The oldest documents in the Consulate fonds date back to 1843, to the foundation of the Consulate of Palestine during the Kingdom of Sardinia. According to the papers the Consulate closed in 1849 leaving the defence of the citizens to the Consulate of France.
The Royal Decree dated November 17th, 1871 establishes the Italian Consulate in Palestine. The papers cover the history of the Consulate until its closure, in June 10th, 1940. At that date the protection of Italian interests was entrusted to the Spanish Consulate. The activity of Consul Quinto Mazzolini and his Bureau in Rome (Ufficio Stralcio) lasted during 1943.
The Documentary Office of the Sublime Porte (Bab-ı Ali Evrak Odası) is the institution that arranged the flow of documents in the Sublime Porte (Bab-ı Ali) after the Tanzimat. Accordingly, any document that was dealt with by the Sublime Porte is filed into this fonds.
This fonds includes documents from the Correspondence Office doing all the correspondences of the Ministry of Education with other ministries or provinces since its foundation. The starting and ending Hijri dates for this fonds are: 1289-1341.
The Imperial Rescript means the order of the sultan. Formerly, the term “the Firmans” was used for the orders of the sultan. From 1832 on, the writing that was offered in response to the “letters” presented to the clerk of the sultan and that meant the approval of the sultan was called ‘irade’. The Imperial Rescripts in file procedure were grouped according to the issues and subjects in them, not according to the ministries and offices to which they belonged.
This fonds includes documents like petitions or letters written to the Inspectorship between 1900-1909 (Hijri dates: 1318-1327). These petitions usually dealt with requests for promotion and appointment, salary, gang and bandit activities, demands for tax, complaints about administrative corruption, etc. The starting and ending Hijri dates for this fonds are: 1318-1329.
This fonds constitutes a very rich collection of documents resulting from the assortment of documents belonging to the rule of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909). It includes 1618 files, 626000 documents and 15679 notebooks. It appears that it includes important documents for this period, which is a fresh field for the research in the history of management. Yıldız catalogues (series) are collected in five main groups; the Main Documents of Yıldız Palace (Yıldız Esas Evrakı), the Official Documents of Grand Vizierate (Sadâret Resmî Maruzât Evrakı), the Officially Presented Documents of Grand Vizierate (Sadâret Husûsî Maruzât Evrakı) and the Daily Documents of Yıldız Palace (Yıldız Perakende Evrakı).
