20
IB PAPER 3
MIDDLE EAST REGIONAL OPTION
IN WHAT PLACE?: OTTOMAN EMPIRE:
ONCE UPON WHAT TIME? 1839-1876
THE STORY: It could be called:
The rise of the ‘French knowers’ – or Europeanization and modernization. The Turkish term is: Tanzimat (= ‘re-organisation’)
There are 4 main themes that make up this story:
1. Military reform
Begun by Muhammad Ali and Mahmud II (the process of absorbing European influences) in order to reform and rule their respective territories. And the military is fundamental to any attempt to rule a territory. Therefore any esay on the Tanzimat might mention the military reforms of these two rulers.
2. Rise of the ‘French Knowers’
After a while more and more of the people who were trained in the various aspects of the European state-like apparatus were Egyptian and Ottomans.
3. Impact on traditional society
The big theme is what impact this had on the traditional Islamic structures in Ottoman society and state apparatus. To undrst and this, you need to know what that traditional structure was. Hence our quiz on Power in an Islamic Society.
4. Impact of foreign investment
Reform also involved increasing foreign investment.
This eventually led the Empire into debt.
Debt brought the British occupation of Egypt, and the loss of Egyptian economic sovereignty (British were running their economy).
PART 1
CIVIL, EDUCATIONAL AND LEGAL REFORMS
1839-1869:
Most of what follows was the work of three characters.
THE CHARACTERS:
The three names to remember are:
Rashid Pasha, Ali Pasha , Fuad Pasha
COMMENT
The driving force behind the transformation of the administrative structure of the Ottoman Empire in these years was three men:
Rashid Pasha (1800-1858, ended up Minister of Foreign affairs under Mahmud II and Grand Vizier).
Rashid Pasha promoted Ali Pasha (1815-1871), the son of an Istanbul shopkeeper who became Grand Vizier in 1852.
He also promoted Ali Pasha’s associate Fuad Pasha (1815-1869), who from 1852 served as Foreign Minister..
All three were Europeanised, worked in the new embassay’s abroad, and could speak French and English.
These were the ‘French Knowers’. It was they, much more than the Sultan, who were the inspiration behind the reforms that took place between 1839 and 1876 – though they did shape the institutions established by Mahmud II (who died in 1839).
You should now know what a Grand Vizier is and how one becomes one.
AIMS OF TANZIMAT REFORMS
1st AIM
CREATE A NEW BREED OF HUMAN BEING CALLED ‘CITIZEN’
(A SOCIETY BASED ON
SECULAR STATE CITIZENSHIP)
OBSERVATION
Laws can make human beings.
THE FACTORY:
All of the following is based on three facts
1839: First royal decree called Hatt-i Sharif of Gülhane was issued.
1856: A second decree issued, called Hatt-i Hümayan was issued.
1869: The Nationality Law is passed
COMMENT
In order to make everyone live together without killing each other, a ruler needs to get them to see each other as part of the same group.
This is difficult if you rule a place populated with people who speak different languages, read different literatures, have different histories and cultures and have their own strong ideas of the religious groups of which they feel they form a part and which form a part of them.
One way of attempting to do this which was fashionable in the nineteenth century was through a thing called nationalism, as well as through the revolutionary French idea of the ‘citizen’.
In other words, you tried to make people feel an equal part of one nation – like they feel part of one football team they support. In other words you start to make them see themselves as ‘citizens’ (a bit of a French thing: citoyens) of a ‘nation’.
This nationalism in part explains why, in the course of the nineteenth century, countries like Belgium, Greece, Italy and Germany became ‘nations’.
But the Ottomans had a particularly big problem here. They wanted to create a being called an Ottoman citizen. But it was not easy because they ruled so many different language groupings and religious groupings.
So, if they were going to try to transform the Ottoman Empire into a modern nation state populated by citizens, they needed to find of form of nationalism which all those different people could feel a part of, which they could celeberate and enjoy more than say Egyptianism or Syrianism. In the end, these three guys came up with the idea of something they called ‘Ottomanism’.
To give you a sense of the difficulty of the t ask facing them, it was the equivalent today of asking people today to be supporters of a football team called Europe more than a football team called France, England, Germany, Italy and so on.
So let’s see how they tried to do that:
THE FACTORY (1):
1839: First royal decree called Hatt-i Sharif of Gülhane was issued.
Its aim:
To end the dominance of the millet system.
Each millet (religious group) had officials responsible for tax collection, education, justice as well as religious affairs, and no none-Muslims were allowed to join the Ottoman military or the Ottoman ruling elite.
The 1839 decree aimed at changing this.
What exactly did it plan to do?
It promised to
(a) abolish tax farming;
(b) standardize military conscription;
(c) eliminate corruption;
(d) extend these reforms to all Ottoman subjects, regardless of religion.
This meant that only the Ottoman state would collect taxes from everyone. All could join the army. There would be less corruption when it came to collecting taxes, spending the people’s money or promoting people in the army or the government. It also meant that there would be greater equality (a bit of a French idea form the French Revolution). No religious group would be seen as better than another, and no social group either. In other words, a society based on talent and merit.
THE FACTORY (2):
1856: 17 years later, a second decree issued, called Hatt-i Hümayan was issued.
FACTUAL CONTENT
To the clauses of the 1839 decree, this one added more stuff about the equality of all subjects. In other words, Muslim and non-Muslim would have equal obligations in terms of military service as well as equal opportunities in terms of education in state schools and jobs created by the state.
THE FACTORY (3):
1869: The Nationality Law.
FACTUAL CONTENT
This stated that all individuals living in Ottoman territory had a common citizenship, irrespective of their religion.
ANALYSIS
This was a sharp break. Indeed, this secular concept of society, in the long term, undermined the basis of the entire Ottoman system.
THE FACTORY (recap)
All of the above is based on three facts
1839: First royal decree called Hatt-i Sharif of Gülhane was issued.
1856: 17 years later, a second decree issued, called Hatt-i Hümayan was issued.
1869: The Nationality Law.
COMMENT: OTTOMANISM
1. Why did the Ottoman rulers come up with this idea?
This was done to reassure the Christian subjects in the Ottoman Empire. It was needed because across Europe, nationalism was rising. So the Ottoman needed to have people who believed in some sort of overarching Ottoman nationalism, otherwise their Empire was in danger of fragmenting.
2. What was the aimof the Ottoman rulers in passing decrees like Hatt-i Sharif of Gülhane and Hatt-i Hümayan?
The aim of these 2 decrees attempted to break the religious and cultural power of the millets and create the notion of everyone being an Ottoman citizen – something that was even higher than their sense of being a muslim or Greek orthodox etc.
This Ottomanism, in theory, was supposed to replace the religious ordering of society, which was dominatd by Muslims.
ANALYSIS
Its effectiveness/impact was limited by those Muslim who had feelings of superiority, as well as by some Christian’s preference for the new nationalist affiliations.
2nd AIM
EDUCATION
THE FACTORY:
This section is based on 2 facts:
1859: Civilian Service School set up.
1868: Imperial Ottoman Lycee (in Galatasaray) set up.
Mahmud II’s educational concerns had all been military related. In other words, he built academies simply to train officers for his armies, and to train physicians to heal the soldiers who got hurt , often because of the stupid decision of the officiers (even if they had been trained in his opfficer’s academy). His rather narrow sense of education can be seen in the title he gave to his college. He called it, er a ‘War College’.
The rulers of the Tanzimat period had a broader vision of ‘education’. They were into ‘civilian education’. They wanted to educate people and make them understand what a citizen was and how exactly they could be one in the Ottoman Empire.
THE FACTORY (1 and 2):
1859: CIVILIAN SERVICE SCHOOL set up
1868: IMPERIAL OTTOMAN LYCEE (Galatasaray) set up.
COMMENT:
The impact of these 3 schools was huge.
They produced a political and adminsitrative elite who ran the state in Turkey and many Arab countries until well into the 20th century.
3rd Aim
LEGAL CODES
Using the French model, the Tanzimat introduced new legal, penal and commercial codes. A dangerous thing becuase traditional Islamic society was based on the elga codes of the shari’ah.
THE FACTORY:
this section is based on 2 facts:
Nizame: Set up a system of secular courts called nizame.
1876: Mejelle completed. This was a new civil code.
COMMENT:
It combined old and new. It was based on the shari’ah but it was run by the newly created Ministry of Justice.
These were far-reaching changes. Some of the elite warned that abandoning the old Islamic insititutions would lead to problems for the unmah of Muhamad.
4th Aim
DEMOCRACY
The Young Ottomans tried to reconcile old and new. They were against bureaucratic absolutism of Ali and Fuad Pashas.
They felt democracy was there in the Islamic tradition of consultation between the absolutist ruler and his ministers.
They elaborated the notion of Ottoman patriotism.
THE FACTORY
Namik Kenal wrote a play called Vatan (Fatherland)
This put territorial patriotism before loyalty to religious community.
This was his European-inspired solution for the problem of Ottoman territorial disintegration.
THE FACTORY
1871 Ali Pasha died. Sultan Abdul Aziz reasserted his royal authority.
1876 the Sultan was deposed, the new consitution proclaimed and the new sultan Abdul Hamid II promised to uphold it.
COMMENT:
It provided for an elected chamber of deputies and an appointed senate.
But it placed minimal restrictions on sultan’s powers. (he retained the right to make war and peace, appoint ministers, approve legislation, disband the assembly)
But it was evidence of European influence.
THE FACTORY:
1878 Sultan Abdul Hamid II dissolved the assembly and suspended the consitution. Thus he begn 30 years of autocratic rule.
5th Aim
MILITARY: FINANCIAL
Modern army and navy was expensive.
Income did not rise. Forced to take European loans.
THE FACTORY:
1854: 1st loan of 3.3 million Ottoman lire.
1854-74 20 more loans – of over 200 million.
More money directed to paying interest.
1874 it was 60 percent of expenditure was paying interest.
1876: Empire was bankrupt.
1881 Decree of Muharram (established Ottoman Public Debt Administration).
Only by 1954 had Turkey paid all the debt.
6th aim:
TANZIMAT FOREIGN POLICY
The out and out failure of Tanzimat foreign policy explains why they continued to spend so much on the military.
FACTS re its failure:
MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE BASIC INS AND OUTS OF WHAT WAS KNOWN IN BRITIAN AS THE ‘EASTERN QUESTION’, PARTICULARLY THE CRIMEAN WAR.
Russian influence – always via Greek Orthodox citizens; emphasized its Slavic aspect re the Balkans independence movements;
Austria more cautious than Russia, but profited around the time of the Crimean War (1854-56)
1853 Russian ultimatum: wanted to be guaranteed the right to intervene on behalf of Orthodox Christians. Sultan rejected it.
Russia sends troops to Moldavia and Wallachia.
Britain and France rally to Ottomans.
They fought in Crimea, whilst Austria occupied the principalities.
THE FACTORY:
1856: The Treaty of Paris.
Too late for the principalities which were becoming the independent state of Romania.
Treaty demilitarized the Black Sea.
Russians withdrew from Danube.
1875-1878: Great Eastern Crisis – rise of Pan-Slavism.
Bosnia revolts. Supressed by Ottomans
1877 Russia declars war on Ottoman Empire.
1878 Russia captures Adrianople.
Britain prepared for war with Russia.
1878 Bismarck called the Berlin Conference.
Each Great Power got bits of the Ottoman Empire.
Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria declared independent.
Austria controlled Bosnia; Britain controlled Cyprus; Russia in eastern Anatolia. All this durin the second year of Sultan Abdul Hamid’s reign.
GENERAL STUFF
Pattern of Ottoman rule in Arab lands has been called ‘the politics of the notables’.
Tanzimat codes of adminstrative conduct took precedent over these personal relations and so threatened the notables.
1858 Land Code: all must register and receive a written title deed. It was supposed to limit the power of the notables (increase tax-collecting efficieny by central state) , but they subverted it.
In Syria this created huge estates owned by notables.
On the whole the Arab urban elite, althoguh opposed to Tanzimat, managed to preserve their privileges (sent their children to Tanzimat schools)
Introduced new systems, but did not destroy old ones. Both worked side by side.
But it reduced the role of the ulama.
HISTORIOGRAPHY:
Cleveland thinks that this dualism had a divisive effect on society as a whole.
Even larger gap between educated officials and population.
In the rural heartlands, taxes increased, public work gangs, family plots abandoned, low wages of rural labourers.
PART II
TYPICAL IB QUESTIONS
IB Questions on the Tanzimat are always the same.
Guess what they are about?
I’ll give you a clue: Er, the main theme of the story we’ve just read.
Yes, they talk about the reforms, the attemtpt to modernize. But at the same time, the attempt to keep some traditional Islamic things.
In other words you need to show awareness of both change and continuity.
(Do this with a Spot the Difference thing: Change the tie, etc gradually end up looking like a PUNK ROCKER)
The big theme is the shar’iah (the traditional legal code) and the state.