The arzuhalcis and the changing late Ottoman urban sphere in gaza

Abstract

Little research has been devoted to date to the work and social background of the arzuhalcis, the professional letter and petition writers in the Ottoman Empire, even though they were part of the Ottoman urban landscape of the 19th century and handled most of the public’s writing and correspondence with the authorities. The services they of- fered were well known to the general public and a wide variety of people, men and women, urbanites, villagers, Bedouins, and officials alike, approached them and paid for having their petitions written professionally. This article examines the arzuhalacis’ social profile and status in society based on the Ottoman census of 1905 for the city of Gaza on the south- ern Palestine coast. Petitions sent from this city to Istanbul by the city’s urban population as well as by peasants and Bedouin from the region were for the most part written in Ara- bic, often in a very high register, which no doubt was formulated by professional petition writers. Several questions come to mind when exploring the place of the arzuhalcis in Gaza, in particular given what we know about this city’s stormy politics at the time. How many petition and letter writers were active in this city? Were any of them identified with one of the factions in this city to an extent that others from rivaling coalitions refrained from using their services? Were any of the petition writers in Gaza former state employees, or perhaps non-natives of Gaza? What was their relationships with state and local officials? Finally, where were they active in Gaza’s public space? This article attempts to respond to some of these questions to better understand the role of the arzuhalcis in the public space of a late Ottoman provincial city in Greater Syria.