Primary Sources

Primary sources are the contemporary records created during the existence of the Ottoman Empire (c. 1299–1922). As they were produced by those directly involved in historical events, they provide valuable first-hand evidence of the socio-political, religious, cultural and economic realities in the empire. These sources preserve the practices and voices of Ottomans, making them an indispensable resource for the reconstruction and interpretation of the Ottoman past.

Ottoman primary sources exist in myriad forms, including Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Greek, Armenian, and the languages of European contemporaries. They include fermans (imperial decrees),  şerʿiyye sicilleri (court registers), tahrir defterleri (tax surveys), diplomatic correspondences, travel narratives, personal letters and writings,  vakıf (endowment) deeds, inscriptions, maps, coins, manuscripts, miniature paintings, and material culture like clothing and textiles.

 

Some examples of primary sources consulted by Ottoman historians:

  • Chronicles
  • Court records (Şer'iyye sicilleri)
  • Imperial council records (Mühimme defterleri)
  • Tax registers (Tahrir defterleri)
  • Legal texts (Kanunnâme, fetvas)
  • Imperial decrees (Ferman, berat, hatt-ı hümâyun)
  • Petitions (Arzuhal, arz)
  • Waqf records (Vakfiye)
  • Diplomatic records 
  • Travel accounts (seyahatname)
  • Memoirs 
  • Newspapers
  • Literature (Poetry, novels, biographies)
  • Religious texts (Fatwas, sermons, Sufi writings)
  • Visual sources (Miniatures, paintings, maps)
  • Material sources (Coins, inscriptions, architecture, textiles)
  • Commercial records (Guild petitions, market records, contracts)
  • Personal sources (Letters, diaries, household inventories)

14th Century

The surviving sources for the earliest Ottoman period are comparatively limited, and many were written down later. This makes contemporary Byzantine, Balkan and Islamic sources particularly important.

 

 

Written Ottoman Sources:

  • Menakibname, Ahmed Eflâkî— Hagiography about the life of famous Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalal al-Din Rumi. Although it is not an Ottoman primary source, it is nevertheless an invaluable resource for the study of late 13th and early 14th century Anatolian life.
  • Ahmedî, Dâstân ve Tevârîh-i Mülûk-i Âl-i Osmân — one of the earliest Ottoman dynastic histories; particularly important for the reign of Bayezid I.

 

Foreign chronicles/travellogues

  • Georgios Pachymeres, History — important for the Byzantine–Turkish frontier.
  • Nikephoros Gregoras, Roman History — Byzantine perspective on Ottoman expansion.
  • Laonikos Chalkokondyles — later than the century but preserves information about early Ottoman expansion.
  • Serbian and Balkan chronicles — useful for Ottoman expansion into southeastern Europe.
  • Ibn Battuta's Travels— 

Diplomatic and administrative sources

  • Early Ottoman charters and foundation deeds (vakfiyes)
  • Timar grants and land-related documents
  • Early inscriptions
  • Early waqf records

Material/visual sources

  • Early Ottoman architectural monuments
  • Tombstones and inscriptions
  • Coins (sikkeler)
  • Manuscripts and calligraphy

 

15th Century

The surviving source base expands dramatically during the 15th century.

Ottoman chronicles

  • Aşıkpaşazâde, Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân — one of the most important Ottoman narrative sources for the 14th and 15th centuries.

  • Şükrullah, Behcetü't-Tevârîh — important early Ottoman universal history.

  • Enverî, Düstûrnâme — particularly useful for the reign of Mehmed II and Ottoman expansion.

  • Oruç Bey, Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân — important chronicle of the early Ottoman dynasty.

  • Neşrî, Cihânnümâ — major late-15th-century Ottoman chronicle.

  • İdris-i Bitlisî, Heşt Bihişt — commissioned under Bayezid II; important for the dynasty and imperial ideology.

Court and administrative sources

  • Imperial decrees (fermans)

  • Imperial registers (defterler)

  • Timar registers

  • Tax registers (tahrir defterleri)

  • Waqf deeds (vakfiyeler)

  • Court registers (şer'iyye sicilleri)

  • Diplomatic correspondence

  • Treaties and capitulations

  • Mehmed II's Kanunnâme — legal and administrative regulations associated with Mehmed II.
  • Topkapı Palace architectural and administrative records

European accounts

  • Critoboulos of Imbros, History of Mehmed the Conqueror — extremely important contemporary account.

  • Doukas, Historia Turco-Byzantina — Byzantine perspective on the Ottoman conquest.

  • George Sphrantzes, Chronicle — eyewitness perspective on the fall of Constantinople.

  • Bertrandon de la Broquière — observations concerning the Ottoman world.

  • Pero Tafur — travel observations concerning Constantinople and Anatolia.

16th Century

Ottoman chronicles

  • Kemalpaşazâde, Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân

  • Celalzâde Mustafa Çelebi, Tabakâtü'l-Memâlik ve Derecâtü'l-Mesâlik

  • Matrahçı Nasuh

  • Âşık Çelebi, Meşâ'irü'ş-Şuarâ

  • Gelibolulu Mustafa Âlî, Künhü'l-Ahbâr

  • Selânikî Mustafa Efendi, Tarih-i Selânikî

  • Hoca Sadeddin Efendi, Tâcü't-Tevârîh

  • Lütfi Paşa, Tevârîh-i Âl-i Osmân

  • Peçevî İbrahim Efendi, Peçevî Tarihi — although completed in the 17th century, it preserves substantial 16th-century material.

Sultanic manuscripts

  • Şehnâme-i Selim Han

  • Süleymannâme — major illustrated history of Süleyman I.

  • Şehnâme-i Murad III

  • surname manuscripts

Administrative sources

  • Tahrir 

  • Mühimme 

  • Timar registers

  • Cizye registers

  • Waqf registers

  • Court registers

  • Imperial council records

  • Palace/ Treasury registers

  • Janissary registers

Law

  • Kanunnâmes

  • Şeyhülislâm Ebussuud Efendi's fatwas (Suleymanic era Şeyh-ül-Islam) 

  • Imperial decrees

  • Court decisions

  • Imperial Letters 
      - Safiye Sultan (valide) letters to Queen Elizabeth I of England

Literature and society

  • Bâkî's poetry

  • Fuzûlî's works

  • Mihri Hatun's Divan

  • Taşlıcalı Yahya

  • Âşık Çelebi

  • Sultanic Poetry 
    -Suleyman I's poetry (under the penname Muhibbi)

Foreign observers

  • Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Turkish Letters

  • Hans Dernschwam's travel account

  • Nicolas de Nicolay, Les quatre premiers livres des navigations et peregrinations orientales

  • Stephan Gerlach, Turkish Letters

  • Venetian ambassadors' relazioni

  • Habsburg/Safavid/French/British correspondance

17th Century

Ottoman chronicles

  • Peçevî İbrahim Efendi, Peçevî Tarihi

  • Kâtib Çelebi, Fezleke

  • Kâtib Çelebi, Keşfü'z-Zünûn

  • Naîmâ Mustafa Efendi, Tarih-i Naîmâ

  • Karaçelebizâde Abdülaziz Efendi, Ravzatü'l-Ebrâr

  • Solakzâde Mehmed Hemdemî, Solakzâde Tarihi

  • Abdurrahman Abdi Paşa, Vekâyi'-nâme

  • Hezârfen Hüseyin Efendi, Telhîsü'l-Beyân

  • Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatnâme

Evliya Çelebi

One of the most important primary sources for the century.

His Seyahatnâme contains information about:

  • cities

  • architecture

  • food

  • clothing

  • women and men

  • religious life

  • occupations

  • markets

  • crafts

  • festivals

  • military life

  • ethnic and linguistic communities

  • provincial society

  • folklore

Administrative sources

  • Mühimme defterleri

  • Şer'iyye sicilleri

  • Tahrir defterleri

  • Avârız registers

  • Cizye registers

  • Waqf records

  • Palace registers

  • Janissary registers

  • Imperial council records

  • Financial registers

  • Price and market records

Religious sources

  • Fatwa collections

  • Kadızadeli writings

  • Sufi texts

  • Sufi lodge records

  • Religious court records

  • Sermons and treatises

Women's history

Especially useful sources include:

  • Court registers

  • Waqf deeds established by women

  • Petitions

  • Inheritance records

  • Marriage contracts

  • Divorce cases

  • Property disputes

  • Women’s correspondence

  • Imperial harem records

  • European women's travel accounts

European sources

  • Paul Rycaut, The Present State of the Ottoman Empire

  • Jean-Baptiste Tavernier

  • Jean Thévenot

  • Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman internal perspective, useful for comparison with European accounts.

18th Century

The 18th century provides particularly rich evidence for urban society, consumption, diplomacy, women, architecture and political change.

Chronicles

  • Râşid Mehmed Efendi, Tarih-i Râşid

  • Şem'dânîzâde Fındıklılı Süleyman Efendi, Mür'i't-Tevârîh

  • Silahdar Fındıklılı Mehmed Ağa, Nusretnâme

  • Silahdar Fındıklılı Mehmed Ağa, Zeyl-i Fezleke

  • Çelebizâde Âsım Efendi, Tarih

  • Subhî Mehmed Efendi, Tarih-i Subhî

  • Ahmed Resmî Efendi, Hulâsatü'l-İ'tibâr

  • Ahmed Resmî Efendi's diplomatic writings

The Tulip Era

Primary sources for the reign of Ahmed III and the Tulip Era include:

  • Surname-i Vehbî

  • Surname-i Hümâyûn manuscripts

  • Imperial correspondence

  • Mühimme defterleri

  • Court registers

  • Imperial decrees

  • Ibrahim Müteferrika's printed works

  • Contemporary poetry

  • Architectural inscriptions

  • Waqf documents

Women's history

Extremely useful:

  • Şer'iyye sicilleri

  • Women’s waqf deeds

  • Inheritance records

  • Property transactions

  • Petitions to the Imperial Council

  • Court cases

  • Household inventories

  • Marriage contracts

  • Divorce records

These can provide evidence for women's property ownership, commercial activity, clothing, household possessions, marriage, divorce and interactions with the state.

Foreign travel accounts

  • Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Turkish Embassy Letters

  • Jean-Claude Flachat

  • Richard Pococke

  • Charles de Peyssonnel

  • Venetian diplomatic reports

  • French diplomatic corresponden

 

19th Century

The 19th century has an enormous documentary record because of bureaucratic expansion and modernisation.

Political and administrative sources

  • Imperial decrees (fermans)

  • Mühimme defterleri

  • Meclis-i Vâlâ records

  • Meclis-i Âlî-i Tanzimat records

  • Meclis-i Mebusan records

  • Şûrâ-yı Devlet records

  • Babıâli correspondence

  • Ministry records

  • Provincial government records

  • Census registers

  • Population registers

  • Tax registers

  • Land registers

Major reform documents

  • Senedi İttifak (1808)

  • Gülhane Hatt-ı Şerifi / Tanzimat Edict (1839)

  • Islahat Fermanı (1856)

  • Kanûn-ı Esâsî (1876)

  • Second Constitutional Period documents (from 1908)

Ottoman newspapers

Important primary sources include:

  • Takvim-i Vekayi

  • Ceride-i Havadis

  • Tercüman-ı Ahvâl

  • Tasvir-i Efkâr

  • İbret

  • Basiret

  • Servet-i Fünûn

Memoirs and autobiographical sources

  • Ahmed Cevdet Paşa, Tezâkir

  • Ahmed Cevdet Paşa, Marûzât

  • Midhat Paşa's memoirs and correspondence

  • Osman Nuri Ergin's later compilations of municipal records

  • Memoirs of Ottoman bureaucrats, diplomats and military officers

Women's sources

  • Women’s petitions

  • Court records

  • Waqf deeds

  • Private correspondence

  • Household records

  • School records

  • Women's magazines

  • Şükûfezâr

  • Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete

  • Terakki-i Muhadderat

These are particularly valuable for studying women's education, employment, family life, consumption, dress and changing ideas about gender.

Travel accounts

  • Moltke, Letters from Turkey

  • Julia Pardoe, The City of the Sultan

  • Elizabeth Craven, A Journey Through the Crimea to Constantinople

  • Charles MacFarlane

  • Pierre Loti

  • Edmondo de Amicis, Constantinople

20th Century

Political sources

  • Young Turk newspapers

  • Committee of Union and Progress documents

  • Parliamentary records

  • Cabinet records

  • Sultan's decrees

  • Ministry records

  • Military records

  • Diplomatic correspondence

Newspapers

  • Tanin

  • İkdam

  • Sabah

  • İkdam

  • Volkan

  • Şehbal

  • Kadınlar Dünyası

Memoirs

  • Cemal Paşa's memoirs

  • Talât Paşa-related memoirs and correspondence

  • Enver Paşa's correspondence

  • Halide Edib Adıvar's memoirs

  • Ottoman officers' memoirs

  • Civilian memoirs

World War I

Primary sources include:

  • Ottoman military orders

  • War diaries

  • Soldiers' letters

  • Military memoirs

  • Ottoman parliamentary debates

  • Government correspondence

  • Propaganda publications

  • Newspapers

  • Diplomatic reports

  • Allied intelligence reports

  • German diplomatic and military records