Legal Situation of the Iranians in the Ottoman Empire within the Context of Nasir al-Din Shah’s Istanbul Visit (1873)

The legal situation of the Iranians residing within the Ottoman Empire and their social and economic demands were very effective in shaping the nineteenth century Ottoman- Qajar relationship. While Nasir al-Din Shah was in London in 1873, the Ottoman ambassador to London sent a telegram to the Ottoman state mentioning that the shah threatened the Ottoman state not to come to Istanbul if the problems regarding the legal situation of the Iranians within the Ottoman realm would not be solved. However, the shah went to Istanbul, and the two states discussed this issue in the Ottoman capital. Drawing from that, this paper will examine the legal situation of the Iranians residing within the Ottoman Empire within the context of Nasir al-Din Shah’s Istanbul visit, which was part of his first European tour (1873). In the first part, this paper will discuss such questions: Were the Iranians perceived as ‘indigenous people’ or ‘foreigners’? What were the problems between Ottoman and Qajar states regarding this issue? Then, in the second part, after narrating the shah’s days in Istanbul, this paper will focus on how the legal situation of the Iranians living within the Ottoman Empire shaped the political environment in which the shah’s visit took place. It also aims to contextualize the visit within the nineteenth century Ottoman-Qajar relations.