustively examined byProfessor Menage in his important study 'Onthe Constituent Elements of Certain Sixteenth-Century Ottoman Documents', Bulletin of theSchool of Oriental and African Studies, xlviii/2

(1985). PP- 283-304.18 Cf., for parallel contemporary usage, the titu-

lature and signatures employed in letters frompashas of Belgrade to Trumbull's successor. SirWilliam Hussey, and to his successor Lord Paget(London, SOAS, Paget Papers, unpublishedTurkish Documents). I am currently working ona study and text-edition of these documents.

19 Cf. Fekete, Einfuhrung, pp. iff.20 Fekete, loc. cit.21 Mehmed Sureyya, Sicill-i 'OsmanT, 4 vols.

(Istanbul, 1308/1890-1315/1897; rpt. Fam-borough, 1971), vol. iv, p. 409.

22 Trumbull had arrived in Istanbul in August1687 (Heywood, 'English Diplomacy', p. 71; cfthe firmans regulating his arrival and thedeparture of his predecessor Chandos: (a) afirman dated III. Ramadan 1098 [ = 21-30 July1687], issued in response to a petition {'arzuhaf)sent by Trumbull to the Porte on his arrival atIzmir, and addressed to the vezTr Mustafa Pasha,commandant {muhafiz) of Bogaz Hisan andthe cadis and castellans {dizdars) of Kilidiilbahrand Sultaniyye, ordering them on receipt of thefirman to permit the ship bringing the newEnglish ambassador to the Porte to pass theDardanelles, and to see that the envoy be

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furnished with provisions at the authorized rateand sent speedily and swiftly formard to thePorte ('Turkish Letter-Book', P.R.O., SP n o /88, f. I* [ = 254r]); and (b) a further firman,dated II. Zi'I-ka'da 1098 [ = 8-18 Sept. 1687],addressed to the cadis of Gelibolu (Gallipoli)'and at the Straits' castles and in the Aegean'{Bogaz Hisarlari ve Ak Denizde vaki' kadtlar),the dizdars of the Dardanelles fortresses, andsubordinate functionaries, ordering them topermit the ship taking Chandos (' KonteSandu9'), * latterly recalled by his King from hispost as English ambassador at the Porte andgTanted permission by the Sultan to depart'(ibid., f. 2* [=253r]).

23 Trumbull to Suleyman Pasha, 29 Aug. 1687(P.R.O., SP 110/88, 'Turkish Letter-Book' (seebelow, n. 33), ff. 5*-6* [ = 25or, 249r]: theletters from the King to the Sultan and toSuleyman Pasha (copy of the latter, ibid., ff.3*~4* [ = 252r, 25ir]) have been handed to thelatter's kaymakam for transmission (cf. alsoTrumbull to the re'is efendi, [n.d. but? 29 Aug.1687 (ibid., ff. 7*-8*)], communicating therather stale news of the death of Charles II andthe accession of James, and also announcing hisown selection by the latter as English ambassadorat the Porte).

Memories of the fiscal exactions and indig-nities suffered by the English community up tomore than a decade earlier under Kara MustafaPasha (Grand Vizier 1676-83) were still fresh inLondon: James IPs letter to Suleyman Pashareferred pointedly to his hopes that Trumbullmight receive honourable treatment and that theKing's merchants and subjects in the Ottomandominions {memalik-i mahrusede olan tiiccar vere'ayalarimtz) might trade freely and in security,'unlike the situation which obtained in the grandvizierate of Kara Mustafa Pasha'.

24 The military and political crisis in the OttomanEmpire in the latter part of 1687 needs asatisfactory study. For a conspectus of the events,based largely on Ottoman chronicle sources, seeJ. von Hammer, Geschichte des OsmanischenReiches, 10 vols. (Pest, 1827-35 i ^P^- Graz,1961), vol. vi, pp. 49off.

25 Mehmed Ra§id, Tar'ih'^, 5 vols. (Istanbul,1282/1865), vol. ii, p. 16.

26 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 20.

27 Fmdiklih Mehmed aga, known as Silihdar,TarJh, 2 vols. (Istanbul, 1928), vol. ii, p. 306.

28 Ra§id, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 24-5.29 Trumbull, 'Diary', BL, Add. MS. 52279, f. 97b.30 I.e. Cerrah Mustafa's household treasurer

(Arabo-Pers. hazTnedar, vulg. Turk, 'haznadar',* Keeper of the Treasury').

31 Trumbull Letter Books, vol. i (TAMS 94/1), p.154: 'Consul Goodwyn by the Hasnardar toPacha of Tunis p[er] Cap[tain] Letherland'.Captain John Letherland (or Leatherland) wasan experienced ship's master in the Levant tradeduring this period. Circa 1694 he was master ofthe 'Eagle' {Calendar of Treasury Books, vol. x,p. 411); the following year he is recorded ascommander of the 'Richard', one of the shipsreturning in the Turkey fleet convoy in Septem-ber 1695 (ibid., p. 1216).

32 Trumbull was already acquainted with Good-wyn. He had conducted negotiations at Tunis enroute for the Porte (he was there between 20 and25 June 1687, H.M.C., Downshire MSS., vol. i,p. 251) and also at Malta (27-29 June, ibid.).Goodwyn (Goodwin) was a partner in theMarseilles-based firm of Goodwin and Martin(cf. his letters to Trumbull, op. cit., pp. 251, 253,

255-7)-33 TrumbuU's Turkish Letter-Book, covering the

entire period, almost four years, of his embassyat the Porte (P.R.O., SP 110/88: ' Registro delleLettere Turchesche scritte da Sua Eccellenza ilCavagliero Gughelmo Trumbull Ambasciatoredella Sua Maesta della Gran Bretagna &c alSupremo Vesir et altri della Porta Ottomana, edei Commandi Imperiali nel tempo della suaAmbasciata cominciando dal Giorno 17 Agosto1687 sin al Giorno 29 di Giugno 1691') containsregister copies (made in the cancellaria of theEnglish embassy), in Ottoman Turkish togetherwith the corresponding Italian translations/originals, of 151 documents, including themajority of the Turkish documents (and of thesurviving Italian translations of the lost Turkishoriginals) which are preserved in TAMS 96. Anedition of the Turkish texts in SP 110/88 iscurrently in progress; the relationship betweenthe original documents and the register copieswill be explored in a forthcoming publication(see above n. 6).

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