In 1862, Ömer Bey, the district governor (kaymmakam) of Cebel-i Kozan,
was feeling generous toward the governor (mutasarrif) of Ankara. Or perhaps Ömer
was attempting to curry favor by capitalizing on the governor's affinity
for riding horses while clad in feline furs since, as the document
states, Ömer Bey sent two live horses, two lynx pelts, and one tiger fur to
Ankara.
The main issue brought up in the document concerns whether it would be
proper to accept such gifts. The ultimate conclusion of the council of
governors, based on "just laws (ahkam-i adliyye)", was that taking the presents personally was inappropriate.
If individual acceptance of Ömer Bey's offering was impermissible, however, receipt of the creatures and former creatures by the state was deemed suitable. Accordingly, the horses were to be given to the military and the furs were to be
sold, with the profits taken by the treasury.
We might take this document as a sign of when tigers prowled the
Anatolian peninsula. After all, Ömer Bey's region, greater Adana, was populated primarily by nomads whose transhumant pastoralism likely placed lesser stress on the local environment than subsequent sedentary agricultural settlements (although we do have the latter to thank for the famous Adana karpuz). But it would probably be more safe to regard this
piece as evidence of what animal based commodities were accessible at
the time in central Anatolia.
Beyond these issues, the document also captures a general conflict between local power brokers like Ömer Bey and a centralizing state infrastructure. Ömer Bey had run afoul of Ottoman authorities when he did not provide troops for the Crimean War. The gift, then, may have been an attempt to secure a clean slate. The susbsequent debate over the acceptance of the gift, meanwhile, underscores state attempts to establish norms of propriety between
different levels of governance, a central concern of reformers in the
Tanzimat era.
Source: BOA A.}MKT/UM 559-73 (23 L 1278)
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