Proposal for the 3rd MMHN Conference
Yusuf Alperen Aydın
Ottoman Naval Code and Regulations (1701-1733)
It is known that high-board- and sailing vessels was used in Ottoman navy before the midst of
XVIIth century. Then galleons had appeared as battle ships of Ottomans.
Although ended up with the conquest of island, the long Ottoman siege of Crete at the second
half of seventeenth century, had shown the necessity of the gradual retreat of the Mediterraneantype galley from the actual stage of sea war as they seemed then to be old-fashioned and were
loosings their significance as instruments of war.
With the Naval Code of 1701, Ottoman navy was adopted to contemporary demands which mean
that galleons would become the main body of the navy as battle ships and their number would be
increased. Issues like promotion and retirement of commandants and officers was regulated with
this new Code. Naval knowledge and abilities were taken as objective measures of their career
line. After the Naval Code of 1701, seven regulations were enacted till 1733 about the
management of Imperial Dockyard and other related issues.
These regulations aimed to adopt the Ottoman marine to new conditions through overcoming
problems by issuing certain rules. The effort for the preparations of these regulations shows us
that Ottomans have tried at that time to formulate an official policy of maritime.
CV
Yusuf Alperen Aydın was born in İstanbul, in 1975. He graduated from Istanbul University
Faculty of Letters Department of History in 1998. He started to work as a research assistant at
Department of History in 1998. He took his MA degree from Modern History in 2001. He wrote
his Ph.D. thesis named “Ottoman Maritime (1700-1771)” and graduated as a Ph. D. in 2007.