The Ottoman Archives of the Directorate of State Archives (BOA) in Istanbul, which inherited the archives of the Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman Empire, collected a considerable quantity of original copies of imperial decrees. However, because most addressees of the imperial decrees were provincial administrative officials, the received decrees should have remained with these officials and not have been stored in the Sublime Porte. This study focuses on the notes written on the back of the paper of the imperial decrees to consider why these documents addressed to administrative officials in the provinces were transmitted to the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul. Many of these imperial decrees can be found to have words ordering that they be “rewritten” (tebdīl), “revised” (taṣḥīḥ), or “preserved” (ḥıfẓ) in the bag for “canceled” (baṭṭāl) documents. In other words, the most of imperial decrees transmitted to the Ottoman Archives can be concluded to have required some revision without being sent to the addressees and to have been rendered invalid but preserved at the Sublime Porte.
Yoichi TAKAMATSU (Mon,) studied this question.