Westerners Gone Wild: Major and Minor Offences By Foreigners in the Ottoman Empire

Chris Gratien, Georgetown University

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Part of hospitality is accepting the faults of one's guest, and so foreigners often have a little more leeway in their host countries. In the Ottoman Empire, this leeway even took the form of special legal exemptions that came with "extraterritoriality," which made Europeans subject to their own laws in certain legal realms, giving them an advantage in some sphere such as commerce and taxation.

Nonetheless, Westerners still got into their fair share of trouble when visiting the Ottoman capital. In this post, I will examine five cases with five different offences by foreign men in the Ottoman Empire, each one graver than the one before. Hopefully it will be useful for those interested in studying crime and the particular types of offenses in question.

This is not to say that foreigners were criminals in the Ottoman Empire as there are equally many documents regarding crimes and violations committed against foreigners. 

5. Partying

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Some things never change. Here we have a group of Europeans (frenkler) who cruised past the Topkapı Palace on a party boat and awakened the inhabitants with their loud partying and singing of songs (türkü). The palace issue a warning that such "impolite (bi edebane)" acts would not be tolerated in the future. A small slap on the wrist for waking the imperial neighbors.

Source: BOA, HAT 206/10830

4. Hitting On Girls

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For this document, a little context is necessary. A group calling themselves "Saint-Simonians" was picked up by Istanbul police after they were found lecturing and calling to women on the streets of Beyoğlu. The Ottoman authorities really did not know what to make of this group, but we know from the French sources that they had come to spread their message of modernity and find an "Oriental" bride for their leader Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin (1796-1864), the Western man of reason through whom a perfect marriage of Western science and Eastern spirit would be consummated. Enfantin was a disciple of Saint-Simon, a French aristocrat and early socialist, and he and his followers had been ostracized and ridiculed in Paris for their messianic view of modernity.

This translated letter from the French ambassador asked the Ottoman authorities to forget this "misunderstanding" and release the Saint-Simonians, who will in turn leave the Ottoman capital for Adana--then under Egyptian control--and continue on to Egypt, where they would be reunited with their leader.

In Egypt, their story would take a new turn, as several Saint-Simonians played a large role in Mehmed Ali's proto-technocratic development projects. In fact, Enfantin had long dreamed of helping realize the project that would later become the Suez Canal in 1869, a few years after his death. Saint-Simonians also held many prominent positions in the French administration of Algeria. However, for the Ottomans, they were merely a public nuisance, oddly dressed foreigners ranting incomprehensibly and annoying the decent ladies of Constantinople.

BOA, HAT 366/20242-A

3. Sodomy

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The Ottomans are not known for a historically strict stance on same-sex relations. In fact, unlike most European states, the Ottoman Empire was fairly lax on the issue and only became somewhat concerned during the Victorian Era when the Empire's honor was at stake before the prude gaze of a more dominant Europe.

This document explains the case of a man charged with performing sodomy (livat) along with a few other individuals in a small Anatolian village near Yenişehir. The facts are actually not very clear. The investigator indicates that according to the man, a nineteen year-old French-Algerian named Joseph, he had been coerced into the "abhorrent act (fiil-i şeni)" that involved at least three different Ottoman officials and took place in the home of one of the aforementioned officials. However, the information regarding the alleged rape/sodomy came only from Joseph, and all that could be known for certain is that he had been brought to the house while the accused men were "carousing (işret ettikleri isnada)."

Thus, although the investigator could not determine all the facts, he was certain that Joseph was from an "immoral bunch (ahlaksız takım)," and given the negative attention caused by the incident and rumors regarding these officials, the best thing to do was to send him to another kaza.

BOA, DH-EUM-5-Şb 52/6 (18 Ra 1336).

2. Abortion

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Another issue that only became relevant for the Ottoman state during the nineteenth century was fertility. The Ottomans, like their European neighbors in Russia and elsewhere, viewed citizens as soldiers to feed the conscript imperial armies that clashed throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Higher birth rates meant more troops, and the Ottoman army was constantly in need of fresh blood. Thus, fertility was encouraged and birth control, mainly abortion, which seems to have been practiced fairly regularly if privately in the region, was completely contrary to state interests and morals.

This document refers to a German man who was removed from his residence in Beyoğlu and deported after it was found that he was performing abortions (iskat-ı cenine). There is no indication of how medical or legit these abortions were, but such characters were common during that era in countries such as the United States, and continue to play their part in countries where abortion is currently banned (incidentally, a distant-enough relative of mine was arrested on similar charges in Syracuse during the 1930s and 40s). 

1. Raping a Child 

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While Westerners were accused of perpetrating many nefarious deeds within the well-protected domains of the Ottoman Empire, including murder, this is easily the most disturbing case I could find. The American consul in Mersin was accused, along with the Belgian, Norwegian, and Swedish consuls, of attacking a man and raping a ten year old girl (literally, taking her virginity: bikrini izale etmek). 

The case touched on the topic I referred to at the beginning of this post--that is--the legal exceptions made for Westerners in the Ottoman Empire. In this case, because the accused were diplomats, the issue of diplomatic immunity came to the fore. However, despite the wishes of the accused, it was decided that they would be tried according to Ottoman law due to the nature of the crime in accordance with international laws. 

I couldn't find a document stating the ruling in this case, but if they received a sentence like those who had committed similar crimes, the American Consul would have gotten up to a few years of hard labor, but in all likelihood, they were deported.

diplomacy

assault