Original scientific paper
Relations Between Dubrovnik and Governorship of Tripoli in the 18th Century. Part one.
Vesna Miović-Perić
orcid.org/0000-0002-1383-4317
; Institute for Historical Sciences of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Dubrovnik, Croatia
Abstract
During the 18th century the Osmanli conquered almost all of North Africa, except Morocco. Three North African Osmanli governorships in the West (Ponens) - Tunisia, Algeria and Tripoli - defied the sultan and sought autonomy. In that century they began to independently sign peace-treaties with European countries, which took the obligation to pay the tributes and to endlessly give presents to the North-African rulers. Ahmed Karamanli, who in 1711 installed his family to power in Tripoli, made an attempt in the 1740’s to force the Ragusan (Dubrovnik) Republic to sign a peace-contract with Tripoli. Within a short period of time, three Ragusan merchant ships were attacked by the Tripolitan pirate ships, on the pretext of not having a document (»ferman«) ensuring free navigation; the Tripolitan pasha stated that he was not willing to release the two repossessed ships, since he considered Dubrovnik, that had not signed the peace-contract with Tripoli, an enemy of his. From one of the two repossessed ships two Austrian subjects were kidnaped which was very bad for the reputation of the Ragusan fleet. Dubrovnik interventions with the Sublime Porte were not of much help and it was clear that the central Osmanli government had no great influence over the Tripolitan pasha decisions. Also, the Tripolitan pasha requested that the Ragusan seamen should obligatorily hold the passports issued by the same Governorship of Tripoli and he issued an order (»ferman«) on this matter. After Ahmed-pasha’s death, when Mehmed Karamanli came to power, the kidnaped passengers were released and the order (»ferman«) on passports was withdrawn. Although things seemed to have settled down, it became clear to the Dubrovnik authorities that they had to protect their seamen and that they could not rely only on the Sublime Porte in that. In order to avoid more obligations and further expenses, as well as to evade the signing of a peace-contract as a prerequisite for the opening of a consulate, the Dubrovnik authorities decided that an administrator of the Dubrovnik consulate (»amministratore del consolato«) be installed in Tripoli, with which function were entrusted the consuls of the Netherlands. Also, according to the Ragusan Regulations on National Navigation of 1745, all Ragusan seamen, navigating outside the Adriatic, had to have the sultan’s permission (»ferman«) which explicitly prohibited for the North African pirates to attack Ragusan ships.
Keywords
Dubrovnik; Dubrovnik Republic; Tripoli; Governorship of Tripoli; 18. century
Hrčak ID:
239970
URI
Publication date:
20.6.1993.
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