Two treatise on morality taught in schools during the Tanzimat period: Risâle-i Ahlâk ve Zeyl-i Risâle-i Ahlâk
AHMET AKŞİT
In the Ottoman Empire, morality was long considered an issue belonging to the domain of the ulema. However, shortly after the Tanzimat, Sadık Rifat Paşa, one of the leading figures in the Ottoman bureaucracy, authored a treatise on morality to serve as textbook for elementary school students for over 50 years. Rifat Paşa later published a more comprehensive treatise for secondary school students and young civil servants. Read in sequence, the treatises reveal their shared aim of developing moral behavior adequate personnel for members of a functional bureaucracy the Ottoman State was striving to build. The treatise for elementary schools is modeled after Kınalızade’s 16th century moral treatise. Considering the worldview they introduce and the function they serve, however, both of Rifat Paşa’s treatises represent a rupture from Kınalızade’s. These treatises sound like addressing all subjects of the Ottoman Empire, whether Muslim and non-Muslim. This article aims to understand the educational policy of the reformist faction by examining the content of the treatises in question, the rivalries among different factions vying to shape the curriculum of the new schools, and the challenges facing the empire at that time.
Keywords: Moral, Ottoman bureaucracy, Tanzimat, ulema, education
The limits of scientific forestry: Three cases of bureaucratic practice in the Ottoman provinces
BAŞAK AKGÜL
This article explores the tense relationship between the scientific forestry approach adopted by the Ottoman central administration in the nineteenth century and its implementation in the provinces. Through three case studies, it demonstrates how this new policy was reshaped in response to local dynamics. In its official discourse, scientific forestry sought to standardise the use of forests and bring forestlands under control through techno-bureaucratic methods such as mapping, establishing felling quotas and regulations, tree marking, and issuing licences. However, forests that were difficult to access and lacked clearly defined administrative boundaries often conflicted with the central government’s modes of intervention. As a result, the policies formulated under scientific forestry did not yield a uniform or uninterrupted regime of control on the ground. Instead, they were implemented in various forms, shaped by geographical constraints, limited administrative capacity, and interactions with local actors. Deviations from official regulations served as mechanisms for maintaining imperial authority in the provinces; practices that appeared to defy formal procedures often became part of a pragmatic mode of governance. The cases studied demonstrate that scientific forestry was not solely a top-down model of technical control; it was also a flexible and negotiable administrative practice responsive to local contingencies.
Keywords: Ottoman Empire, Taurus Mountains, scientific forestry, provincial bureaucracy, timber trade
From Maximilian to Díaz, Mexican-Ottoman relations: From a brief diplomatic spring to the Ottoman Migration throughout the Díaz era (1864-1911)
HAMDİ GENÇ - ALİ ASLAN
This article explores the historical trajectories of Ottoman-Mexican relations as well as the migration from the Ottoman State to Mexico. It further investigates the foundational phases of diplomatic contacts between two states, the treaties concluded between them and the effects of political transitions on their bilateral affairs. A substantial influx of migration from many regions globally occurred toward the American continent beginning in the latter half of the 19th century. A significant number of Ottomans, especially from Syria and Lebanon, engaged in this movement. This study provides a detailed analysis of the migration specifically directed toward Mexico. The study aims to identify the underlying causes of migration, as well as the economic activities and social lives of migrants in Mexico. The article also sheds light on the sectors in which Ottomans operated, the social operations they established, the periodicals they published, and how these factors affected bilateral relations. One of the issues discussed in this article is the Ottoman government’s reluctance to open a diplomatic presence in Mexico for a long time, despite strong lobbying and diasporic efforts by its people. According to numerous reports and correspondence preserved in the Ottoman archives, the absence of an Ottoman representation in Mexico led to various grievances and hardships among its subjects. Furthermore, the Ottoman State’s approach regarding its citizens in Mexico is explored through archival documents such as various bureaucratic correspondences, court records, and consular reports. The principal sources of this study consist of Ottoman archival records (Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Directorate of State Archives) and secondary sources related to the history of Mexico.
Keywords: Mexico, migration, Ottoman, Díaz, Lebonan, Syria
Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic: From subjects, citizens, to minority
BEDROSS DER MATOSSIAN
This article critically explores the concept of “minority” and its application to Armenians through linguistic, historical, and historiographical perspectives, including its portrayal in modern history textbooks. It argues that the concepts of “minority” and “majority” were largely absent from the political and social realities experienced by subjects in the Ottoman Empire until its later years. Therefore, these terms held little meaning in the empire’s traditional ethno-religious order. Ottoman governance was structured around religious communities, imperial hierarchy, and negotiated privileges rather than numerical majorities or nationally defined minorities. It is therefore methodologically problematic and anachronistic for historians to apply these categories retroactively to the empire’s ethno-religious groups. This article investigates the emergence of majority-minority consciousness in the framework of the influences of constitutionalism, nationalism, imperial decline, and international interventions and argues that the transition from empire to nation-state excluded the Non-Muslim communities from being the constituent elements of the imperial order and transformed them to legally defined minorities. In the Republic of Turkey, this transition was institutionalized through Treaty of Lausanne, the minority status was defined in a narrow, legally limited, and depoliticized manner while processes of nation-building, Turkification, and social homogenization were strengthened. This study, which examines the concept of “minority” as a category that emerged historically and was constructed by the state, demonstrates the lasting effects of said transformation on citizenship, identity, and minority politics in modern Turkey, and contributes to more extensive discussions concerning the historical construction of majority and
minority identities.
Keywords: minority, Armenians, Ottoman, discrimination, Turkish Republic, millet system
