Iskenderun Customs (Rusumat) Building and Alexandre Vallaury’s Role in This Building According to Archival Documents

Abstract

The customs system, which had been a major source of revenue since the foundation of the Ottoman Empire, was subjected to a new structuring with the Tanzimat. In 1859, the customs, which had been divided into seventeen customs departments, were affiliated to the Istanbul Commodity Customs Office. The name of this office was changed to Rüsumat Emaneti in 1870. In 1880, there was an increase in the number of customs offices and directorates. These offices were located in Baghdad, Beirut, Bursa, Jeddah, Diyarbakır, Edirne, Erzurum, Crete, Aleppo, Istanbul, Shkodra, Izmir, Konya, Mosul, Preveza, Chios, Thessaloniki, Trabzon, Tripoli, Yemen, and Yozgat. This study focuses on the Iskenderun Customs Building of the Aleppo directorate. Since the second half of the 19th century, Iskenderun became one of the most important harbour cities of the region and the existing customs building was insufficient to respond to the increasing commercial volume. Changing demands during the period and the damages caused by natural disasters necessitated the expansion and modernization of the customs area. One of the notable details in this regard is the project prepared by Alexandre Vallaury, architect of the Customs Office between 1889 and 1910. Based on the documents in the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives, this study details the construction and repair processes of the Iskenderun Customs Building, its architecture and Alexandre Vallaury’s key role in the building. In addition, photographs obtained from Sultan Abdülhamid II’s Yıldız Albums and various other sources have been evaluated as visual material. Vallaury’s role in the Iskenderun Customs Building represents a previously unknown but noteworthy link in his rich and varied architectural oeuvre.