This study focuses on the pardons of the Hamidian era by using the petitions which were written by the convicts, accused people or their relatives to the Sublime Porte. Beside the lives, prison conditions and accusations of the convicts, the pardon petitions constitute a useful source to see the nature of the relationship between state and the ordinary people. This study argues that although requesting a pardon seems to have been a kind of obedience to the authority, the relationship established ...