Pete M-reference your post a few pages back about Siyaqat: It is a form of Arabic calligraphy. The Ottomans (Osmanli) were Turks, not Arabs. Some of the people that they conquered and subjugated were Arabs, and they did use some Arabic words, but most court and palace records and communications were conducted in Persian, using Arabic script such as Siyaqat for the chancery. For the uninformed or uninitiated, we use Arabic numerals for our mathematics, but the system or "language" is base 10.

If you have more detailed information about the records located in Istanbul, pleased advise and I will do what I can to research this at the local level.

skatr2