Naslov
Janus-faced Sovereignty: The International Status of the Ragusan Republic in the Early Modern Period

Autori
Kunčević, Lovro

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Poglavlja u knjigama, znanstveni

Knjiga
The European tributary states of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Urednik/ci
Gàbor Kàrmàn ; Kunčević, Lovro

Izdavač
Brill

Grad
Leiden

Godina
2013

Raspon stranica
91-122

ISBN
978-900-424-606-5

Ključne riječi
Ragusa (Dubrovnik), Ottoman Empire, tributary status, vassalage, international status, diplomacy, early modern

Sažetak
This essay is an attempt to investigate the consequences of being an Ottoman tributary state for the legal status and claims to independence of the early modern Ragusan Republic. Over the last five hundred years the interpretations of Ragusan-Ottoman relationship have changed quite drastically depending on who was asked and when, but, nevertheless, they always boiled down to one of two elementary choices. In the legal sense Ragusa was either characterized as a dependent polity under the supreme rule of the sultan or as an independent state paying the tribute only in order to ensure peace and commercial privileges in the empire. The goal here is to offer a new interpretation of the Ragusan legal status which surpasses this traditional dichotomy. More precisely, by rethinking the functioning of the international law in the early modern period, I seek to demonstrate that the usual opposition between the legal dependence and independence is anachronistic. In the first part of the essay I address the obligations and privileges of Ragusa according to Ottoman documents and the amount of self-governance that the city enjoyed as a consequence. In the second part I reconstruct the peculiar interpretation of tributary status promoted by the Ragusan government and contrast it with the very different Ottoman understanding. In the third part I consider the claims to “objectivity” of these two irreconcilable interpretations within their proper historical context – the interaction of two mutually alien legal cultures, Ottoman and Ragusan – which results in a somewhat heterodox interpretation of Ragusan legal status. The essay ends with several general reflections on the functioning of international law and inter-state treaties over the civilisational border between Islam and Christianity in the early modern period.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Povijest

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