Ottoman-Period Arabic Language Archives on Bilad ash-Sham in the Bulgarian National Library

Abstract

As a result of its successful conquests in the Balkans, in Asia Minor and the north coast of the Black Sea in the second half of the 15th century, the Ottoman state became a great and powerful empire. Lead by an ambition to establish its domination over other peoples, attracted by a favourable geographic position and by opportunities to exercise influence upon the Mediterranean countries, as well as to develop active commercial relations with Europe and the East at the beginning of the 16th century, the armies of Sultan Selim I (1512-1520) turned to the Arab countries, In less than a hundred years all of them (except Morocco, Nejd and Oman) were included in the empire. Documentary sources are central for the clarification of questions concerning their social, economic, political and cultural development from the 16th to the 20th centuries.