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Introduction

How to ask (im)politely

Letters from Europe, the Mediterranean and the Middle East from the ninth to the nineteenth century

 | Leiden University
 | Leiden University
 | Leiden University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Leiden University.

Published online: 5 February 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00079.rut
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Approaching requests in historical letters
  • 3.Drawing some common threads and looking ahead
  • References
References (24)
References
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