Professionalizing the diplomatic service: financial entitlements in the late Ottoman Empire

Abstract

From the eighteenth century onward, the Ottoman Empire’s increasingly intensive diplomatic relations with the West necessitated the restructuring of the bureaucratic apparatus responsible for foreign affairs. During this period, the Reisülküttaplık – the classical institution in charge of external correspondence – transformed into a central office that managed diplomatic correspondence as well as coordinated negotiations conducted through translators.1 Due to the growing workload and the need to conduct diplomacy within a more institutionalized framework, this office was transformed into the Ottoman Foreign Ministry in 1836.2 This transformation is regarded as a significant milestone in the modernization of the Ottoman bureaucracy, aiming to conduct foreign relations in a more professional, hierarchical and rational structure.