Imperial Creditors, ‘Doubtful’ Nationalities and Financial Obligations in Late Ottoman Syria: Rethinking Ottoman Subjecthood and Consular Protection

This article examines the ways in which Ottoman subjecthood and foreign protection were practiced and perceived by imperial financiers and officials following the nationality legislation of the 1860 s and the imperial bankruptcy in 1875. It deals with the non-Muslim merchant families of Damascus who served the province as credit providers, many of whom were under European protection. By the mid-1880s, these families found themselves in the midst of intense debates over their financial claims on the provincial treasury and their legal status, waged between the Ottoman government and European consulates. Focusing on one case of a local Jewish family, the article uncovers the category of ‘doubtful’ nationality (tebâa-i meşkûke) and the ways provincial officials in Syria used it to treat local merchants as Ottoman by-default. I argue that alongside legal notions of origin and residence which were introduced by the 1869 Nationality Law, Ottoman subjecthood was still practiced as a set of alienable and differentiated rights and duties, defined by fiscal obligation and service. Discussing these Ottoman strategies alongside British concerns and anxieties regarding foreign protection and naturalisation, I show how these legal-social categories and practices were shaped through mutual contact, in the context of unequal inter-imperial relations.