CONSTANTINOPLE, OTTOMAN TURKEY, DATED RABI'I AH 1103/ NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1691 AD

The text of this firman relates to the endowment of silk revenues to the caravanserai of Hoca Sa’d al-Din Efendi in Istanbul. Located at the terminus of the ‘silk road’, ports like Bursa on the west coast of Anatolia grew rich off duties charged on European merchants – particularly those from England and Italy - who came there to trade in Persian silks (M. Çizakça, A Short History of the Bursa Silk Industry, Leyden, 1980, p. 149). So important was this particular endowment that it commanded the attention of Sultan Ahmed II (r. 1691-5) himself, whose personal signature appears in the top-left hand corner contained within an illuminated headpiece. A further firman from the brief reign of Ahmed II can be seen in the state archives of the Republic of Turkey (various authors, Osmanli Fermanlari, Ankara, 2003, p. 31).