Language and Power: The Dragoman as a Link in the Chain Between the Law of Nations and the Ottoman Empire

Abstract

The paper attempts to take a different look into the Law of Nations through the role of dragomans (official translators) in the making of modern International law. Addressing the power of language above its mere linguistic meaning, also considering the way it is taught, socially shaped, productive and lasting, this paper intends to illustrate the general epistemic framework governing dragomans as an original social and professional body in order to better understand their unforeseen impact on the Ottoman understanding of and integration into modern international law. The paper argues that legal transformations are also the result of legal translations, which intrinsically imply the cultural and social backgrounds of the translators. It discusses how the progressive formation of the cosmopolitan professional body of dragomans led to both develop a bolted technicality and contribute to the uniformization of legal thought and language by the nineteenth century.