_ 255 _ Palace collection, is already in course of publication. Many more documents have been published and studied in recent years by Turkish scholars. In addition to the central archives in Istanbul, a start has also been made on local archives all over the country. The Qadī in the old Ottoman administrative system was not only the judge but also the general administrator of his area. The records of the Qādīs’ offices have been preserved in many provincial towns, and constitute an invaluable source for almost every aspect of the life of the community. These are now being collected in a number of regional centres, to serve as provincial archives. Cataloguing has begun and some documents have been published or studied.(A) For 400 years the Arab lands were under varying degrees of Ottoman domination or suzerainty, and it is natural that a substantial proportion of the documents in the Ottoman archives should be concerned with their affairs. But for the most part Turkish scholars, who alone up to now have had access to these documents, were naturally chiefly interested in the history of Turkey (A) See, for example, the various writings of M. Çağatay Uluçay, based on the archives of Manisa. For Arab history the archives of Southern Turkish centres like Diyarbekir and Gaziantep should yield useful material. It is not impossible that similar local archives still exist in the Arab countries.
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