Ottoman Archives

The Ottoman Archives are a collection of historical sources related to the Ottoman Empire and a total of 39 nations whose territories one time or the other were part of this Empire, including 19 nations in the Middle East, 11 in the EU and Balkans, three in the Caucasus, two in Central Asia, Cyprus, as well as Palestine and the Republic of Turkey.

The main collection, in the Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri (The Prime Minister's Ottoman Archives) in Istanbul, holds the central State Archives (Devlet arşivleri).

After more than a century in the center of the old city, the Ottoman state archives were relocated in 2013 to the Kağıthane district of Istanbul.

The present collection contains a few documents from the earliest period up to the reign of Sultan Süleyman in the sixteenth century. The organization of these records as a modern archive began in 1847 with the establishment of Hazine-i Evrak. The original building was located on the grounds of the grand vezir’s offices in Gülhane and contained several main groups of documents: the records of the Imperial Council (Divan-i Hümayun) and the records of the grand vezir’s office (Bab-i Ali), as well as the records of the financial departments (Maliye) and cadastral surveys (tapu tahrir defteri). Mustafa Reşid Paşa ordered the building a new record office in 1846. It was completed by architect Gaspare T. Fossati in 1848. The office of "Surveillance of Treasury of Documents" was formed and Muhsin Efendi was appointed as its manager.

With the establishment of the Republic, the Hazine-i Evrak was transformed into Başvekalet Arşiv Umum Müdürlüğü (The General Directorate of the Prime Ministry) and eventually the Başbakanlık Arşiv Genel Müdürlüğü. During this period, the records of various nineteenth-century Ottoman offices and administrative authorities were added to the collections.

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