This study sheds new light on the legal position of Westerners and their Ottoman proteges (ber?tl?s) by investigating the dynamic relations between Islamic judges and foreign consuls in the Ottoman Empire, providing detailed case studies and critical analyses of theory, perception, and practice.

Maurits H. van den Boogert, Ph.D. (Leiden, 2001) is the (co-)editor of four volumes on Ottoman-European relations, including The Ottoman Capitulations: Text and Context (Rome, 2003, with Kate Fleet) and Friends and Rivals in the East (Brill, 2000, with Alastair Hamilton and Alexander de Groot). In 2010 he published Aleppo Observed: Ottoman Syria Through the Eyes of Two Scottish Doctors, Alexander and Patrick Russell (Oxford University Press). He is now the Publishing Director for Middle East, Islam, and African Studies at Brill.