Separating the waters from the sea: The place of islands in Ottoman maritime territoriality during the eighteenth century

The Ottoman Empire in the eighteenth century faced challenges in the Mediterranean from domestic and above all foreign pirates that forced it to articulate its notions of maritime territoriality, that is, the parts of the sea over which it claimed imperial and legal authority. This article will examine the role of islands in defining that territoriality, examining several cases involving the imperial response to piracy for their articulation of maritime space. The most important distinction was between the open sea and domestic waters, which were above all delineated by the shoreline, apart from exceptional responses to European privateers. Consequently, it is argued that the place of islands in Ottoman maritime territoriality is largely littoral in nature, and that littoralité is an essential component of the Ottoman understanding of insularité