Translation and Study of Four Letters in the Ottoman Language on the French Siege of the Algerian Coast in 1827

​The siege by French forces of Algiers is one of the important stages in the history of Algeria and the entire region. Its complexities and repercussions, by virtue of geography and history, transcended Algeria and France to spill over into many other parties, perhaps the most important of which was the Ottoman Empire, due to several considerations, including Algeria’s subordination to the Ottoman Empire. This dependency led to questions about the extent of the interaction of the Ottoman Empire with the issue of the French blockade of the Algerian coasts, and this question trapped each party into attempting to justify its position. By translating four letters within the Ottoman archive, from Ottoman Turkish into Arabic, this study seeks out Ottoman reactions away from ready-made peremptory judgements.

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​The siege by French forces of Algiers is one of the important stages in the history of Algeria and the entire region. Its complexities and repercussions, by virtue of geography and history, transcended Algeria and France to spill over into many other parties, perhaps the most important of which was the Ottoman Empire, due to several considerations, including Algeria’s subordination to the Ottoman Empire. This dependency led to questions about the extent of the interaction of the Ottoman Empire with the issue of the French blockade of the Algerian coasts, and this question trapped each party into attempting to justify its position. By translating four letters within the Ottoman archive, from Ottoman Turkish into Arabic, this study seeks out Ottoman reactions away from ready-made peremptory judgements.

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