This firman (an edict or decree) with Sultan Mahmud II's sultanic tuğrâ (monogram) permitted the Listons to travel safely in the dominions of the Ottoman Empire. It granted them protection and assistance from Ottoman officials. [Library shelfmark: CH. 5793]
In October 1815, Henrietta and Robert Liston travelled with this firman from Istanbul, then often called Constantinople, to Smyrna (now İzmir) on the Aegean coast and through Greece.
Robert Liston also obtained a firman, or decree from the sultan, in order to visit the mosques in Constantinople with Henrietta, their Embassy staff, and other Europeans and British visitors in the city. They paid 391 piastres 'for their Excellencies and company' to visit 'the mosques at Constantinople by virtue of a firman solicited by His Excellency at the Porte'.