The case of Manisa district in the process of providing central authority in the provincial administration (1808-1861)

Before the 19th century, the provincial administration of the Ottoman Empire was far from centralised. Selim III (1789-1807) and Mahmud II (1808-1839) introduced some regulations in order to restore order in the provinces, to control the local powers that started to act independently from the centre and to put an end to their illegal practices. However, during the reign of Selim III, order in the provinces could not be restored, and during the reign of his successor Mahmud II, although complete centralisation in the provinces could not be achieved, important arrangements were made in this regard. Mahmud II, who mostly carried out his reforms in line with a despotic administration mentality, succeeded in suppressing the local powers in the provinces to a great extent. In particular, after the abolition of the janissaries in 1826, he accelerated reforms in order to transform the state into a modern-centralised structure. But this did not mean the end of the power centres in the provinces. On the other hand, the regulations of Mahmud II's reign also shaped the reforms carried out during the reign of his son Sultan Abdülmecid (1839-1861). One of the objectives of the reforms of the Abdülmecid period, which were led by bureaucrats rather than the Sultan, was to centralise the civil administration. In parallel with this aim, a number of reforms were introduced in the civil administration. In this study, the local reflections of the reforms made by the central government in the provincial administration from the reign of Mahmud II until the end of the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid II will be analysed with the case of Manisa disctrict. The first part of the three-part study is dedicated to an examination of the Ottoman provinces before the nineteenth century, with a particular focus on the administrative structure of Manisa. The second part of the study examines the administrative arrangements put in place by Mahmud II in line with his efforts to abolish the ayans. The third and final part of the study focuses on the extent of the reforms to the provincial administration during the reign of Abdülmecid II. In the case of Manisa, the primary objective is to analyse the manner in which the traditional administrative approach underwent, or failed to undergo, transformation, and the subsequent developments during this process.Keywords: Ottoman, Provincial Administration, Ayan, Manisa, Mahmud II, Abdülmecid.