Ottoman finance records used a cipher-like script for speed and secrecy

Evidence

At opposite extremes are the divani, the ornate and convoluted script used in imperial letters, and siyaqat, the special script, half cipher half shorthand, used in keeping finance records. It served the double purpose of speed and secrecy, and still maintains some success in preserving the second. The reading of proper names, in particular, is often almost or quite impossible. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1992

These present considerable palaeo­ graphic problems, and for the earlier periods especially the decipherment of a single document is often a long and exacting task. At opposite extremes are the divani, the ornate and convoluted script used in imperial letters, and siyaqat, the special script, half cipher half shorthand, used in keeping finance records. It served the double purpose of speed and secrecy, and still maintains some success in preserving the second. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1992

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines divani and siyaqat, the two extreme Ottoman script forms, and siyaqat’s dual purpose of speed and secrecy.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in how administrative secrecy regimes encode knowledge — parallels private arbitration/cartel secrecy in the diamond trade and Ottoman officialdom as a layered barrier.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1992