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Ottoman Military Recruitment and the Recruit: 1826-1853

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Ottoman Military Recruitment and the Recruit: 1826-1853 OTTOMAN MILITARY RECRUITMENT AND THE RECRUIT: 1826-1853 A Master’s Thesis by VEYSEL ŞİMŞEK THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BİLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA September 2005 To My Parents OTTOMAN MILITARY RECRUITMENT AND THE RECRUIT: 1826-1853 The Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University by VEYSEL ŞİMŞEK In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BİLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA September 2005 I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in History. --------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Stanford J. Shaw Supervisor I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in History. --------------------------------- Asst. Prof. Oktay Özel Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in History. --------------------------------- Asst. Prof. Nur Bilge Criss Examining Committee Member Approval of the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences --------------------------------- Prof. Dr. Erdal Erel Director ABSTRACT This thesis attempts to offer an account of Ottoman military recruitment, and those who were recruited in the era between 1826 and 1853. The period in question marks an era of significant reforms, including the establishment of a European-style standing army, manned by conscripts. This study tries to reveal some aspects of Ottoman conscription, which was forcibly imposed to raise the new army, including its origins, recruiters and recruitment procedures. While illustrating this point, emphasis was not only given to laws and regulations, but also to their practice. The thesis argues that the weakest members of Ottoman society were destined to be forcibly recruited into the army, while stronger members were often able to avoid it, even after Tanzimat and military reforms of 1846. Finally, it tries to reflect the common subjects’ and soldiers’ responses to the military recruitment, which were often manifested as discontentment, resistance, evasion and desertion, especially in its initial stages. Key Words: Ottoman Army, Conscription, Mahmud II, Tanzimat, Military Reform in the Ottoman Empire iii ÖZET Bu tez, 1826–1853 yılları arasında Osmanlı ordusuna asker toplanmasını incelemektedir. Söz konusu dönemde önemli reformlar gerçekleşmiştir. Zorunlu askerliğin getirilmesiyle oluşturulmuş Avrupa tarzı bir ordunun kurulması bu reformların önemli bir kısmını oluşturmuştur. Çalışmanın amacı, Osmanlı’daki zorunlu askerlik hizmetini ve bunun kökenlerini, asker toplayıcılarını ve askere alma usullerini de kapsayacak şekilde açıklamaktır. Konu ele alınırken, çıkarılan kanunların yanı sıra, bunların uygulamaları üzerinde de durulmuştur. Bu tezde, Osmanlı toplumunun en zayıf üyeleri askere alınırken, güçlülerin Tanzimat ve 1846 askeri reformlarından sonra bile çoğunlukla askerlikten kaçabildikleri öne sürülmektedir. Çalışmada son olarak halkın ve askere alınanların, özellikle ilk dönemlerde, askerliğe karşı çoğunlukla memnuniyetsizlik ve itaatsizlik şeklinde ortaya çıkan tepkileri ele alınmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Osmanlı Ordusu, Askere Alma, II. Mahmud, Tanzimat, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Askeri Reform iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to first thank my supervisor Stanford J. Shaw for his continuous support, encouragement and guidance during this project. His comments and remarks on the initial texts were crucial for structuring the final text. I am also deeply indebted to him for devoting his very precious time for editing the drafts. I am truly grateful to my professors Dr. Halil İnalcık, Dr. Oktay Özel, Dr. Nur Bilge Criss, Dr. Evgeni Radushev, Ali Yaycıoğlu, Dr. Eugenia Kermeli, Dr. Paul Latimer, Dr. Ahmet Simin and Dr. Hakan Kırımlı, for their lectures greatly contributed to my academic development over the last three years. I owe a lot to professors outside our department, whose names should be mentioned here: Dr. Hakan Erdem, Dr. Virginia Aksan, Dr. Cengiz Kırlı and Dr. Öcal Oğuz shared their ideas and gave valuable suggestions that aided me during my research. My special thanks are due to my friends Valeri Morkva and İlter Satıroğlu for helping me in reading secondary sources which are not in English. I am also obliged to thank Jason Warehouse, Forrest Watson and Yalçın Murgul. They kindly bore the burden of the very painstaking job of editing and proofreading. I thank my wonderful friends Erinç Akdoğan, M. İsmail Kaya, Nuray Ocaklı, Muhsin Soyudoğan, Emrah Pelvanoğlu, Emre Turgay and Duygu Aysal for their invaluable friendship during my stay at Bilkent. My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, who supported me in my decisions since my childhood. I would also like to thank my dear friends Yasin Kokarca, Mahmut Kavak and Elif Bayraktar; for life would have been unbearable without their love and friendship. v Last, but not least, I am very grateful to my former professors Dr. Christoph Neumann, Dr. Cüneyd Okay and Dr. İştar Gözaydın, for they first introduced me to the fascinating world of the Ottomans and encouraged me to pursue my studies in Ottoman history instead of industrial automation systems, which was not a fascinating world at all. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT................................................................................................................iii ÖZET .......................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................................vii INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I: TRANSITION AND CHANGE: AN OVERVIEW OF THE OTTOMAN ARMY UNTIL THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY................... 9 I.1 The Ottoman Army in the Classical Age.......................................................... 10 I.2 The Crises and Decentralization....................................................................... 12 I.3 Selim III and the Nizam-ı Cedid ...................................................................... 20 CHAPTER II: RECRUITMENT FOR THE OTTOMAN ARMY: 1826-1853 ........ 30 II.1 Abolition of the Janissary Corps and establishment of the Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye ....................................................................................................... 30 II.2 The Recruiters ................................................................................................. 35 II.3 Collecting the recruits: .................................................................................... 41 II.4 Reforms of 1843 and Kur’a Law of 1846 ....................................................... 50 CHAPTER III: THE OTTOMAN RECRUIT: 1826-1853........................................ 56 III.1 Popular Response to the New Army and Resistance to Military Recruitment ................................................................................................................................56 III.2 Evasion of military recruitment ..................................................................... 71 III.2 Desertion ........................................................................................................ 74 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................... 80 vii BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................... 84 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... 92 APPENDIX A: The balance sheet for the Mansure Army between 1826 and 1837 ................................................................................................................................92 APPENDIX B: The number of soldiers demanded from the provinces and rejected for health reasons during a levy conducted in the mid-1830s................................ 93 APPENDIX C: The number of recruits sent from the sancak of Çirmen during the reign of Mahmud II (1826-1829) ........................................................................... 95 APPENDIX D: Deaths in Military Hospitals around İstanbul............................... 96 APPENDIX E: Personal belongings of an Ottoman corporal................................ 97 APPENDIX F: “The Talk on the Street” ............................................................... 98 APPENDIX G: Sample Documents..................................................................... 100 viii “Benî Adem kahrile zaptolur, hilmile olmaz”1 INTRODUCTION It was my last summer holiday before going to the university when I met a Frenchman from Strasbourg, who told me the interesting story of his father and grandfather. As a resident of Strasbourg and a citizen of Imperial Germany in 1914, his grandfather was called up for the German Army during the war. His late father, who was conscripted by the French Republic-the new owner of Alsace-Loraine after the Great War, would be killed in action in 1940. As a high school student, who did not know much about life and history, I was truly amazed by what I heard. How come the father and son fight
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