This article traces a conflict that erupted in the late 19th century between the Armenians and the Suryani. This conflict, I argue, precipitated nothing less than the creation of the Suryani community itself. The dispute began over the key to a closet in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but it quickly evolved. Soon, the Armenians and the Suryani were clashing over holy places all around Jerusalem. The dispute centered on an Ottoman administrative arrangement which had been institutionalized nearly 400 years earlier: yamak lik . The Ottoman investigators, however, were unfamiliar with this archaic arrangement and had to be reeducated as to its terms and its history. The Suryani and the Armenians offered divergent accounts. Where the Armenians furnished hard documentation, however, the Suryani could produce only claims to tradition and local practice. In this article I argue that, through this protracted conflict, the Suryani came to understand the importance of the documentary record in a post-Tanzimat Ottoman world. They thus turned to an alternative strategy that would conform to this documentary sensibility and render their community visible to the state: a series of petitions with thousands of Suryani signatures from around the Ottoman Empire.

中文翻译：

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奥斯曼帝国晚期的记录社区

本文追溯了 19 世纪后期亚美尼亚人和苏里亚尼人之间爆发的冲突。我认为，这场冲突促成了苏里亚尼社区本身的创建。这场争论始于圣墓教堂壁橱的钥匙，但很快就演变了。很快，亚美尼亚人和苏里亚尼人在耶路撒冷周围的圣地发生冲突。争议集中在近 400 年前就已经制度化的奥斯曼行政安排上：yamak lik 。然而，奥斯曼帝国的调查人员不熟悉这种古老的安排，不得不重新了解其条款和历史。苏里亚尼人和亚美尼亚人提供了不同的说法。然而，在亚美尼亚人提供硬文件的地方，苏里亚尼人只能对传统和当地习俗提出要求。在这篇文章中，我认为，通过这场旷日持久的冲突，苏里亚尼人开始了解文献记录在后坦济马特奥斯曼帝国世界中的重要性。因此，他们转向了另一种策略，以符合这种纪录片的敏感性并使他们的社区对国家可见：一系列带有来自奥斯曼帝国各地的数千名苏里亚尼签名的请愿书。