Institutionalisation of modern law enforcement organisation and law enforcement activities in the Ottoman (1826-1846)

One of the most crucial instruments of a state organisation is a law enforcement force that can make its authority felt by large segments of the society. However, despite this, these law enforcement institutions and practices have received little attention from historians. This study addresses the institutional developments of law enforcement organisations in Istanbul between 1826-1846 through the lens of urban public order in order to fill this gap as much as possible. In the existing literature, which consists of a small number of studies on the subject, a connection is established between the abolition of the Janissary Corps and the establishment of the Police in 1845 and Zaptiye in 1846. However, the intervening period of approximately twenty years is skirted around or, more simply, ignored. However, as the study shows, the twenty years in question represent a period in which modern state apparatuses and technologies of power, shaped by information and statistics, emerged. Law enforcement institutions and practices, which are the main focus of this thesis, occupy a crucial position within these modern state apparatuses. The thesis seeks to answer questions such as how the institutional developments undertaken within the framework of the possibilities and limited capacities of the period affected the social order in the period under consideration, how the sources of concern for security were transformed and how these concerns were dealt with. In order to provide a comparative perspective within the framework of this purpose and to make some meaningful inferences about the post-1826 regulations, the law enforcement and public order practices carried out in the traditional period were evaluated in the first step. In the second step, the practices of the Seraskerlik (commander in chief) and the Nezaret of Ihtisap, the two main actors of Istanbul law enforcement following the 1826 regulations, are focused on. In the third step, the process of transferring the duties and responsibilities of the Nezaret of Ihtisap to the Zaptiye institution and its abolition is analysed. Archival sources and the chronicles of the period were mainly used in the study, while the works of foreign observers were also utilised. As a result of the study, the nature of the law enforcement services of the two important stakeholders of Istanbul's police force, the Seraskerlik and the Nezaret of Ihtisap, and the relationship and cooperation of both institutions are shared. In addition, the findings on the main motivations behind the attempts to establish the modern Police (Zaptiye) Organisation have been put forward.