CAULDRON OF DISSENT: A STUDY OF THE JANISSARY CORPS, 1807-1826 BY MEHMET MERT SUNAR BA, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, 1996 MA, Bilkent University, Ankara, 1999 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate School of Binghamton University State University of New York 2006 © 2006 by Mehmet Mert Sunar All Rights Reserved Accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate School of Binghamton University State University of New York 2006 December 6, 2006 Donald Quataert, Department of History, Binghamton University Rifa’at Abou-El-Haj, Department of History, Binghamton University Fa-ti Fan, Department of History, Binghamton University Moulay Ali Bouânani, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Studies, Binghamton University iv Abstract This dissertation examines the role of the janissaries in social and political life of the early nineteenth century Istanbul. In contrast to the mainstream historiography which has treated the Janissary Corps exclusively as a military institution, this study attempts to explore social and political functions of the janissaries within the Ottoman polity. The involvement of the janissaries in crafts, commerce and agriculture in growing numbers, which became noticeable in the early seventeenth century, resulted in their integration into civil life. By the early nineteenth century, ‘janissary’ as a social category included different members of urban society from daily wage workers to small merchants in Istanbul. This dissertation argues that the integration of the janissaries into civil life had far reaching effects on the political dynamics of the Ottoman Empire. The presence of janissaries among artisans, guilds and working population of Istanbul enabled these groups to carve out a political space for themselves despite the ruling elite’s resentment and resistance. Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the threat of a potential janissary rebellion forced the central authorities to pay attention to the demands and interests of the urban groups which constituted the Janissary Corps. Still, the central state obstinately refused the demands of these urban groups to be represented in the government following the rebellion of 1808. Although Mahmud II’s administration granted this right to junior janissary v officers for a brief period during the early phases of the Greek Rebellion, it had no intention of constituting a political structure based on popular consent. As soon as it became clear that Greeks in Istanbul did not pose any threat to the central state, Mahmud II’s government not only moved to annul this right but also to eliminate the janissary control over the state once and for all. vi To my grandfather, Mehmed Sırrı bin Osman vii Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my dissertation advisor, Donald Quataert who has been the major source of guidance for this project. I will forever be grateful to him for his patience, encouragement and continuous support. It has been my good fortune to know and learn from him. I am also indebted to Rifa’at Abou-El-Haj who provided invaluable insights and criticism from the inception of this project to its completion. I can not express my gratitude enough for his guidance and friendship. Both Donald Quataert and Rifa’at Abou-El-Haj will serve as models for me with their scholarly enthusiasm and dedication to their work. I also had the privilege of having Fa-ti Fan in my dissertation committee and I have benefited greatly from his astute comments and advice for this work. Likewise, I am indebted to Moulay Ali Bouanani, who agreed to take on the responsibility of being an outside reader for this dissertation. Throughout this dissertation I have been fortunate to receive advice, encouragement and information from many people and among them I would like to thank Çağdaş Üngör, Betül Demir, Kadir Üstün, Nadir Özbek, Gültekin Yıldız, Kutlu Akalın, Metin Bezikoğlu, Ali Yaycıoğlu, and Süheyla Yenidünya. I must thank the staffs of the Prime Ministry Archives and ISAM for providing pleasant and efficient places to conduct my research. I especially thank my fellow researchers and friends in the archives who provided a friendly viii environment throughout my research. Among them I am particularly grateful to Özgür Kolçak, Özgür Oral, Elif Ekingen, Sawai Kazuaki, Milena Methodieva, Selda Sert. I should also thank the staff of Binghamton University Library for their professional assistance. I am also indebted to Aslıhan Aykaç and Aynur Derouen for their invaluable assistance and support for this project. I am truly grateful to my friends in Binghamton who shared their friendship and made the urban wilderness of Binghamton a tolerable place. Throughout my stay in Binghamton, Kaan and Tuba Ağartan, Onur Yıldırım, Serdar Sönmez, Ahmet Yıldız, Attila Aytekin, Kasım Kopuz, Kemal Sağlam, Mehmet Can Yıldız, Akif Kayapınar, Andrea J. Dekoter, Barış Ünlü, Selim Karahasanoğlu, Ödül Celep, Nalan Turna, Can Nacar, among other friends were major source of support. To my long time friends in Istanbul who have always shared their friendship and support, I can not thank all of them enough. Among them, Kemal Öncü, Can Arhun, Mustafa İlker Görkem, Tevfik Murat Serkan, Oğuz Uygur, and Semih Aslan have been major source of support. My deepest gratitute goes to Axel B. Çorlu for his friendship and continuous support. All your base are belong to us, Axel! Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my family who has always been there for the truest kind of support. Without their unconditional love, support and prayers this study would not have been possible. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract iv Acknowledgements vii Table of Contents ix List of Abbreviations xi Tables xii Introduction 1 Chapter One Janissary Artisans and Laborers in Early Nineteenth Century Istanbul 32 “When grocers, porters and other riff-raff become soldiers”: the Process and its Observers 33 Janissary Artisans and Laborers in Early Nineteenth Century Istanbul 48 The Profile of Janissary Artisans and Laborers Methodological Problems 54 Profiles of Janissary Artisans 60 Janissaries and Laborers 65 Janissary Esnaf and the Resistance to the Application of the Narh 77 Chapter Two Janissaries and the Early Nineteenth Century Istanbul Rebellions 96 Modern Historiography on Istanbul Rebellions 99 Staging a Rebellion in Istanbul 107 A Janissary Tradition: Disobedience 148 Chapter Three Reprisal: The Elimination of the Janissary Opposition 158 Janissaries in the Ottoman-Russian War of 1809-1812 161 The Politics of Centralization 176 The Outbreak of the Greek Rebellion and the Peak of the Janissary Power in Istanbul 181 The Elimination of the Janissary Opposition 189 x Chapter Four The Abolition of the Janissary Corps and its Aftermath 200 The Uprising of 1826 205 The Aftermath 210 Confiscation of Janissary Property 217 Reactions to the Abolition in Provinces 227 Conclusion 242 Appendices 252 Bibliography 256 xi List of Abbreviations A. DVN. KLB Bab-ı Asafi Divan Kalemi Kalebend Defterleri A. DVN. MHM Bab-ı Asafi Divan Kalemi Mühimme Defterleri C. AS Cevdet Askeriye C. BLD Cevdet Belediye C. DH Cevdet Dahiliye C. ZB Cevdet Zaptiye D. YNÇ Bab-ı Defteri Yeniçeri Kalemi HAT Hatt-ı Hümayun KK Kamil Kepeci Tasnifi MAD Maliyeden Müdevver EI² Encyclopedia of Islam, Second Edition xii Tables Table 1 Distribution of pay-tickets held by janissaries with esnaf titles 60 Table 2 Distribution of gediks 224 1 Introduction “…and I was astonished at the freedom with which they expressed their opinions on the measures of the sultan. I had a long conversation with an effendi at Pergamus, and another with a Turkish gentleman at Magnesia, who agreed in stating that the country was already oppressed beyond bearing, ‘and what is all this for?’ said one of them ‘for what are we obliged to keep increasing the burdens of the people, while they are becoming every day less and less able to bear even what they have hitherto borne? For what, but for the new expensive whims of the Sultan, and for his obstinacy.” 1 This dissertation examines the place of the Janissary Corps in Ottoman social and political life during the early nineteenth century. Since the “janissary” presence and influence was the most significant in the capital of the empire, this dissertation mainly focuses on the janissaries of Istanbul. Rather than looking at the Janissary Corps as a degenerated military institution of the so- called ‘traditional order’, this study argues that the Janissary Corps evolved beyond their initial role and acquired important socio-political functions. The Corps became an institutional base by which various urban elements tried to protect their privileges and interests against the ruling elite. By the early nineteenth century, the Janissary Corps consisted of a wide variety of urban groups from merchants and guild members to street peddlers and unskilled daily wage laborers. Although the integration of the janissaries with urban elements was already complete in the seventeenth century, it was from the eighteenth century onwards that the socio-political 1 Charles MacFarlane, Constantinople in 1828: A Residence of Sixteen Months in the Turkish Capital and Provinces: with an Account of the Present State of the Naval and Military Power, and of the Resources of the Ottoman Empire (London: Saunders and Otley, 1829), 186. 2 character of the corps gained much more importance against a