Post by depletedreasons on Mar 27, 2008 2:21:28 GMT -5
Ilber Ortayli, "The Greeks and Ottoman Administration During the Tanzimat Period,"
in Charles Issawi and D. Gondicas (eds), The Greeks in the Ottoman Empire, From the Tanzimat to the Young Turks, [in press].
Even though the Greek Revolt was not the first successful national revolt, it had a shock effect on the Ottomans. The Serbian Revolt had paved the way for the other Balkan peoples to revolt and had increased their hopes for national revival; but the Greek Revolt directly accelerated the Balkan nationalist movements. After the foundation of the Kingdom of the Hellenes, the Greek nation all at once faced structural problems and elicited great hope and despair. After the Greek Revolt, the Ottoman Empire developed a consciousness of decline, and immediately tried to change its administrative, educational and military structures. Even though Austria and Russia had favoured Greek Independence for a while they soon gave up their Hellenophile policy out of fear of unrest from their own national minorities, namely, the Hungarians and Poles, who had a rich past.
One of the most striking consequences of the Greek Revolt was that the Ottomans began to eliminate Greeks from important positions in the bureaucratic and social structure of the Empire. As is well known, the Phanariot dragomans in the Sublime Porte were replaced either by converted Christians like Bulgarzade Yahya Efendi or by Armenians such as Sahak Abro Efendi. Some of the Phanariots, however, remained faithful and favored subjects of the Empire (with exceptions like Mavrokordato and Ypsilanti). For example, Musurus Pasa was sent as the first ambassador to Athens in 1840 and was hated intensely by Greck nationalists who attempted to assassinate him. As a result of this attempt on his life, he suffered permanent injury to his left hand. Photiadi Bey, his successor too as ambassador to Athens, Kalimaki Bey, the ambassador to Vienna, and Sava Pasha (who compiled a still favoured manual of Islamic law) are other prominent figures in the Ottoman administralion. But these men are the exceptions. In fact, Greek supremacy in the Ottoman Empire was in decay. The Ottomans took measures in order to prevent further revolts of Greek subjects in Rumelia and the islands.
In the following decades, the Ottoman administrative apparatus showed two features: reforms and grants of concessions to the Greek communities, on the one hand, and distrust and inspection, on the other hand. One of the most remarkable cases of counter-measures taken to prevent a nationalist revolt was in Samos. The Sublime Porte granted autonomy to this island by a special concessional decree (imtiyaz ferman) issued in 1832, and named it "Sisam Emareti." The islanders almost gained a constitutional structure. The waves of revolt had forced the Ottoman administration to create such a concessional status. A Greek Orthodox subject of the Porte was appointed as the governor of Samos (Sisam Beyi), and elected representatives from among the notables formed a meclis which was responsible for taking decisions on matters related to navigation, tax collection, construction, school instruction and even church affairs. The Ottoman army evacuated the island, (except a small corps of gendarmes) and public maintenance and security functions were left basically to the islanders. Sisam had to pay a certain annual tax to the Sublime Porte. In 1861, Miltiadi Bey Aristarchi was granted a new ferman which regulated the functions of the meclis, defining the legislative period and matters of tax collection and the budget of the emaret. The annual tax was set at 400,000 Ottoman kurus, and had to be paid to the Sublime Porte in two portions. However, the Ottomans retained the right to keep a small body of gendarmerie, consisting of twenty men with their commander. As jurisdictional authority, a judge had to be appointed by the Sublime Porte, who then would have to work with a court whose members were elected from among the local notables. The first provincial newspaper in the Ottoman Empire, Vilayet ceridesi, was probably published in Sisam before that of the Danubian provinces. The issue must have been in two languages: Greek and Ottoman Turkish. However, even though I found an irade in the archives, I have not yet been able to locate a copy of this issue. The constitutional status of Samos challenged, in a way, the Ottoman Constitution, since it remained in force even after 1878, together with Mount Lebanon, Crete and Eastern Rumelia.
On the other hand, fear of revolutionary activities abroad as well as in the Greek Kingdom caused a certain recession of the Creek element in the Empire, and Greeks were subjected to greater control than in the past.
The affairs of the Patriarchate became a quite controversial issue. This institution was criticized by the Greeks in the Kingdom as too conservative and was suspected by the Sublime Porte of being a spiritual and national center. Russia, on the other hand, had an ambivalent attitude towards the patriarchate, supporting it as it did formerly and yet hesitating because of the conflict with the nationalist demands of the Bulgarian Church movement. In spite of this, Russia spent much effort to keep its representative functions and its protective role of thc Greek Orthodox Church in the Empire. For instance, it became customary around this period for members of the Romanov family to visit the Ottoman Empire about every other year, and stop in Constantinople and Jerusalem, kissing the hands of the Patriarch in the presence of the public. Grand Duke Constantine's visit to Jerusalem in 1859 is a striking example of this. Russia continually sponsored the Greek Orthodox schools, defended the rights of Greek subjects, and turocd some cases of conversion into a diplomatic issue.
After the draft of the general educational law, Greek schools, like others, wcrc put under the control of the Ministry of Education. The books used in these were subject to scrutiny. Occasionally, even some Greek subjects informed the Porte by a petition of thc harmful contents of these books. Such a case took place in 1860. This petition stated that some schoolbooks brought from foreign countries to be used in these schools contained harmful material, and was signed by Ottomans belonging to different millets, including Greeks. They demanded that these books be rewritten and corrected. The decision of the Sublime Porte was that the history books had to contain the lives of the Apostles. These petitioners, mostly, muallims (school teachers), asked for twelve years to rewrite these books. They suggested Biblical history for primary schools, and ancient Greck history, general history together with Ottoman history and hagiography for secondary schools.
Others, such as a clerical professor named Filippaki from the Seminary of Halki (Heybeli), informed the Sublime Porte that the professors in the Seminary wcrc teaching the students harmful ideas. Filippaki was sent to Europe with a salary of 300 francs. Also, the newly founded Ottoman high schools (like Mekteb-i T/bbiye, Medical School, Mulkiyye Mektebi, Imperial School of Administration, Veterinary School etc.) granted a quota of 33 percent to non-Muslim students of Ottoman nationality. That quota caused both rumors and a struggle among different non-Muslim communities. In 1857, the Medical School, following a petition from the Armenian community, reduced the number of Greek candidates to 50 from 55, to the benefit of Armenian candidates. That case indicates a general trend in the Tanzimat period, when the Greek element in the Empire started to lose its former privileged status among other non-muslim communities.
Certainly the reaction of the elite Ottoman Greeks indicates a different character. Some of the Phanariots during this era tried to impose a confederative administrative structure, for the safety of the Empire and their own community. One of them, Andre Coromeles proposed a Turco-Greek empire and suggested that the Sultan should have the title of "Sultan of the Turks and King of Greeks." Another, Stefanos Xenos, emphasized "the common interests of the Turks and Greeks in the Empire" during the days of the Bulgarian revolt and anti- Turkish demonstrations in London. Another, Pitzipios Bey suggested in his book, the adaptation of Byzantine institutions, equality of two religions and the coronation of Sultan Abdulmecid as Emperor of the Byzantines. The Church had to fight on the one side against the secularist tendencies of some modern Greeks, and on the other side to oppose the demands of the Bulgarian nationalists, who sought to have a national independent Bulgarian church.
The lonian Islands, a joint protectorate of the Ottoman and Russian Empires and later of Britain, on the one side, and Crete on the other, were strictly controlled by the Ottomans. Whenever the General of the lonian Islands visited cities like Preveza on the continent, the Sublime Porte was informed by agents. And the missionary activities of the British Protestants in the islands were stopped by a cooperation of the Sublime Porte, the Greek Patriarchate and Russia. An irade of 1839 is a very clear and precise illustration of that.
A report of the Ottoman ambassador Musurus Pas,a in London informed the Sublime Porte that the Greek Kingdom enlisted the local people of Crete for the Greek army (28 March 1861). Musurus Pasha learned about this from his agents in London and met with Lord John Russell, and the Sublime Porte pressured Great Britain to prevent the Greek Kingdom from doing this. Some Cretans, registered in the islands belonging to the Greek Kingdom, had become Greek subjects. Musurus Pasa demanded, however, that they should not be entitled to claim Greek citizenship if they had migrated to one of the Ottoman Dodecanese islands or Anatolia. Actually, the small Hellenic Kingdom was in need of populatin and migration from the Ottoman continent and islands. It was not rare, nevertheless, that many of these immigrants tried to go back to the Ottoman Empire in disappointment. The Ottoman government, favouring this movement, exempted them from the capitation tax or cizye for 8-10 years, and sometimes subsidized them in agriculture. In May 1850 alone, 90 families came from Greece, back to their home.l3 During these years even the regulation of tithe (a,sar nizamnarnesi) was translated into Greek language.
Armenians, lews and Maronites were favoured to the detriment of Greeks in officialdom. In fact, Greek intellectuals had been suffering slowly from a brain drain, though in special professional branches of the army, officers and sailors of Greek origin were employed. At Easter the navy had to anchor in certain ports because of the Greek crews. Therefore at the Naval Academy (Mekteb-i Bahriyye-yi Sahane) the Greek language was instructed to all of the students.
In 1858 a certain Kostaki Bey was appointed to the Academy as instructor of Greck. During these years, it would be hard to claim that the Ottoman political mind could evaluate the essence of Greek nationalism. Nationalist movements and the activity of bands are usually cited as eskiya and eterya eskiyasi, and countermeasures which had to be taken were not achieved on the spot. Both official documents and Ottoman historiography contain little knowledge of the political background and character of this movement and their contacts or position towards other Balkan nationalisms.
The activities of Greek nationalist bands spurred Ottoman authorities to take some drastic countermeasures. In Thessaloniki alone, five leading persons were arrested in 1852. Therefore merchants and priests coming from Greece to Ottoman ports were subjected to investigation. Suspected of subversive activities, some Greek neighbourhoods in Istanbul, such as Tatavla and Pangalti were subjected to military control in January 1854 and Izzet Pasa was appointed as military-commander of Beyoglu. In the same year even in Beirut, the Greek colony of the town was put under strict control. Nationalist ideas spread widely among the Greeks of the Empire, leading the authorities to control every booklet and newspaper from Greece.
Greeks in the Aegean region and Trebizond enjoyed an economic renaissance. Kydonia (Ayvallk) and Izmir were transformed into cultural centers of Hellenism in Asia Minor, and a rich merchant class as well as rich Greek farmers emerged in small towns like Phocea (Foca). Greeks were represented in provincial councils (Meclis-i idare-i Vilayet and Meclis-i Idare-i Liva), but now they had to share this new privilege with other non-Muslim millets. At times they were subjected to abuse by Muslim members of these councils, which raised protests from the Pauiarchate.
The bureaucracy of the Tanzimat period, especially in the provinces of Rumelia, had a cultural fringe. A good number of them had a knowledge of Greek and Bulgarian. As Ahmed Mithat Efendi, a famous writer of the Hamidian era mentions in one of his books, "European children have to learn foreign languages in school, but Ottoman children, Turks, Armenians and Greeks of Istanbul pick up their languages by playing with each other..." A so-called book "Tuhfet'ul Ussak-A Present for Children" by Fevzi teaches Greek vocabulary in a poetic form to the Turks: Nam-i Hudadir Teos, ademe de antropos Dervise der asketis, evliya adi ayos (The name of the God is Theos, and man is anthropos, Dervish is askhetis, and evliya is agios).
coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/readings/ortayli1.html
in Charles Issawi and D. Gondicas (eds), The Greeks in the Ottoman Empire, From the Tanzimat to the Young Turks, [in press].
Even though the Greek Revolt was not the first successful national revolt, it had a shock effect on the Ottomans. The Serbian Revolt had paved the way for the other Balkan peoples to revolt and had increased their hopes for national revival; but the Greek Revolt directly accelerated the Balkan nationalist movements. After the foundation of the Kingdom of the Hellenes, the Greek nation all at once faced structural problems and elicited great hope and despair. After the Greek Revolt, the Ottoman Empire developed a consciousness of decline, and immediately tried to change its administrative, educational and military structures. Even though Austria and Russia had favoured Greek Independence for a while they soon gave up their Hellenophile policy out of fear of unrest from their own national minorities, namely, the Hungarians and Poles, who had a rich past.
One of the most striking consequences of the Greek Revolt was that the Ottomans began to eliminate Greeks from important positions in the bureaucratic and social structure of the Empire. As is well known, the Phanariot dragomans in the Sublime Porte were replaced either by converted Christians like Bulgarzade Yahya Efendi or by Armenians such as Sahak Abro Efendi. Some of the Phanariots, however, remained faithful and favored subjects of the Empire (with exceptions like Mavrokordato and Ypsilanti). For example, Musurus Pasa was sent as the first ambassador to Athens in 1840 and was hated intensely by Greck nationalists who attempted to assassinate him. As a result of this attempt on his life, he suffered permanent injury to his left hand. Photiadi Bey, his successor too as ambassador to Athens, Kalimaki Bey, the ambassador to Vienna, and Sava Pasha (who compiled a still favoured manual of Islamic law) are other prominent figures in the Ottoman administralion. But these men are the exceptions. In fact, Greek supremacy in the Ottoman Empire was in decay. The Ottomans took measures in order to prevent further revolts of Greek subjects in Rumelia and the islands.
In the following decades, the Ottoman administrative apparatus showed two features: reforms and grants of concessions to the Greek communities, on the one hand, and distrust and inspection, on the other hand. One of the most remarkable cases of counter-measures taken to prevent a nationalist revolt was in Samos. The Sublime Porte granted autonomy to this island by a special concessional decree (imtiyaz ferman) issued in 1832, and named it "Sisam Emareti." The islanders almost gained a constitutional structure. The waves of revolt had forced the Ottoman administration to create such a concessional status. A Greek Orthodox subject of the Porte was appointed as the governor of Samos (Sisam Beyi), and elected representatives from among the notables formed a meclis which was responsible for taking decisions on matters related to navigation, tax collection, construction, school instruction and even church affairs. The Ottoman army evacuated the island, (except a small corps of gendarmes) and public maintenance and security functions were left basically to the islanders. Sisam had to pay a certain annual tax to the Sublime Porte. In 1861, Miltiadi Bey Aristarchi was granted a new ferman which regulated the functions of the meclis, defining the legislative period and matters of tax collection and the budget of the emaret. The annual tax was set at 400,000 Ottoman kurus, and had to be paid to the Sublime Porte in two portions. However, the Ottomans retained the right to keep a small body of gendarmerie, consisting of twenty men with their commander. As jurisdictional authority, a judge had to be appointed by the Sublime Porte, who then would have to work with a court whose members were elected from among the local notables. The first provincial newspaper in the Ottoman Empire, Vilayet ceridesi, was probably published in Sisam before that of the Danubian provinces. The issue must have been in two languages: Greek and Ottoman Turkish. However, even though I found an irade in the archives, I have not yet been able to locate a copy of this issue. The constitutional status of Samos challenged, in a way, the Ottoman Constitution, since it remained in force even after 1878, together with Mount Lebanon, Crete and Eastern Rumelia.
On the other hand, fear of revolutionary activities abroad as well as in the Greek Kingdom caused a certain recession of the Creek element in the Empire, and Greeks were subjected to greater control than in the past.
The affairs of the Patriarchate became a quite controversial issue. This institution was criticized by the Greeks in the Kingdom as too conservative and was suspected by the Sublime Porte of being a spiritual and national center. Russia, on the other hand, had an ambivalent attitude towards the patriarchate, supporting it as it did formerly and yet hesitating because of the conflict with the nationalist demands of the Bulgarian Church movement. In spite of this, Russia spent much effort to keep its representative functions and its protective role of thc Greek Orthodox Church in the Empire. For instance, it became customary around this period for members of the Romanov family to visit the Ottoman Empire about every other year, and stop in Constantinople and Jerusalem, kissing the hands of the Patriarch in the presence of the public. Grand Duke Constantine's visit to Jerusalem in 1859 is a striking example of this. Russia continually sponsored the Greek Orthodox schools, defended the rights of Greek subjects, and turocd some cases of conversion into a diplomatic issue.
After the draft of the general educational law, Greek schools, like others, wcrc put under the control of the Ministry of Education. The books used in these were subject to scrutiny. Occasionally, even some Greek subjects informed the Porte by a petition of thc harmful contents of these books. Such a case took place in 1860. This petition stated that some schoolbooks brought from foreign countries to be used in these schools contained harmful material, and was signed by Ottomans belonging to different millets, including Greeks. They demanded that these books be rewritten and corrected. The decision of the Sublime Porte was that the history books had to contain the lives of the Apostles. These petitioners, mostly, muallims (school teachers), asked for twelve years to rewrite these books. They suggested Biblical history for primary schools, and ancient Greck history, general history together with Ottoman history and hagiography for secondary schools.
Others, such as a clerical professor named Filippaki from the Seminary of Halki (Heybeli), informed the Sublime Porte that the professors in the Seminary wcrc teaching the students harmful ideas. Filippaki was sent to Europe with a salary of 300 francs. Also, the newly founded Ottoman high schools (like Mekteb-i T/bbiye, Medical School, Mulkiyye Mektebi, Imperial School of Administration, Veterinary School etc.) granted a quota of 33 percent to non-Muslim students of Ottoman nationality. That quota caused both rumors and a struggle among different non-Muslim communities. In 1857, the Medical School, following a petition from the Armenian community, reduced the number of Greek candidates to 50 from 55, to the benefit of Armenian candidates. That case indicates a general trend in the Tanzimat period, when the Greek element in the Empire started to lose its former privileged status among other non-muslim communities.
Certainly the reaction of the elite Ottoman Greeks indicates a different character. Some of the Phanariots during this era tried to impose a confederative administrative structure, for the safety of the Empire and their own community. One of them, Andre Coromeles proposed a Turco-Greek empire and suggested that the Sultan should have the title of "Sultan of the Turks and King of Greeks." Another, Stefanos Xenos, emphasized "the common interests of the Turks and Greeks in the Empire" during the days of the Bulgarian revolt and anti- Turkish demonstrations in London. Another, Pitzipios Bey suggested in his book, the adaptation of Byzantine institutions, equality of two religions and the coronation of Sultan Abdulmecid as Emperor of the Byzantines. The Church had to fight on the one side against the secularist tendencies of some modern Greeks, and on the other side to oppose the demands of the Bulgarian nationalists, who sought to have a national independent Bulgarian church.
The lonian Islands, a joint protectorate of the Ottoman and Russian Empires and later of Britain, on the one side, and Crete on the other, were strictly controlled by the Ottomans. Whenever the General of the lonian Islands visited cities like Preveza on the continent, the Sublime Porte was informed by agents. And the missionary activities of the British Protestants in the islands were stopped by a cooperation of the Sublime Porte, the Greek Patriarchate and Russia. An irade of 1839 is a very clear and precise illustration of that.
A report of the Ottoman ambassador Musurus Pas,a in London informed the Sublime Porte that the Greek Kingdom enlisted the local people of Crete for the Greek army (28 March 1861). Musurus Pasha learned about this from his agents in London and met with Lord John Russell, and the Sublime Porte pressured Great Britain to prevent the Greek Kingdom from doing this. Some Cretans, registered in the islands belonging to the Greek Kingdom, had become Greek subjects. Musurus Pasa demanded, however, that they should not be entitled to claim Greek citizenship if they had migrated to one of the Ottoman Dodecanese islands or Anatolia. Actually, the small Hellenic Kingdom was in need of populatin and migration from the Ottoman continent and islands. It was not rare, nevertheless, that many of these immigrants tried to go back to the Ottoman Empire in disappointment. The Ottoman government, favouring this movement, exempted them from the capitation tax or cizye for 8-10 years, and sometimes subsidized them in agriculture. In May 1850 alone, 90 families came from Greece, back to their home.l3 During these years even the regulation of tithe (a,sar nizamnarnesi) was translated into Greek language.
Armenians, lews and Maronites were favoured to the detriment of Greeks in officialdom. In fact, Greek intellectuals had been suffering slowly from a brain drain, though in special professional branches of the army, officers and sailors of Greek origin were employed. At Easter the navy had to anchor in certain ports because of the Greek crews. Therefore at the Naval Academy (Mekteb-i Bahriyye-yi Sahane) the Greek language was instructed to all of the students.
In 1858 a certain Kostaki Bey was appointed to the Academy as instructor of Greck. During these years, it would be hard to claim that the Ottoman political mind could evaluate the essence of Greek nationalism. Nationalist movements and the activity of bands are usually cited as eskiya and eterya eskiyasi, and countermeasures which had to be taken were not achieved on the spot. Both official documents and Ottoman historiography contain little knowledge of the political background and character of this movement and their contacts or position towards other Balkan nationalisms.
The activities of Greek nationalist bands spurred Ottoman authorities to take some drastic countermeasures. In Thessaloniki alone, five leading persons were arrested in 1852. Therefore merchants and priests coming from Greece to Ottoman ports were subjected to investigation. Suspected of subversive activities, some Greek neighbourhoods in Istanbul, such as Tatavla and Pangalti were subjected to military control in January 1854 and Izzet Pasa was appointed as military-commander of Beyoglu. In the same year even in Beirut, the Greek colony of the town was put under strict control. Nationalist ideas spread widely among the Greeks of the Empire, leading the authorities to control every booklet and newspaper from Greece.
Greeks in the Aegean region and Trebizond enjoyed an economic renaissance. Kydonia (Ayvallk) and Izmir were transformed into cultural centers of Hellenism in Asia Minor, and a rich merchant class as well as rich Greek farmers emerged in small towns like Phocea (Foca). Greeks were represented in provincial councils (Meclis-i idare-i Vilayet and Meclis-i Idare-i Liva), but now they had to share this new privilege with other non-Muslim millets. At times they were subjected to abuse by Muslim members of these councils, which raised protests from the Pauiarchate.
The bureaucracy of the Tanzimat period, especially in the provinces of Rumelia, had a cultural fringe. A good number of them had a knowledge of Greek and Bulgarian. As Ahmed Mithat Efendi, a famous writer of the Hamidian era mentions in one of his books, "European children have to learn foreign languages in school, but Ottoman children, Turks, Armenians and Greeks of Istanbul pick up their languages by playing with each other..." A so-called book "Tuhfet'ul Ussak-A Present for Children" by Fevzi teaches Greek vocabulary in a poetic form to the Turks: Nam-i Hudadir Teos, ademe de antropos Dervise der asketis, evliya adi ayos (The name of the God is Theos, and man is anthropos, Dervish is askhetis, and evliya is agios).
coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~fisher/hst373/readings/ortayli1.html