Given the fact that the Dubrovnik Republic bordered the Ottoman Empire along its entire border line, it is not surprising that there were many situations, such as robberies, murders, armed and physical conflicts, debts, usurpation of fields and pastures, in which both judicial authorities had to intervene, those of the Republic and those of the Ottoman Empire. For this reason, the State Archives in Dubrovnik is in possession of a large collection of reports, petitions, and investigations of kadis. Most official documents were written by the kadis from Ljubinje and Herceg Novi. The remaining documents were written by other Bosnian Herzegovinian kadis, as well as by the kadis from today’s areas of Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Croatia, Egypt, Turkey, Hungary, Albania, Greece, and Bulgaria. The documents of this subseries cover a long-time span: from the last decades of the 15th century to the beginning of the 19th century. These documents are a first-class archival source for exploring all aspects of everyday life as well as other facts pertaining to the life or coexistence of people in the bordering countries.

Jewish people are mentioned in this subseries in only a small number of documents related to court investigations, for example in a document issued in 1580 by the kadi of Plovdiv on the trade conflict between two people named Vicko and Solomon, and in another document from 1571, issued by the kadi of Herceg Novi, on the murder of Menachem Maraz, who was killed in Dubrovnik by Benvenisti Nasci (vol. 4, no. 474; vol. 11, no. 796).

The subseries contains orders (Turkish: buyrultu) of the governors of the Bosnian Eyalet and Herzegovinian sancakbeys, which were issued in the period from the middle of the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century. The orders deal with many issues and problems, from politics and trade to robberies, that were happening on the Ottoman-Dubrovnik border.

There is only one buyrultu in which Jews are mentioned. Referring to trade rights from an existing treaty between the Ottomans and the Republic, Dubrovnik authorities complained in 1807 to the governor of the Bosnian Eyalet and the Herzegovinian Sancakbey, Husrev Mehmed Pasha, stating that Jewish merchants in Sarajevo were interfering with the business of Dubrovnik merchants. Pasha issued an order to the kadi of Sarajevo to prevent such actions (no. 321).

The subseries consists of four types of sultans’ documents: charters (Tur. ahdname, ahitname), decrees (Tur. ferman), decrees of special importance (Tur. hatt-ı hümayun) and diplomas (Tur. berat), which were issued in the period from the middle of the 15th to the beginning of the 19th century. The documents of this subseries primarily deal with trade, shipping, customs, or the acquisition of cereals from the Ottoman Empire and other food for the needs of the Dubrovnik Republic. Documents also refer to other topics such as: land and sea bandits, espionage of the Dubrovnik Republic for the Ottomans, exchange of prisoners of war in neutral Dubrovnik, monopoly on the sale of Dubrovnik salt to Ottoman subjects, monopoly of neutral Dubrovnik ports for interstate trade, or transport of Ottoman goods and passengers by Dubrovnik ships. A fairly large number of sultans’ receipts for the tribute that the Republic paid to the Empire has also been preserved, as well as other sultans’ decrees according to which sea captains from the Republic were protected from attacks of North African corsairs in the second half of the 18th century.

An analytical inventory was made for this subseries, which indicates that only fifteen documents refer to Jews. In these documents Jews are referred to as: Ottoman customs officers (vol. 5, no. 214; vol. 8, no. 394; vol. 10, no. 459), as both debtors and creditors (vol. 10, no. 484; vol. 45, no. 1586; vol. 46, no. 1629) and as competitors to Dubrovnik merchants (vol. 59, no. 1952). In the first half of the 17th century and in the 20s of the 18th century, Dubrovnik government complained at the Porte about the Jews who damaged the house in Edirne owned by the Republic. When the house burned down, the Jews occupied the land on which it was located. In four of his decrees, the sultan demanded that the Jews should compensate the damage to Ragusans and return the land they had occupied (vol. 16, no. 799; vol. 20, no. 952; vol. 22, no. 1050; vol. 37, no. 1457). The Sultan Selim II asked the authorities of the Republic to organize a safe trip to Venice for the Jew Menachem and his servant (vol. 6, no. 299). Trade rights and prohibitions on trade for Jewish merchants can also be found in some documents of this subseries (vol. 18, no. 886; vol. 47, no. 1648).