The capitulations, a series of bilateral agreements with European states and merchants, are sometimes held up as symbols of early Ottoman concessions to European powers and the beginnings of Ottoman economic decline. This misreading, which is in part the product of a misinterpretation of the word "capitulation" itself, impedes a proper understanding of Ottoman Empire and the legal context of the early modern Mediterranean. In this episode, Fariba Zarinebaf offers a different look at the capitulations or ahdnames within the broader context of law and diplomacy in Ottoman Galata and other port cities.