Restrictions on marriage in the second half of the 19th century in the Ottoman Empire: Prohibition of marriage with Iranian

From the beginning of the 19th century onwards, Ottoman Empire had implemented several marriage restrictions in the context of citizenship policies. One of these restrictions was the charter prohibiting marriages between Iranian and Ottoman subjects, dated 1874. This regulation was not only prohibiting marriages but also charging people who tied the knot despite the prohibition. In addition; according to the regulation, women who married Iranians and their children were considered as Ottoman citizens and these children were conscripted for military service. The objective of this work is to clarify the implementation process through detecting the scope of the prohibition and the conditions which caused the prohibition. In the work Differences and similarities of the regulation with previous instances and other marriage restrictions were stated. The transformation of the Ottoman Empire to Republic of Turkey, which referred to the construction process of the national state and definition of a new identity, was examined through nationality, marriage and military service issues which were at the center of the transformation. In the work, Ottoman Archive documents were used as a main source. The reflection of the marriage prohibition with Iranians, which had remained in force for 52 years and had been removed in 1926 after the transition to national state, was stated in the archival documents. It was determined that the main cause of the prohibition was the deterioration in sui generis Ottoman Nation System. Also, it was deduced that the construction of the modern-central state, the demographic changes that happened due to land losses and the compulsory military services regulations were some of the reference points in the formation process of the prohibition. It was seen that the main geographic axis of the struggle of influence between Iran and Ottoman Empire was Iraq region.