Ottoman diplomacy modernized from a household office into a ministry after 1836.

Evidence

Until 1836 foreign affairs were handled by the office of the Reis Efendi, which was a part of the Bab-i Asafi. In that year it became a Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At first a mere change of title, this new ministry in time became a reality, and its records are kept in a separate collection. For a period after the Crimean War, Ottoman diplomatic communications were in French. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1985

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader Tanzimat modernization narrative and Richardson’s/Kennedy’s work on how non-Western states adopted Western bureaucratic forms, and to Said-adjacent work on Ottoman self-representation to European powers (e.g. using French after the Crimean War).