Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

elations with the United States could be found and there is a wide inclination
among historians to believe that they are non-existent; and even if available,
they are inaccessible because of the language handicap of the researcher. 7 In
general, the major difficulty the researchers encounter today is the absence of
archives on the Algerian side; but it seems that the Turkish rulers of Algiers
were not keen on developing or preserving archives as a contemporary of the
Deys observed. 8 All that reached researchers today cover mainly the religious
and individual domains such as waqf, marriage, and inheritance. 9 Therefore, the
primary sources of this work are entirely based on American archives. One
Turkish document, however, survived from that period and it has been adopted
here to serve the purpose of comparison. 10
American government publications relating to foreign relations of the
United States which cover the investigated period, 1776-1816 are numerous;
the first series were published in 1819, the last in 2000. These series contain a
considerable number of documents pertaining to Algiers. Documents from the
Continental Congress and Confederation period, 1776-1789 appear in Secret
7 This research has revealed the existence of three documents only which appear in translated form: a
letter from Wakil Khardj Sidi Hassan, minister of the marine, to Congress (1787); later, as Dey, he sent
another one to George Washington (1795); and finally Dey Omar Agha sent another letter to James
Madison in 1815 which circulates today in American historical writings as an example of ‘diplomatic
curiosity.’
8 In 1792, James L. Cathcart, American captive and Christian secretary to the Dey recorded in his
captivity account that the archives amounted to almost null. James L. Cathcart, The Captives: Eleven
Years a Prisoner in Algiers, compiled by his Daughter, J. B. Newkirk (Laporte, Indiana: Herald, 1899),
p. 195.
9 Daniel Panzac, Les corsaires barbaresques: La fin d’une épopée, 1800-1820 (Paris: CNRS Editions,
1999).
10 The treaty of 1795 is the only document written originally in Turkish and translated to English which
survived from the period. Today it is kept in the files of the Department of State. For a description of
the document see Hunter Miller, ed., Treaties and other International Acts of the United States of
America, vol. 2: 1776-1818 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1931), (Accessed 8
March 2008), available at The Avalon Project at Yale Law School,
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplomacy/barbary.htm#r
10