After the Armistice: The Ottoman Response to Zidan Saadi’s Petition

Abstract

The author presents a document extracted from Munseat us selatin by Feridun Bey - a compendium of correspondence, edicts, and rulings of sultans of the Ottoman Empire. A letter sent by Sultan Ahmed I to Prince Zidan Saadi in the year 1617 (1026 Hijri) following the eruption of a conflict over the throne between al-Mansour Saadi’s sons, and Prince Zidan’s subsequent solicitation of Ottoman support, the document explains the reasons precluding a positive response from the Sultan to Zidan’s request. In tracing the echoes of this call in a variety of Mediterranean sources, the author suggests that the document confirms and continues policy pursued by the Ottoman Empire in the western Mediterranean since the 1580s, when Spain and the Ottoman Empire announced their withdrawal from conflict in the Mediterranean world.