Sicilian Redemption: Ottoman Letters of Ransom of Sicilian Captives from the State Archives of Palermo (XVI – XVIII centuries)

Abstract

The Ottoman documents preserved in the State Archives of Palermo have remained unread for decades, if not centuries. Sources that pertain to Ottoman history and the relationship between Spanish Italy and the Ottoman Empire, like the ones examined in this research, have long remained thought as ‘foreign’ and, thus, unknown. However, through a patient work of palaeographical research and translation, these documents have been decoded and analysed, revealing their content as well as their implications. These sources are letters of ransom, or 'tezkere', which testify the freeing of Sicilian slaves who were captured by corsairs coming from the Barbary Regencies of Algiers and Tripolitania. The letters date between the 16th and the 18th century and were gathered by the Arciconfraternita della Redenzione dei Cattivi, a pious foundation established in 1589 in Palermo, when the city was under Spanish rule to manage the redemption of Sicilian captives in the Barbery states, whose files are now collected in the State Archives of Palermo. Among other Spanish, French and Italian documents, the analysis of these letters provides a broader understanding of the phenomenon of privateering in the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, these Ottoman sources contain important direct and indirect information on matters such as slave pricing and trading, diplomacy and administration of the Ottoman Barbary Regencies and the relationships between Ottoman and Spanish religious and non-religious institutions in the process of ransom in the Modern Era of Mare Nostrum. Finally, this research contributes to the breaking of the paradigm of a Christian, Western world against a Muslim, Ottoman world and shed light on what was a centuries-long dialogue among Mediterranean Powers.