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Gizem Cimsit-First Paper CONSCRIPTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY OTTOMAN EMPIRE: ITS REFLECTIONS ON THE LIVES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE AND RESISTANCE, 1843-1876 Gizem Çimşit Boğaziçi University 2015 CONSCRIPTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY OTTOMAN EMPIRE: ITS REFLECTIONS ON THE LIVES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE AND RESISTANCE, 1843-1876 Thesis submitted to the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Gizem Çimşit Boğaziçi University 2015 “Conscription in the Nineteenth Century Ottoman Empire: Its Reflections on the Lives of Ordinary People and Resistance, 1843-1876,” a thesis prepared by Gizem Çimşit in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts in History degree from the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History at Boğaziçi University. This thesis has been approved on …./…/2015 by: Prof. Dr. Nadir Özbek (Thesis Advisor) Assoc. Prof. Cengiz Kırlı Assoc. Prof. Gültekin Yıldız An abstract of the thesis of Gizem Çimşit for the degree of Master of Arts from the Ataturk Institute for Modern Turkish History to be taken May 2015 Title: Conscription in the Nineteenth Century Ottoman Empire: Its Reflections on the Lives of Ordinary People and Resistance, 1843-1876 This thesis examines the creation of a new army in the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century manned by conscripts. Starting from the eighteenth century, significant reforms were introduced in the Empire. A new army and a regular recruitment system were part of these reforms which are within the scope of this study. Especially after 1846, Ottoman subJects started to be recruited for military service as an obligation. This study presents the early years of implementation of the recruitment system. While analyzing the conscription law of 1846, the thesis takes examples of the practice of the law from archival documents. Finally, it tries to show the subJects’ reactions to conscription, which might have created cracks in the relationship between the state and its subJects. These reactions ranged from negotiable methods for avoiding the military service obligation to open rebellion, desertion, and even banditry. The law forms a struggle field for the ordinary people who are mostly invisible in history studies. The thesis tries to tell the real stories of ordinary people by analyzing this point of contestation which provides a chance to hear them. iii Atatürk Đlkeleri ve Đnkılap Tarihi Enstitüsü’nde Yüksek Lisans derecesi için Gizem Çimşit tarafından Mayıs 2015’te teslim edilen tezin kısa özeti Başlık: On dokuzuncu Yüzyılda Osmanlı’da Zorunlu Askerlik: Sıradan Đnsanların Hayatına Etkileri ve Direnişler, 1843-1876 Bu tez, Osmanlı’da on dokuzuncu yüzyılda zorunlu askerliğe dayalı yeni bir ordu yaratılması sürecini incelemektedir. On sekizinci yüzyıldan başlayarak, imparatorlukta önemli reformlar ortaya konulmaya çalışılmıştır. Yeni bir ordu ve düzenli bir askere alma sistemi bu reformlardandır ve çalışmanın kapsamını oluşturmaktadır. Özellikle 1846 yılından sonra Osmanlı tebaası kendi istekleri ve iradeleri dışında askerlik hizmeti için kaydedilmeye başladılar. Bu çalışma, askere alma sisteminin ilk yıllarındaki uygulamaları ortaya koymaya çalışmaktadır. Bir yandan Kur’a Kanunnamesini incelerken, pratikteki uygulamaları anlamak için de arşiv kaynaklarından örnekler sunmaktadır. Son olarak, bu tez tebaanın zorunlu askerliğe karşı tepkilerini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu tepkilerin devlet ve tebaa ilişkisinde yaratmış olabileceği çatlaklar araştırılmaktadır. Bu tepkiler, askerden kaçmak için uzlaşma ve müzakere metotlarına dayalı ve daha yumuşak yöntemlerden açık isyan, firar ve hatta eşkıyalığa kadar uzanmaktadır. Kanun tarihte sesini duymaya çok alışık olmadığımız sıradan insanlar için bir mücadele alanı yaratmıştır. Bu sesleri duymamıza yardımcı olan bu mücadele alanı analiz edilerek basit bir ahaliden çok daha fazlası olan insanların gerçek hikayeleri anlatılmaya çalışılmaktadır. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor Prof. Dr. Nadir Özbek for his guidance and assistance. He always supported me during the writing process of this thesis. While I was a beginner in the Ottoman Turkish, he always provided encouragement and support to me for studying in the archives. Without the help of his discussions and comments I could not have finished my thesis. Not only for this thesis, but for all my problems he was always there to help. I am also grateful to Assoc. Prof. Cengiz Kırlı for his courses at the Institute which gave me the inspiration to work on the Ottoman history, and also for his kind and helpful comments in the Jury. Assoc. Prof. Gültekin Yıldız was a chance for me in the Jury and I would like to thank to him for his precious comments and criticism. I owe a special thank to all professors of the Atatürk Institute, but especially to Çağlar Keyder, Şevket Pamuk, Ayşe Buğra, and Berna Yazıcı for their courses which provided me different perspectives. I am also thankful to Mustafa Çakıcı from the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives, from whom I took Ottoman Turkish courses. Without his expertise, and help it would have been impossible for me to learn Ottoman Turkish within a short period of time. I take this opportunity to express gratitude to Tracy Lord for her care, patience and encouragement. She was always there to help me even I was unable to write something and submit to her. Her comments and our conversations helped me a lot during the writing process. I owe thanks to Kathryn Kranzler for editing this thesis. I am also thankful to Necla Turunç who made the life at the Institute easier and deeply saddened us with her early passing. I would like to thank to Kadriye Tamtekin for all her help and Leyla Kılıç for her always smiling face and care. I considered myself lucky for coming to this Institute. Above all, I have met one of the most important people of my life at this Institute. She was always kind, helpful and understanding friend for me. When I needed her, she was always there. She listened to me patiently during our long conversations on the telephone. My most special and endless thanks go to my dear friend, Sema Yaşar Baraç, for all her help. Without her I would not have been able to write this thesis and even finish my courses. She is the precious gift that the Atatürk Institute gave me. I hope she will always be in my life as I will be in hers. I would like to thank all my classmates for their support. I am also thankful to Gülseren Duman for her help in the archives and for her encouragement, and to Erhan Bektaş for teaching me the Ottoman Turkish alphabet and for his friendship. My deepest gratitude goes to my beloved Ozan Güner. He was the closest witness of this stressful process and always helpful with his endless love and patience. I truly owe a deepest thank to him for all his tolerance and encouragement. He always believed in me even when I was so desperate, and made me believe in myself. I am indebted to my parents, Yasemin and Kemal Çimşit, and my aunt Makbule Karaaslan for their patience, endless love, and encouragement. They always supported me in my decisions since my childhood and loved me even the times that was hard to love me. My dearest brother Onur Çimşit, and his wife, my lovely sister Burçin Coşkundere Çimşit were always there for me to help and motivate. They deserve a lot more than simple thanks, but it is impossible to express my feelings with a few words. Therefore I dedicate my thesis to my family. v During the writing process I received financial support from TÜBĐTAK proJect 113K142 “Tanzimat’tan Cumhuriyet’e Aşar Vergisi ve Tahsilatı Ekseninde Toplum ve Siyaset, 1839-1925,” coordinated by my advisor Prof. Dr. Nadir Özbek. This financial support allowed me to concentrate on my thesis and finish it on time. I owe thanks to TÜBĐTAK. vi CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………....1 2. THE ROAD TO CONSCRIPTION: FROM THE JANISSARY CORPS TO THE RECRUITMENT OF SUBJECTS………………………………………….……….12 Early Efforts to Create a New Army………………………………………...13 The Disbandment of the Janissaries…………………………………………15 The New Army and Preparations for Conscription…………………………20 The Imperial Edict of Gülhane and Its Effects on the Military and Conscription……………………….……………………………………26 Non-Muslim SubJects of the Ottoman Empire and their Conditions in the Military…………………………………………………………………28 3. A RECRUITMENT STYLE: THE KUR’A SYSTEM IN THEORY AND PRACTICE……………………..…………………………………….……………..34 The Need for a Recruitment Strategy……………………………………….35 The Kur’a System and Its Legislation……………………………………….39 Implementation of the Kur’a System in Everyday Life……………………..43 4. THE ARTS OF RESISTANCE IN THE CONTEXT OF CONSCRIPTION: DESERTION, BANDITRY, AND OTHER METHODS OF THE ORDINARY PEOPLE………………………………………..……………………………………65 “Registering” the Deserters………………………………………………….66 Escaping from Military Service: Strategies of the Ordinary People………...73 5. CONCLUSION………………………………………………….………………106 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………….110 vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This thesis examines the effects of nineteenth century military system that can be called conscription, compulsory military service, or involuntary military recruitment. This system can be identified as an important tool of the modern state to increase its penetration capacity over the subJects. This study looks at the Ottoman Empire. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Ottoman Empire tried to introduce some changes concerned with society and politics. After the promulgation of the 1839 reform decree
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