Capitulations

CAPITULATIONS, treaties signed between the Ottoman sultans and the Christian states of Europe concerning the extraterritorial rights which the subjects of one of the signatories would enjoy while staying in the state of the other.

As a result of the capitulations, commercial colonies – in which international trade was concentrated – were established in various regions of the empire, especially in the countries of the Levant by the French and in a later period also by the British. The most important were Salonika, Constantinople, Smyrna, Tripoli, Sidon, Acre, Alexandria, and (in the interior) Aleppo, Cairo, Ramleh, etc. In most of these centers, there were large Jewish communities. These merchants generally required intermediaries and agents between the purchasers and the suppliers. This was the almost exclusive function of Jews and Christians and it was passed down from father to son. These agents received from the Ottoman authorities letters of protection which were known as berat and which also served as the certification of an agent recognized by the consulate. In addition to their protection, the holders of the berat were exempted from the payment of taxes. In this way, the Jewish merchants, who played an important role in the domestic and foreign trade of the Ottoman Empire from the 16^th century onward, indirectly benefited from the capitulations. Even after France had been deprived of its exclusive right, when treaties were made with other countries, its representatives continued to regard themselves as the protectors of the Jews.

Aleppo

From the close of the 17^th and throughout the 18^th century, the so-called *Francos of *Aleppo rose to importance. They were European Jews who had settled in the town on a temporary or permanent basis in order to trade in the country; they did so on the strength of the rights which were granted to the countries whose protection they enjoyed. The Francos, who became a most useful factor in the economic life of Aleppo, were protected by the French capitulations and they endeavored to exploit their rights by all means available to them. But at the close of the 18^th century, Sultan Selim III began to issue letters of appointment to his subjects (mainly Jews); he did not recognize them as the agents of foreign merchants but granted them the status of government-approved merchants, known as "European merchants." At the beginning of the 19^th century, foreign consuls extended their protection to the Jewish communities of the empire beyond the scope of commercial affairs, a policy which they had also adopted toward many Christians.

Egypt

The capitulations system was also in force in Egypt. In order to protect themselves from arbitrary measures, many Jews of this country endeavored to obtain foreign nationality, or at least foreign protection. Thus, during the 19^th century there was hardly a Jewish family in Egypt whose head was not a foreign subject – in spite of the opposition of the Egyptian authorities to the extension of the capitulation system. The protection of the Austro-Hungarian and French representatives was the most sought after by the Egyptian Jews. The number of subjects who benefited from the capitulations increased at the close of the 19^th century, especially as the result of widespread immigration.

North Africa

In North Africa, in the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitana, Algeria, and Tunisia, as well as in Morocco (which was not under Ottoman dominion), the capitulations regime also influenced the status of the Jewish communities. According to the capitulations treaties, all the subjects of the European states which did not have their own delegates were placed under the protection of France. As a result, almost all the "Christian" or Frankish Jews, i.e., those who came from countries of Christian Europe, were at first under French protection. In Algeria the capitulations provided them with the following rights: freedom of movement and the possibility of leaving the country at any time of their own free will (on condition that they did not leave any debts); the right of residence in any place which they desired; exemption from wearing distinctive signs on their clothing and their head covering, which were imposed on their native coreligionists. Jews exploited the facilities which were opened to them once equal rights were granted in commerce to foreign merchants by the French government (during the second half of the 18^th century).

At the close of the reign of Hammuda Bey (1782–1814), who generally acted favorably toward the Jews of Tunis, related problems arose over the incidence of the capitulations terms for the Jews. He refused to confirm the registration of a Tuscan Jew who had settled in Tunis as a French protégé and who demanded this registration in accordance with the capitulations terms. The ruler argued that the Jews were stateless and had no rights of citizenship; he therefore prohibited the Jews (the *Gornim) who had come from Leghorn several generations before to wear the French emblem on their clothing. He claimed that these Jews were his subjects and their status was not comparable to that of the French. In Article IV of the capitulations treaty, concluded between France and Tunis in 1824 it was stipulated that a non-French Christian who exported goods from France to Tunisia could not benefit from the 3% customs privilege to which the French were entitled, and that he was to pay according to the rate which had been fixed for his state. This was in order to protect the Jews, who paid customs duties at the rate of 5%. In Article XI of the same treaty, it was agreed that Jewish agents and others who operated in the service of France would continue to benefit from those privileges which had been decided upon in former capitulations for the Tunisian ports. Husein Bey (1824–1835), however, attempted to block their advancement. The protection of the consuls assumed additional importance during the 19^th century with the intensification of the campaign for equality and emancipation. The British stipulated in their peace treaties of 1751 and 1760 that the consul and the British merchants would be authorized to employ Moors and Jews without any restrictions as interpreters and agents and that the latter would be exempted from all taxes, just as British officials were; they would also be able to trade without restrictions and receive various forms of protection. This promise resulted in the entry of Jews, even if only ostensibly, into the service of the British consuls and agents. In 1856 England and in 1861, Spain concluded a protection treaty with Morocco. According to these treaties, the right was granted to accredited diplomats, consuls, vice consuls, and consular agents to protect Arabs or others (namely Jews) who were employed as interpreters or in other functions. This protection exempted them from the payment of personal taxes, levies, etc. A Jew of Moroccan nationality who was appointed vice consul in a Moroccan port by the chief of a diplomatic mission would be exempted – together with the members of his family – from personal taxes and similar levies. In 1863 a protection treaty was signed between France and Morocco; this treaty was subsequently signed by Belgium, Sardinia, the United States, England, and Sweden. According to this treaty, protection was accorded only to its recipient and his wife and children who lived with him; it was not hereditary. Many sought to benefit from foreign protection, and as their numbers increased, the influence of France, in particular, and the European states, in general, intensified in Morocco. In 1880 the Treaty of Madrid, which limited the protection rights, was signed. Until 1912 many Moroccan-born Jews held secondary consular positions for the sole reward of the accompanying protection rights.

Ereẓ Israel

From the close of the 18^th century the European powers, led by France and England, took a growing interest in the Middle East. The European governments therefore established consulates in the larger commercial towns. There were no such towns in Ereẓ Israel during the 18^th century, but as soon as the port of Acre attained some commercial importance after the Napoleonic Wars, Austria and Russia appointed consuls. From this period increase of the Jewish population would have been impossible without the protection of foreign consuls and the extensive rights which the capitulations bestowed upon it. On the basis of the capitulations, European Jews were considered as Europeans in every respect, without regard to their religion. The endeavors of the Ashkenazim to benefit from the rights of being foreign nationals in 1822–23 were a cause of internal strife within the Jewish community, since the Sephardim were opposed. There were no consuls in the towns of the country and the immigrants were subjected to the authority of the pasha of Acre; their delegate before the pasha was the wakīl (agent) who was elected or appointed from among the Sephardim and who was also responsible for the collection of the poll tax. The efforts of the Ashkenazim, however, were crowned with success, and by 1840 the Jews obtained the capitulation rights in their entirety. The consuls who were sent to Jerusalem, Acre, Jaffa, and even Safed, protected the Jewish subjects. It was due to this protection that Jews were able to immigrate to Palestine in their thousands.

The influence of the consuls in the coastal towns was extremely limited and a fundamental change occurred with the opening of the first consulate in Jerusalem (the British consulate in 1838–39). In 1843 France reopened its consulate in Jerusalem after an interruption of about 130 years. The greatest number of Palestinian Jews, however, were placed under the protection of the Austrian consulate. These Jews held important positions in the consular services as interpreters and vice consuls. R. Isaiah *Bardaki, the leader of the Ashkenazi community of Jerusalem, was vice consul of Russia and Austria during the 1840s. In 1849 he appealed to the British consul in Jerusalem with a plea that the latter should grant protection to the Jews who had become stateless as a result of the discriminatory laws of Russia. R. Abraham Solomon Zalman *Ẓoref acted as vice consul of Prussia during this period (most of the Prussian citizens in the country were Jews). Because of the *ḥalukkah system the consuls were relief workers rather than diplomats and economic attachés and they generally extended themselves to assist the Jewish population. Britain also intervened on behalf of the Jews of the European countries when their consuls refused them their assistance. At the time of the *Damascus Affair, the British government proposed to the sultan that he authorize his non-Muslim subjects to address their complaints to him through the exclusive intermediary of the British consuls.

From the second half of the 19^th century the Turkish government attempted, although without success, to obtain the abolition of the capitulations on the grounds that it considered them as an encroachment on its sovereignty. However, when the first groups of Zionist immigrants arrived from Russia, the Ottoman government prohibited the immigration and the settlement of Jews in the country for fear of the intervention of the European states in its affairs. In 1914 it unilaterally abolished the capitulations, an act bringing much suffering to the Palestinian yishuv, which now lacked the protection of the European powers. In 1923 the abolition of the capitulations was internationally ratified by the Treaty of Lausanne.

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.