TheTranslation Office (Turkish:Tercüme Odası, also spelledTerceme Odası,[1] or Terdjuman Odasi;French:Direction de Traduction,[2] also rendered as Bureau des Interprètes[3] or Cabinet des Traducteurs[4]) was an organ of theGovernment of the Ottoman Empire that translated documents from one language to another.
The government created it in 1821 as the Ottoman authorities wanted to train their own corps of Turkish translators instead of usingPhanariotes due to theGreek War of Independence occurring. Most of the staff atOttoman diplomatic missions in Europe originated from this office.[5]
The office created French-language versions of official documents. Such documents, created by the Translation Office and other Ottoman government organs dedicated to translating documents, catered to foreigners, and were used to create versions of documents in languages used by Ottoman non-Muslims.[8]
^Strauss, Johann (2016-07-07). "Language and power in the late Ottoman Empire". In Murphey, Rhoads (ed.).Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean: Recording the Imprint of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Rule.Routledge. // (ISBN9781317118442),Google BooksPT192.
^Ernest Lavisse; Alfred Rambaud, eds. (1899).Histoiree générale du IVe siècle à nos jours: Révolutions et guerres nationales, 1848-1870. Vol. XI. Paris: Armeand Colin & Cie. pp. 535-536.
^abcÁgoston, Gabor (2010-05-21). "Intelligence". In Ágoston, Gabor; Bruce Alan Masters (eds.).Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire.Infobase Publishing. pp. 276-278.ISBN9781438110257. - Cited: p. 278
^Strauss, Johann (2016-07-07). "Language and power in the late Ottoman Empire". In Murphey, Rhoads (ed.).Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean: Recording the Imprint of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Rule.Routledge. pp. 115- – viaGoogle Books. - Cited: p.121
