The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 transformed the Ottoman time-honored petitioning system, from a traditional towards being a modern practice. The reinstatement of parliamentary life, the reenactment of the suspended Constitution, the lifting of the ban on the press and political action, all generated profound political and social changes. Subjects' petitions to the State, a routine largely overlooked by historians, reflected these changes in bright colors and often-surprising detail. As the Sultan became a figurehead with little actual power, petitions – hitherto addressed to the Sultan, requesting his benevolence and mercy (and granting him much needed legitimacy) – began to be sent instead to the Council of State, the Parliament, and the different Ministries. Their contents changed too: they now sought to obtain political rights, preserve privileges vis-à-vis other groups in society or within the applying group, and ensure civil equity and constitutional rights. In focusing on rights, the rule of law, and the deficiencies of the former system, the petitions echoed the changes in the popular discourse at large. Most importantly, they mirrored a transformation from justice as a Sultanic ad hoc prerogative to constitutional and civil law. Making frequent reference to the constitution, and the subjects’ right for equity and for the protection of the law, the petitions - written with the help of professional petition-writers whose writing reflected ideas circulating in the urban centers of the Empire - voiced a sense of a new era in the Empire’s history. In the proposed paper I will examine a corpus of petitions from the Ottoman archives, a neglected medium which offers a uniquely sharp view on social and political concepts and practices. I will finally raise the question of whether these changes can be seen as claims to modern citizenship by the Empire's subjects.