This course is an introduction to Ottoman palaeography and diplomatics. The participants are presented with a range of Ottoman documents such as imperial edicts (firman/hükm) and their registrations (mühimme defterleri), diplomas (berat), reports and petitions ('arz-i hal, 'arz), vizierial summaries (telhis), memoranda (tezkire), receipts (temmesük), and legal registrations (sicill, hüccet). In addition, there will be samples from various types of registers (defter), for example, surveys of taxable population (tahrir defteri) or records of the financial department (maliye), such as day books (ruznamçe defterleri) and financial edict registry books (ahkam defterleri). For each seminar meeting, photocopies of original Ottoman documents will be assigned for reading and analysis.