Letters from Vidin: a Study of Ottoman Governmentality and Politics of Local Administration, 1864-1877
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LETTERS FROM VIDIN: A STUDY OF OTTOMAN GOVERNMENTALITY AND POLITICS OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATION, 1864-1877 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Mehmet Safa Saracoglu ***** The Ohio State University 2007 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Carter Vaughn Findley, Adviser Professor Jane Hathaway ______________________ Professor Kenneth Andrien Adviser History Graduate Program Copyright by Mehmet Safa Saracoglu 2007 ABSTRACT This dissertation focuses on the local administrative practices in Vidin County during 1860s and 1870s. Vidin County, as defined by the Ottoman Provincial Regulation of 1864, is the area that includes the districts of Vidin (the administrative center), ‛Adliye (modern-day Kula), Belgradcık (Belogradchik), Berkofça (Bergovitsa), İvraca (Vratsa), Rahova (Rahovo), and Lom (Lom), all of which are located in modern-day Bulgaria. My focus is mostly on the post-1864 period primarily due to the document utilized for this dissertation: the copy registers of the county administrative council in Vidin. Doing a close reading of these copy registers together with other primary and secondary sources this dissertation analyzes the politics of local administration in Vidin as a case study to understand the Ottoman governmentality in the second half of the nineteenth century. The main thesis of this study contends that the local inhabitants of Vidin effectively used the institutional framework of local administration ii in this period of transformation in order to devise strategies that served their interests. This work distances itself from an understanding of the nineteenth-century local politics as polarized between a dominating local government trying to impose unprecedented reforms designed at the imperial center on the one hand, and an oppressed but nevertheless resistant people, rebelling against the insensitive policies of the state on the other. Without denying that a certain level of violence was prevalent, I argue, first, that the distinction between the state and society was not as clear as presumed, second, that the local administrative branch of the state was not a monolith body of state agents and third, that the society was not always oblivious and rebellious to the reform policies. iii Dedicated to my mother, Nurcan Kaygusuz and to my wife, Heather Almer iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my adviser Carter Vaughn Findley, for intellectual support and for his patience in reading several drafts of this work. I thank Jane Hathaway and Kenneth Andrien for stimulating discussions that we had over time. These discussions helped me lift my head up from nineteenth-century Ottoman history to see the broader picture. I am grateful for the tremendous amount of time they took to read and respond to parts of this dissertation. Also invaluable in this process has been Joby Abernathy, who painstakingly walked me through various aspects of bureaucracy. It has been a prvillege to exchange ideas with Huricihan İslamoğlu, who has always been an intellectual mentor for me. I consider myself lucky to have had Alp Yücel Kaya and Selçuk Dursun as comrades in the last decade. The research for this dissertation was supported in part by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Institute for Turkish Studies, the Center for Advanced Studies in Sofia, Bulgaria, and generous support from the History Department and the Graduate School of the Ohio State University. I am also indebted to the staff members of the archives in Istanbul, Sofia and Vidin, who patiently guided me through their catalogues. I owe special thanks to Margarita Dobreva, Zorka Ivanova, Rumen Kovachev, Evgeni Radushev, Aşkın Zorlu, Milena Methodieva and her wonderful v grandmother who kindly helped me to fınd my way around in Vidin. My discussions with Yiğit Akın, Sedat Bingöl, Musa Çadırcı, Boğaç Ergene, Michael Hickey, Avi Rubin, Kent Schull, Luke Springman, Lisa Stallbaumer-Beishline, and Zeynep Türkyılmaz helped me organize my thoughts into writing. In the process of research and writing, Heather and I welcomed Sofi Elif and Luke Emre to our nomadic existence. As two small beads of hope, they continue to brighten every single day of our lives. My father- in-law Arnold Almer and my mother Nurcan Kaygusuz were invaluable to us as we often burdened them with our presence and requests. My mother always encouraged me to ask questions and inspired me to pursue my education at all costs. I cannot thank her enough for this. Finally, I am indebted to Heather for her endless patience and the sacrifices she made to allow me to finish this work. She had faith in me even at times that I did not; without her, this would not be. vi VITA June 29, 1974……………..…………..…………………..Born-Antakya Turkey 1996……………….…B.S. Economics, the Midde East Technical University 1998……….…………M.S. Economics, the Midde East Technical University 1998-2003 ……….........................................Graduate Teaching Assistant The Ohio State University 2006-2007………………………………………..Assistant Professor of History Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania PUBLICATIONS 1. “Local Administrative Councils: Drafting Local Realities for the Imperial Eye,” in Huricihan Islamoglu and Jane Burbank (Eds) Law and Transformation in the Russian and Ottoman Empires, Forthcoming. 2. “Reality with a Moral Twist: Ahmed Midhat’s Observations as a “Realistic” Novel” in Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 15/1 (Spring 2006) 3. “Küreselleşme: Retorik ve Gerçeklik,” (“Globalization: Rhetoric and Reality”). Toplum ve Bilim, 71/3 (1996). FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ..........................................................................................ii Dedication ..................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments ........................................................................... v Vita...............................................................................................vii List of Tables................................................................................... x List of Figures ................................................................................ xi Chapters 1. Introduction.............................................................................1 2. Tanzimat: The imperial context .............................................15 2.1 – The tanzimat era: marking a crisis and a transition .................. 25 2.1.1– The ottoman social formation and the tanzimat....................... 32 2.1.2– From tax farmers to tax collectors............................................ 50 2.1.3– Liberal-capitalist ottoman social formation .............................. 64 2.2 – Crisis and transformation at the local level............................... 82 2.3 – Conclusion............................................................................... 93 3. Sitting together: local councils and the politics of administration in the county of vidin .....................................99 3.1 – The many parts of the imperial dominions: The county as an administrative unit ....................................................... 101 3.2 – The regulation of 1871: The county as a reflection of the province................................................................................. 104 3.3 – Councils: Inevitable dynamism? ............................................. 109 3.4 – Councils: Conveying or constituting local reality?................... 122 3.5 – Of permanency and change: The politics of election................ 134 3.6 – Conclusion............................................................................. 162 viii 4. Once inside the chamber…: Participation to politics of local administration ............................................................. 165 4.1 – Seals: Images of participation? ............................................... 167 4.2 – Yearbooks: Reflections of the judicio-administrative sphere. .. 206 4.3 – Conclusion: A better vision of the system?.............................. 220 5. Writing politics: Ottoman governmentality and the language of reports ............................................................... 224 5.1 – Several times he had been given well-intended reminders”: A case of local antagonism ..................................................... 226 5.2 – Land and power in Berkofça................................................... 238 5.3 – Ottoman governmentality....................................................... 245 5.4 – Using Ottoman governmentality ............................................. 256 5.5 – Staying out: possibilities of challenging Ottoman governmentality ..................................................................... 272 5.6 – Conclusion............................................................................. 282 6. Conclusion ........................................................................... 285 Bibliography................................................................................ 305 ix LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3.1 Candidate Lists for Potential Members of Vidin’s Administrative Council……………………………………………….….138 3.2 Lists of Candidates for the Council of Appeals and Crime in Vidin…………….………………………………………………………..144 3.3 Members of the Administrative Council and the Council of Appeals and Crime in Vidin……………………………………………..145 3.4 Names and Years of Appointments of Vidin’s Council Members……………………………………………………………………..152