Theses supervised by Prof. Dr. Özer Ergenç
20 theses · İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University
Bir kavramın evrimi: Kişinin doğduğu yerden ortak mekana "vatan"
This thesis examines the perceptual transformation of the concept of homeland in the Ottoman Empire from the early modern period to the early twentieth century. This study seeks answers to the questions of how the concept of homeland was transformed from a place where one was born and raised in the early modern Ottoman Empire to a place to die for by gaining a sacred and powerful meaning in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also argues that this political, social and spatial transformation of the concept of homeland cannot be explained only by the emergence of nationalism and Turkist policies. This thesis argues that the idea of the homeland came to the forefront as a shared living place, and shared homeland (vaṭan-ı ʿumūmî) in the nineteenth century and strengthened as a place where all the historically integrated constituents of the Ottoman Empire (ittiḥād-ı ʿanâṣır) could live and struggle together. This study demonstrates that one of the most important reasons for the strengthening of the emphasis on the shared homeland was the migration towards the remaining borders of the Ottoman Empire, Anatolia, as a result of the great territorial losses that began at the end late nineteenth century and continued at the beginning of the twentieth century.
18. yüzyılda Sofya'nın idari, iktisadi ve sosyal ilişkileri: Bir mekan analizi denemesi
In this thesis, Sofia which was the pasha sandjaghi of the Rumelian Eyalet in the 18th century is discussed. The administrative, social and economic relations of Sofia are studied within the context of spatial analysis. The interaction of Sofia with its surrounding rural area and other sandjaks are evaluated with regard to distance in order to analyze these relations properly and the surrounding rural area of Sofia is also addressed as a feeding ground. Since the data about population would enlighten our analysis, population forecasts are made through the available avarız hane defteri. The theoretical frame of our topic is constituted being taken the settlement models that belonged to the pre- industrial period as a basis. In addition, the court records of Sofia dating the first half of the 18th century are used with the aim of supporting our argument empirically. While the research conducted until this time only discussed the administrative and social structure of Sofia in the 16th century, in this thesis the question how Sofia maintained its importance as an administrative unit through centuries is tried to be answered and the relation of Sofia with its surrounding rural area is evaluated as an economic integration field.
Osmanlı Devletinde vergi ve vergi etrafında oluşan ilişkiler üzerine bir çalışma (16.-17. yüzyıllar)
This thesis inspects the relationship between ruling class and subject class during the early modern period of Ottoman Empire (16th-17th centuries). The study argues that ruling class who was entitled to collect taxes were not simply collectors, they also claimed that the taxes were in lieu of services they brought to people and they were administrators of the activity that was subject to taxation. If a new situation appears regarding the relationship between ruling and subject classes, this divergence from old tradition was also defined and attempted to be solved through taxation. To bolster these arguments, primary sources such as imperial orders and law codes were put in hermeneutic analysis. Secondary sources were consulted to understand the Ottoman state mentality and framework of taxation. It is concluded that we could only have good understanding of Ottoman administration by accurately assessing taxation.
Pre-modern dönemde Osmanlı reayasının kara yolculuklarının şartları ve metodları
Traveling in the Ottoman Empire during the pre-modern times was challenging and dangerous for everyone, but much so for civilians. Furthermore, the central authority discouraged the mobility of civilians and wanted them to stay put. These are why it is generally assumed that Ottoman tax-paying subjects, re'âyâ, did not leave their farms and hometowns. This thesis questions the truth of this assumption and examines how and why the Ottoman subjects traveled. As the travels of civilians were not recorded by the state in the pre-modern times, Ottoman and foreign travelers' travelogues were used as primary sources. Other sources to obtain information about voyages of Ottoman subjects were the court registers and fetva collections, which consisted of problems occurring during travels. An analysis of these materials, together with the secondary sources yielded to the result that contrary to the general assumption, Ottoman subjects sought and found ways of overcoming the risks and difficulties of changing places. Merchants, craftsmen and other civilians traveled across the Ottoman lands by their own means and benefited the road system, organization and network provided by the central administration.
Gedik, esham ve muzara'a uygulamaları üzerine bir analiz denemesi
This thesis examines the three economic practices (gedik, esham and muzara'a) that emerged in the Ottoman Empire in the modern period (18th and 19th centuries) and the relationship between them. This study claims that these practices, which emerged or finalized during the same periods, were shaped in line with the needs of the Ottoman Empire and strengthened monetarization and commercialization at the borders of the empire, but they did not lead to a transformation in terms of capitalist classes and social power relations. In order to reinforce these arguments, the kethuda record of the barbers of Galata referring to a decree as well as the Istanbul and Konya court registers were used as primary sources. Secondary sources were used to understand the change and transformation of these practices and the period. Although these practices emerged in line with the needs of the age, it was concluded that they were far from responding to these needs at certain points and left their places to modern applications imported from Europe.
Orta Akdeniz'de Osmanlı korsanları ve 16. yüzyılda köle ticareti
This thesis aims to analyze the Ottoman corsairs and their role in the slave trade in the 16th century Mediterranean, and it concentrates on the corsair activity around the central Mediterranean during Suleiman I's reign. The historiography chiefly emphasizes the corsairs as an apparatus, a war-machine of the Imperial Navy (Donanma-yı Hümâyûn) against the Habsburg Empire. Moreover, scholars have given their primary attention to the political rivalry between the Habsburg and the Ottoman households, and the corsair concept lacks a social and economic consideration. Therefore, this study predominantly reevaluates this approach by focusing on the Ottoman corsairs' social and economic aspects, such as the slave trade carried out for the Sublime Porte. The research investigates the Ottoman-Venetian disputes due to the corsair activities through archival documents. Southern Italy and Sicily, under Habsburg rule, were open to direct threats throughout the constant wars between Spain, France, and the Ottoman Empire, and many people were reduced to slavery and sold in slave markets. Although the corsair activity around the Iberian-peninsula and the North Africa have been examined, the Adriatic coast should need more recognition by the researchers.
Erken modern Osmanlı toplumunda bir denetim olgusu olarak namus ve kadın
In this thesis, the concept of namus (honor) as a regulative phenomenon in early modern Ottoman society and specifically for ordinary women are discussed. It focuses on which characteristic of women's namus differed from the general view of it in the society: sexuality. Namus was a shared value for Ottoman society; thus, it functioned as both the set of values and the regulatory tool. In other words, it not only determined which values were appropriate for a person but also imposed sanctions on any inappropriate behavior and made a person namuslu (honorable) or namussuz (unhonorable) in the society. As the expressions from the archival sources (mostly arzuhals and sicil cases), related primary sources, and the academic literature are examined, it can be deduced that women's namus was a fragile value reduced to sexuality in early modern Ottoman society. It should be protected, preserved, and conserved. This namus perception brings the protector/protected relationship along in which men were protectors and women were protected ones. This relationship can be examined in three intermingled layers: (1) A woman must protect her own namus. (2) Her family was responsible for protecting it. (3) At last, the society (village, neighborhood, etc.) was liable to protect women's namus. In this three-layered relationship of protection, women's namus and their sexuality belonged to not only themselves but also their families and even to their society.
Zirveden krize: Gazette de France'da (1740-1787) Nizam-ı Kadim'in son yarım yüzyılı ve Osmanlı toplumu
This dissertation focuses on the period of 1740-1787 which was one of the last high points in the history of the Ottoman Empire. It uses the French monarchy's official periodical, the Gazette de France, as its main source to find new and valuable information on the Ottoman Empire during this era. This period saw Ottoman society and elites prosper as they were able to accumulate wealth over multiple generations. Ottoman women played a prominent role in this dissertation and their role within the Empire's political culture is examined in detail. The city of Istanbul and Ottoman society take center stage along with Ottoman diplomacy as major topics covered in this work. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates the length to which this period in Ottoman history has been under researched and to what extent it is one of the more interesting periods in the history of the Ottoman Empire.
Bir aidiyet meselesi: 18. yüzyıl Osmanlı toplumunda sıradan insanların mekânsal aidiyeti
This dissertation is a quest to discover the bonds established between ordinary Ottoman people and places by engaging with the concept of place attachment, an instrument of environmental psychology. It seeks to answer how place attachment affected relevant phenomenons such as identity formation, collective actions, and the idea of vatan by questioning how the Ottoman people's daily practices and use of space shaped the place attachment under the 18th century atmosphere of transformations. In order to provide a holistic framework, all main elements of the place attachment are presented, including socio-economic factors, communal ties, residential conditions, occupations, life experiences, symbolic and ancestral connections, emotional tendencies, and the role of "unattached" ones. In this context, the embedded meanings of Ottoman space and the forms of place attachments developed by ordinary people in different spatial planes ranging from houses to Ottoman mahalles and cities, are examined through textual and linguistic analysis of primary sources. This study has revealed that ordinary Ottoman people, similar to their professional or religious communities, formed "spatial communities" at different scales, transcending their other affiliations and ties. Place attachment developed at various scales, such as among those who share the same cul-de-sac (tarîk-i hâss), among those registered to the same avârızhanes, among the guests of inns (hans), or among those who settled in the tehnâ corners of a city, paved the way for the formation of spatial communities. Sometimes everyday responsibilities, economic interests, symbolic ties, or sometimes efforts to protect the environment have been influential in shaping these ties between people and space. Within this framework, this study points to the decisive importance of "spatial communities" formed based on place attachment rather than the policy of tolerance, which was commonly used to explain the possibility of coexistence in Ottoman society. This thesis also discusses that place attachments were not strong enough to transform the practice of coexistence in Ottoman society into a higher identity after the 18th century. Therefore, the traditional forms of place attachments may have transformed into other forms of affiliations influenced by modernity, as Ottoman people's place identity changed during the nation-based disintegration process of the Ottoman State.
Kırım Hanlığı'nda kargaşa: (1623-1628)
The objective of this study is to analyze the socio-political causes and effects of the turmoil in the Crimean Khanate (1623-1628) depending mainly on the Crimean Tatar, Ottoman, Polish, Russian, Romanian, and Persian sources The Karaçi system, inherited from the Golden Horde, that forced the Khans to share the power with the Karaçi leaders was the major obstacle for the stability of the Khan. The Ottomans were depending on the cooperation of the Karaçi leaders and their superior fire arms in order to keep the Khans under control. Mehmed Giray III Khan and Kalgay Şahin Giray Sultan brothers who realized this fact put the Karaçi leaders under strict control and made an alliance with the Zaporozhian Cossacks who were effectively using fire arms and defeated the Ottomans. Consequently, they have managed to remain in the power for five more years, contrary to the Ottoman's plan to replace them with Canıbek Giray Khan and Devlet Giray Sultan. Keywords:Crimean Khanate, Karaçi, Ottoman Empire, Mehmed Giray III Khan, Kalgay Şahin Giray Sultan.
Pre-modern dönemde Osmanlı siyasal-sosyal düzeni ve Gayrimüslimler
The non-Muslim subjects of the Ottoman Empire, governed by Muslims, have been a subject of interest for researchers since the 19th century. In this study, the status of non-Muslims among the Ottoman subjects has been examined. The study examines the status of non-Muslims among the subjects, focusing on their status during the classical period and the changes in that status. The study aims to evaluate the claims made by European states in the 19th century regarding the Ottoman Empire's inability to govern its non-Muslim subjects and the alleged second-class status of non-Muslims. Islam, unlike Christianity and Judaism, which maintained an assertion of universal dominion, allowed non-Muslims to become subjects of the Islamic State through the concept of the zimma. The Ottoman Empire was able to integrate the non-Muslim populations in the regions it conquered into its subjects through the mechanism of the zimma contract, thereby granting non-Muslims the same fundamental rights that were accorded to Muslims. Through the zimma contract, non-Muslims who became subjects of the Ottoman Empire were brought together in the status of re'âya alongside Muslims as part of Sultan's subjects. The re'âya status served as a higher identity for both Muslims and non-Muslims. Ottoman Sultans regarded their non-Muslim re'âya subjects as entrusted to them by God, known as vedâyi-i hâlik-i kibriya. In the study, mühimme registers and qadi court registers have been utilized as primary sources. Additionally, due to the extensive nature of the existing literature on the subject, secondary sources have been meticulously examined. Based on the documents and insights from secondary sources, it is concluded that within the Ottoman administrative perspective, non-Muslims were not differed from Muslims, under the possibilities provided by Islamic law, and were regarded as vedâyi-i hâlik-i kibriyâ, similar to Muslims.
II. Meşrutiyet dönemi'nde İslamcılara göre millet ve milliyetçilik, bir örnek çalışma: Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad
This study examines Islamist understanding of nation and nationalism during the Second Constitutional Period (1908-1918) by examining the most important Islamist journal of that era; Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad. Islamism emerged as a reactionary ideology against Western threats toward the 'backward' Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire. This ideology sought to establish genuine Islam by looking back into original sources and the Golden Age (Asr-ı Saadet). This process aimed to revitalize the Islamic world and unite Muslims against the Western threats. As an Islamist journal in the Second Constitutional Period, Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad presented an Islamic modernist understanding dependent upon the revival of Islam and the Ottoman Empire with reference to real Islam against the Western threats. However, according to Islamists ethnic and secular nationalisms corrupted the unity of Muslims. This study argues that the journal, Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad, was against separatist nationalism(s), especially Muslim nationalism(s) for the sake of the Ottoman Empire's survival and Islamic unity (Pan-Islam). This study begins by presenting a general discussion of Islamism in the historical context of the Ottoman Empire, examining the history of the Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad journal, and its emphasis on nation, nationalism and their relation with Islam and the Ottoman Empire. This study assess how selected texts from the Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad represent Islamist understandings of the nation and nationalism and how Islamists identified the Islamic nation concept. In summation this study argues that Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad had an Islamist national understanding which aimed to save first the Ottoman Empire, then the Islamic world through the revival of Islam. Keywords: Islamism, Pan-Islamism, Second Constitutional Period, Sırat-ı Müstakim-Sebilürreşad, Nation, Nationalism.
Osmanlı şehrinin yapısal ve işlevsel nitelikleri –Çok boyutlu şehirsel ilişkilerin açıklanması üzerine bir deneme
This work is a two part inquiry into the nature of the Ottoman urban settlements in a certain context. In the first part a broad classification of three important functional and structural characteristics of the Ottoman city are evaluated. In the second part follows a discussion regarding the urban relations experienced both internally and externally. While considering these relations grouped under some general headings, an interpretation of certain correlations between them and the previously examined urban characteristics is provided taking different cities of the Ottoman geography as examples. Original Ottoman documents from especially the Court Registers provide additional insight into the various administrative, social and economic mechanisms within towns and cities. They also shed light into a number of issues associated with some of the internal relations of cities as well as external ones which develop in conjunction with the socio-economic and geographic qualities of the near and distant environment. Keywords: Ottoman City, Timar, Sancak, Eyâlet, Geographical Environment, Spatial Organization
Pre-modern Osmanlı toplumunun duygu dünyasına açılan bir kapı
Beginning in the 1980's, the research produced on various fields of knowledge including history, neuroscience, sociology, psychology and anthropology asserted that emotions are not only a product of biochemical but also cognitive processes. It is now commonly accepted that emotions do have a history, they are socially constructed changing across time and space. This thesis is an attempt to revisit the relations established within the pre-modern Ottoman society, by taking emotions into consideration. The relations are analyzed within three dimensions; the state and the subjects, intra-communal relations and familial ties. It is argued that the Ottoman state, each taife/cemaat within the society and families were not only social but also emotional communities. The collectively constructed emotional norms and codes of each emotional community and their reflections in political relations, negotiations and daily practices are elaborated via linguistic and discourse analysis of the primary sources. This thesis offers a new perspective and direction in Ottoman social history and thus stands as a first such attempt. The main emotion code, as reflected in the primary sources, was "telif-i kulûb" and "mahabbet" between the ruler and the ruled; "rıza ve şükran" for the community members; and "hüsn-i zindegani ve musafat" for husbands and wives. It is emphasized in this thesis that not only the material but also the emotional dimension of the political and social relations was important in shaping relations and that they should not be avoided in Ottoman social history studies.
17 ve 18. yüzyıl kurgusal Osmanlı tarih anlatıları üzerine bir inceleme: Osmanlı ortak imgelem ve belleğinde imparatorluk geçmiş ve gelecek tasavvuru
This dissertation focuses on a textual and contextual analysis of two previously unstudied sets of pseudo-historical narratives produced and reproduced in miscellanies and fascicles throughout the "post-classical" period of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. These texts are the Bahrü'l-Mükâşefe (The Sea of Mutual Revelations) and the Hikâyet-i Zuhûr-ı Âl-i 'Osmân (The Story of the Rise of the House of 'Osmân), and respectively they deal with an imagined future Ottoman sultanic geneaology and a largely legendary Ottoman imperial past, and as such they—as well as their antecedent texts, the Papasnâme and the Menâkıb-ı Mahmûd Paşa—can be read as related to the perennial historiographical questions of the "decline" and "rise" of the Ottoman Empire. The aim of the study is to examine some widely held "post-classical" perceptions, convictions, aspirations, and anxieties concerning the empire and its past, present, and future as they developed in the context of the changes and transformations that began to occur from the mid-sixteenth century onwards. As such, the study will be less of an empirically and positivistically based analysis of data than an examination of cultural history and mentalities in relation to how the aforementioned perceptions, convictions, aspirations, and anxieties came to be translated into the Ottoman popular imagination and social memory in the post-classical period of the Ottoman imperial history. Keywords: 17th century, Ottoman Cultural History, Popular Imagination, PseudoHistorical Narratives, Social Memory
Uşak'ta bir ayan ailesi: Paşaoğulları Hanedanı
The purpose of this research is to investigate the history of the Paşaoğulları family; a medium-scale local family that lived and flourished in Uşak in Western Anatolia. It can be said that investigating the history of the Paşaoğulları family could expand the state of our current knowledge on local powers known as notables (ayan) in the Ottoman Empire. The Paşaoğulları family was one of the ayan families that emerged in different regions and cities of the Ottoman Empire. The main argument of the present research is that Paşaoğlu Ahmed Ağa, the first member of this family, moved into the governmental positions and brought his family to an outstanding point in Uşak, which resembled the general trends of the process of ayanship. However, the position he found for himself was not in close connections with political decision-making mechanisms. Keywords: Local Notables, Nineteenth Century, Ottoman Empire, Paşaoğulları,Uşak,
18.yy Anadolusu'nda toprak tasarrufunda yeni eğilimler
This thesis attempts to investigate the changing features of 18th century Ottoman agricultural production in the context of commercialization. New emerging landowners, long-termed usufruct of arable lands and the sharecropping system are analyzed in conjunction with one another respectively. It discusses the implications of the titles held by individuals who purchased arable lands and claims that the Empire's inability to maintain the classical state structure intact from the second quarter of the17th century had particular impact on long-termed land usufruct and on the emergence of new land owners whose profession was not cultivation. It is argued in this thesis that in the 18th century, there was an inclination towards purchasing arable lands by individuals who resided in towns and city-quarters. It is argued that these new landowners made use of these fields, which were held long-term, by engaging in sharecropping contracts with villagers to receive a surplus of income. The main argument of this thesis is supported by analyzing empirical data composed of court cases regarding land sales and sharecropping contracts. This will display the inclinations of individual who purchased fields and engaged in sharecropping contracts. The empirical data used consists of 5 court registers: 3 of them belong to Konya and the remaining 2 to Antakya. This thesis aims to present an alternative perspective to previously conducted research by analyzing the commercialization phenomenon of agricultural production in the 18th century by suggesting that the sharecropping system was an important aspect of obtaining extra agricultural produce through the process of commercialization.
Dergâh-ı Abdal Musa: Devlet ve halk arasında bir heterodoks tekke
This thesis attempts to propose a hypothetical explanation to the reason of the noteworthy transformation in the relations between the heterodox tekkes and the Ottoman State. Since the foundation of the uc beylik at the fourteenth century, these relations were already based on the mutual interests; however after the appearence of new actors and threats their nature changed significantly.The present study tries to understand especially the period of transformations in the relations between the Ottomans and the heterodox Kalenderî dervishes happened after the appearence of the Safavî State hence late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. It focuses on the idea that following the success of the Safavî propaganda the Ottomans needed an intermediary agent to reach out the heterodox Turcomans and they found it in the dervish tekkes. The regulations in the tekke of Hadji Bektash and its reflections on the other Kalenderî tekkes are therefore very important to analyze in details.These transformations will be analyzed through Abdal Musa Tekke of Elmalı, Antalya. Abdal Musa appeared as a Kalenderî dervish transformed into a Bektashi sheikh and his tekke was connected directly to the central Hadji Bektash Tekke is one of the significant examples of this State policy against the Turcoman tribes and their heterodox dervishes.
Dış dünyanın osmanlı zihnindeki yansımaları 18. yüzyıl Osmanlı toplumunda bilginin üretimi ve aktarımı
This thesis attempts to investigate Ottoman ?perception of knowledge?. The construction of collective perception of knowledge, various knowledge concepts, spaces for knowledge production, modes and channels of transmission are analyzed. It discusses the role of oral and written modes of transmission and claims that the loosening classical organizational structure of the Empire and the social transformation experienced in the 18th century, had an impact on the society?s perception of knowledge. It is assumed in this thesis that knowledge was being transmitted by three different layers of society, namely ?high-ranking professionals?, ?secondary professionals? and the ?public?. The main argument of this thesis is being tested by the empirical data showing the professional status of knowledge transmitters, the books they owned, and the contents of the books which were classified with respect to the kind of knowledge they possessed. The empirical data used consists of 2 registers of kısmet-i askeriye, individual distinct records chosen from Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi Baş Muhasebe Kalemi dating the first half of 18th century, and one Üsküdar court record. This thesis carries the previous research done on ?Ottoman book culture? one step further for a better and meaningful interpretation of the results, and views the role of books from the perspective of perception of knowledge. Thus, it also hopes to provide an insight to the question of ?Why did printing come late to Ottoman world?? that has occupied the minds of Ottoman historians for half a century.
18. yüzyıl Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda tarımsal üretimin ticarileşmesi: Mülk edinimi (tasarruf-temellük) ve yerel güç sahipleri
This dissertation analyzes the transformation of agrarian relations and their impact on the commercialization of agricultural production in the Ottoman Empire during the eighteenth century in the southern Balkans and western Anatolian hinterlands. It examines the process by which the growth of the illicit wheat trade as an empire-wide development, influenced by changes in the urban-rural trade structure and the level of foreign and domestic demand, gradually reshaped imperial wheat policy. It examines shifts in land tenure and the emergence and consolidation of local elites in the context of landed-estate agriculture. This is achieved through a comprehensive prosopographical study of land tenure and local elite phenomena in Karaferye from the late fifteenth to the second half of the eighteenth century. By the eighteenth century, the analysis is extended also to the Selanik province, with a special focus on Selanik hinterland and in western Anatolia to Bergama in the context of çiftlik investments and illicit wheat trade. This micro-level examination allows for the observation of concurrent changes and continuities in land tenure and the impact of shifts in taxation practices on rural indebtedness and on the labor forms in different regions. It is argued that the growth of the çiftlik market and direct purchases, facilitated by the economic incentives of investor local elites and notables, led to the commodification of wheat through the illicit trade.