In the Turkish tradition, the dragoman position is recorded in the pre-Ottoman
Sultanate of Rum during the 13th-century reign of
Keykubad I when two dragomans and two translator clerks were appointed.
In the Ottoman Empire In Ottoman records, the first imperial dragoman recorded was
Lutfi Pasha, who was sent to
Venice in 1479 to deliver a treaty. With unanswered correspondence accumulating, the chief naval instructor, one
Ishak Efendi, took over the position and became a pioneer in translation of Western scientific literature into Turkish, a task for which he had to create an entirely new vocabulary. Following Ishak, the grand dragoman and his staff were Muslims, and the Translation Office (
Tercüme Odası, "Translation Room", in Turkish), with its familiarity with things European, became a new major ladder to influence and power in the
Tanzimat era; this knowledge largely replaced the older ladders of the army, the bureaucracy, and the religious establishment in the mid- and late-19th century. The dragomans were exempt from taxation. As many of them were Jewish, in virtue of their proficiency in foreign languages, Jewish
Halakhic responsa dealt with the question whether or not these dragomans were exempt also from the internal taxes of the Jewish community. It became customary that most
hospodars of the
Phanariote rule (roughly 1711–1821) over the
Danubian Principalities (
Moldavia and
Wallachia) would previously have occupied this Ottoman office, a fact which did not prevent many of them from joining conspiracies that aimed to overthrow Turkish rule over the area.
Western dragomans These men were instrumental in spreading a wide-ranging curiosity about Islamic culture throughout the Latin parts of Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. The dragomans had scholarly language training in Persian, Arabic and Turkish since they were translators, interpreters, authors and were very open to the material and fashionable intricacies of the Ottoman culture. The first French translation of the
Quran was done by
André du Ryer, in 1647. He was from the French consulate in Egypt. Another, Cosmo of Carbognano, from the
Naples embassy, published in Latin:
The Principles of Turkish Grammar for The Use of Apostolic Missionaries in Constantinople (Rome 1794). As a highly trained group of diplomatic professionals, they were employed by Europeans in embassies and consulates, not only translating and interpreting items but often meeting with Ottoman officials without their employer being present. An 18th-century Venetian ambassador described the dragomans as ‘the tongue that speaks, the ear that hears, the eye that sees, the hand that gives, the spirit that acts, and on whom the life and success of every negotiation may depend. There was huge success from the published translation of
Thousand And One Nights, by
Antoine Galland (1646–1715). He was attached to the embassy of
Charles Marie François Olier, marquis de Nointel, a
Parisian who was a councilor to the
Parlement of Paris, and a French ambassador to the
Ottoman court, 1670 to 1679. One who created a large European interest in the history of Islam, with his published
Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches was
Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall of Austria, a student at the
Diplomatic Academy of Vienna (the academy was initially established by
Empress Maria Theresa in 1754 as "The Oriental Academy" to train young diplomats to represent the
Habsburg Empire abroad). ==See also==