Millet system

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The Millet System ( Ottoman ملت) was a religiously defined legal system in the Ottoman Empire .

In the course of its 600-year existence, the Ottoman Empire developed into a multi-denominational polity in which the Millet system regulated the legal system based on Islamic law for the status of non-Muslim religious communities. They were entitled to the protection of the sultan, for which they had to pay special tax payments, the " jizya ".

The Sultan handled all contact with his subjects, following the theocratic system of Islam, through their religious and ecclesiastical leadership; she was responsible for collecting taxes and delivering them. The church organizations created areas of economic, legal and administrative autonomy that were subject to the church's control. As a result, ethnic ties were no longer decisive, but membership of the same religious community. In the Ottoman period, church demarcations became the prerequisites for the development of a later political and national consciousness in south-eastern Europe.

Simplified map for distributing the millets

Terms

The Arabic term milla (ملة, Pl. Milal  /ملل), which was adopted in Ottoman , means 'religious community'. The population was organized into so-called millets according to their religious affiliation. The followers of the Jewish faith in the Ottoman Empire, for example, became part of the Abraham milleti , those of the Christian Orthodox faith of the rum milleti . Jewish and Christian subjects were called dhimmis according to Islamic law ; H. Protected people who have their own scriptures. Islamic law , Sharia , applied to questions and disputes that affected both Muslim and Christian subjects .

The Muslim communities of the Ottoman Empire formed the Umma , an all-Islamic Ottoman religious community. The sultan was also the caliph . Ottoman law did not have concepts such as ethnicity or citizenship , so that the rights and privileges of a Muslim were independent of his ethnicity.

Faiths such as Shiites , Alawis , Alevis and Yazidis did not enjoy a special legal status. Only the syncretistic Druze from Jebel ad-Duruz and from the Lebanon Mountains enjoyed a certain feudal autonomy.

History of the non-Muslim religious communities in Ottoman times

The conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453 marked the end of the Eastern Roman Empire .

The Bishop of Constantinople, who traced his office back to the Apostle Andreas , had been patriarch since 381 and held a prominent position for more than a millennium - until the city was conquered. In 1453 Mehmed II appointed a Greek patriarch. Gennadios Scholarios could remain in the city; The Hagia Sofia was taken from him and converted into a mosque , which it remained until 1932 and has been again since 2020. In between it was a museum.

The Hagios Georgios Basilica in the Phanar district , the Greek district at the Sultan's court, became the new seat of the Patriarch. He became the ethnarch of all Orthodox Christians, received jurisdiction rights and influence over the ecclesiastical provinces in the Balkans and the Orient. Five years later, Mehmed II also appointed an Armenian patriarch . The Greek and Armenian churches were integrated into the state apparatus. They were the most populous churches. In 1556 the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate , based in Peć in Kosovo, which had lost its ecclesiastical independence in 1459, was re-established. It included Serbia, Montenegro , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Croatia , northern Macedonia and southeastern Bulgaria , as well as Hungary and Transylvania .

Christian communities continued throughout Syria and northern Iraq . Other Christian groups that were not as tightly involved as the Greek and Armenian Churches were sects that arose as a result of controversies over the nature of Christ: the Nestorians in southeastern Anatolia and the Monophysite Egyptian Copts . In Syria there were the Jacobites and the Maronites of Lebanon , who had recognized the supremacy of the Pope since the time of the Crusaders.

Judaism was much more widespread , from the Maghreb to the Fertile Crescent . Jews were mostly Orthodox, they played an important role in trade, production, money and medicine.

The non-Muslim denominations of the Ottoman Empire were reorganized through the Millet system. It guaranteed the Christians and Jews living in the empire certain rights; In return, the members of these religious communities - the " wards " - were prohibited from carrying weapons. There were a number of discriminatory regulations and prohibitions, such as: B. the prohibition of certain mounts.

Millets

The Millet system had its roots in the early days of Islam or, more specifically, in the treaties of the Arab conquerors that they concluded with the areas they had subjugated. The non-Muslims were protected. The new Muslim rulers gave them the assurance that they were allowed to practice their religion freely within a certain framework and to protect them from internal and external enemies. The wards were expected to recognize Muslim rule and pay a poll tax to the state. On the other hand, there were a number of restrictions on the non-Muslims. They were also forbidden from riding horses and carrying weapons, as well as building new houses of prayer or renovating or expanding old ones without a corresponding permit. Certain dress codes also had to be observed by the wards, and they always had to exercise restraint in public. The places of prayer of the other religions were also not allowed to tower above the Islamic ones. The conversion of a Muslim to one of the other religions was strictly forbidden. The Millet was a religious community that had a high degree of autonomy within the Ottoman Empire, so that within this community the respective rules of their own religion applied. The head of a millet was considered to be responsible for its members. In his area of ​​responsibility fell above all the observance of public order and the collection of the poll tax to be paid, but also births, deaths, marriages, health care, schools, etc. The group of wards did not include all members of a non-Muslim religion, but only those a monotheistic religion which, like Islam, owned one or more holy scriptures. The followers of polytheistic religions or of religions without a scripture were exempt from these rules.

Usually three or four millets were officially recognized - the Muslim millet, the Orthodox millet, the Armenian millet, and possibly the Jewish millet. Recognition as Millet was based on "separate agreements between the non-Muslim religious communities and the Ottoman state on the general legal status of the community in question and the jurisdiction of their religious courts."

The Millets were empowered to set their own laws and taxes in their respective areas of responsibility. Here they were in firm loyalty to the Ottoman Empire. If a member of one millet committed a crime against a member of another, the law of the injured party came into effect. But the ruling Islamic majority always had the upper hand; disputes involving Muslims were usually subject to Sharia law .

In 1829 the Catholic patriarchate was recognized by the Ottoman state, but not explicitly defined as the new millet. The patriarch chose Aleppo as his royal seat and moved to Mardin in 1850 .

Orthodox Millet

The Millet of the Orthodox Christians is also known under the name Rum-Millet (rum milleti). This designation is derived from the terms “Roman” or “Rhomeans”, which the Byzantine Empire , which saw itself as the successor to the Roman Empire , claimed for itself. In the Middle East, Orthodox Christians were numerically a minority even before the Ottoman conquests. In the Ottoman southeastern Europe, however, they almost - or even actually - made up the majority of the population. The Orthodox Millet was brought into being in 1454, one year after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman army.

The conqueror of Constantinople - Sultan Mehmed II - appointed Gennadios Scholarios , a bishop and prominent opponent of an ecclesiastical union with Rome, as the city's patriarch and at the same time recognized him as the religious leader (millet başı) of all Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. From then on, the patriarch, like all other Christian dignitaries, had to vouch for his own loyalty and the loyalty of the Orthodox Christian subjects of the empire. In addition, the Orthodox Church and its church leader were responsible for ensuring that their believers fulfilled their obligations to the Ottoman state and paid their special taxes. The Orthodox clergy, on the other hand, were exempt from these taxes. The institution of the religious leader was therefore closely linked to politics. The millet başı literally acted as an intermediary between its millet and the Ottoman system of rule.

Under Mehmed II it also became common practice to recognize every new patriarch as such for a certain sum of money. This sum was initially 1,000 gold pieces, but rose to 100,000 over the next 100 years, as the sultans always awarded the office to the highest bidder. Thanks to this practice, the patriarch's presidency changed fifty-seven times during the 17th century. Some applicants took it on several times, Kyrillos Loukaris even seven times. When the patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria also came under Ottoman rule in the 16th century, they were theoretically equal to the patriarchy in Constantinople. However, the patriarchy in Constantinople soon gained supremacy, not only because it was in the capital, but because it had proven to be a reliable partner to the Ottoman rulers.

As far as its internal affairs were concerned, the Orthodox Church enjoyed a certain degree of independence and autonomy and assumed quasi-state functions with regard to the Orthodox subjects. She administered the civil law issues of her religious community and exercised civil justice. The church also took on judicial tasks, but only as long as no Muslims were involved. Many functions that the state previously exercised in the Byzantine Empire or the Orthodox Balkan states of the Middle Ages and, according to modern understanding, are still exercised by this state today, were considered church affairs in the Ottoman Empire.

For the Orthodox Balkan Christians, who spoke very different idioms, the common religion represented a unifying factor for a long time. Because regardless of their mother tongue, they honored the same monasteries and visited the same places of pilgrimage. During the 18th century, the Enlightenment had a not inconsiderable influence on the intelligentsia of the Rum-Millet. This, but also other factors, favored the early emergence and spread of nationally minded, mutually competing ideologies. While Church Slavonic was still used in the churches of today's Macedonia and Bulgaria until about the 1760s, Greek gradually began to dominate as the church language from the last third of the 18th century . This was a direct consequence of Phanariotic agitation, as the Phanariots did a lot to establish Greek as the only legitimate idiom for communication with God.

In the now dawning age of national movements, the Orthodox Church entered divided. On one side there was the Phanariotic, Greek-speaking upper class, which also generally saw itself as part of the Ottoman upper class. On the other hand, there was the lower South Slavic-speaking clergy, which occupied an important place within the national movements. The increasing antagonism between the two groups in the 19th century increasingly led to the production of the Bible in Church Slavonic, Russian and Bulgarian .

The linguistic dominance of Greek and the cultural dominance of the Phanariotes was broken with the spread and consolidation of national ideas, especially in the second half of the 19th century. The recognition of national churches (Serbian, Bulgarian, etc.) in the course of the 19th century sealed the division of the once-unified Orthodox Millet. In the areas that remained with the Ottoman Empire after 1878 - above all in Macedonia - the various Orthodox churches, in the service of the respective nation, fought relentlessly over the national affiliation of the local Orthodox.

Armenian millets

The Armenian people, who had played a significant role in politics, army and economy both in the Byzantine Empire and later in the Ottoman Empire, were recognized as the Armenian Church in 1461 by Sultan Mehmet II.

The Armenians were initially recognized by the state as an Armenian Apostolic religious community .

Through the Peace Treaty of Adrianople (1829) , the Armenian Catholics obtained the guarantee of religious freedom and recognition as an Armenian uniate millet independent of the Armenian Apostolic Patriarchate. In 1828, in the wake of the Battle of Navarino, there was persecution of Catholics, during which 12,000 Armenian Catholics were expelled as Frankish spies from Constantinople to Ankara in the middle of winter. In 1831 all Catholic denominations of the Ottoman Empire were finally merged into an independent Millet under the authority of the Armenian Uniate Bishop.

In 1850 the Armenian Protestants were officially recognized as a nation of faith.

Jewish Millet

The Ottoman Jews were not a homogeneous group, but lived as an integrated minority that was accepted by the Islamic population in different cultural and social milieus. They enjoyed similar privileges as the Phanariots - some of the most extensive freedoms in Jewish history.

The oldest Jews were the native, Greek-speaking Romaniots . Early Jewish immigrants, mostly Ashkenazim , came from Northern Europe . At the end of the 15th century they were outnumbered by the immigration of the Sephardim from southern Europe, who settled mainly in Istanbul , Salonika , Smyrna , on the Anatolian plateau and the Balkans .

The Jews from Europe brought with them significant knowledge in medicine as well as in the stage trade and in the art of printing . The first Turkish printing press was not put into operation until the 18th century.

In the 19th century, the Millet system, which had been developed primarily for the Greek and Armenian communities, was similarly extended to the Jewish communities. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ottoman Jews - along with Armenians and Greeks - dominated trade throughout the Ottoman Empire. They were recognized as Millet and were subordinate to their hahambasi , the chief rabbi, who was endowed with privileges comparable to those of the head of the Greek or Armenian churches.

The end of the Millet system

At the beginning of the 19th century the Ottoman Empire was only a shadow of itself. Political and social internal unrest, military defeats and growing influence by the European powers worsened the social living conditions of the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire drastically. The rising power of the Christian world and the ideas of the French Revolution sparked a wave of discontent among the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The peasant non-Muslims - as the weakest link in the social hierarchy, militarily at the mercy of everyone - saw the alternatives: Either moving to the safe cities or a request for help from the European powers with a request for military protection.

The previous religion-related view of the Millet system changed for those affected into an identity experienced as a cultural minority - a view that coincided with the views of European politicians (the problem occurred at a time when linguistic and ethnic nationalism was emerging in Europe), where As a result, politics concentrated on granting special rights to the non-Muslim minorities they believed to be oppressed. Religious communities that were integrated under the term of the millets in the Ottoman understanding of the state thus became ethnic minorities worthy of protection and disadvantaged by social exclusion.

The Tanzimat reforms

The Ottoman government tried to counter the dangers of ethnic-national separatism by reforming the Millet system and pushed through a gradual disempowerment of the clergy in the Millets. In the course of the Tanzimat reforms, the Ottoman government decreed in the Hatt-i humayun (imperial handwriting) of February 18, 1856, the equality of all Ottoman subjects and the guarantee of ecclesiastical privileges and immunities, which not only equated non-Muslims legally - which, by the way, under Islamic law as This was a gross violation of the application of the dogmas of law - but also created a special position that steadily expanded with the increasing influence of European powers.

The European powers, especially Great Britain and France, were not only “interested” in the “protection” of the Christian subjects of the Ottoman Empire. Realpolitically, they tried to slow down the expansion of Russia to the south, and they could only achieve this goal if they prevented the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. So they promoted the reform policy because, from their point of view, it was a stabilization strategy.

The reforms by no means met with unqualified applause within the Millets: The clergy of the Greek Orthodox Church in particular feared the loss of the latter, both because of the secularization announced in the Declaration and because of equality - which endangered his privileges in the traditional Millet system Position and thus a deterioration in one's own situation.

The Millet reform was also counterproductive for the Ottoman government because it favored the political ascent of the ethnically-nationally minded bourgeoisie in the Christian subject communities. This development promoted the wars of independence in the Balkans, as it encouraged the desire to leave the Ottoman state association. On the other hand, urban non-Muslims also experienced a broad social rise in business and administration, who soon - like the clergy - feared a loss of their newly won privileges. The Muslim population in turn experienced these developments themselves as expulsion and displacement, especially in cooperation with European merchants and states.

The end

One of the most serious obstacles to reform was the government's poor knowledge of most regions of its empire. Many areas did not even have precise maps.

The concept of the nation state presupposes the fundamental equality of all citizens. However, the Turkish elite had never given up the claim that the "ruling ethnic group" - Millet-i Hakime - was defined by membership of Islam and the Turkish nationality. This tendency was expanded by the emergence of Pan-Turkism in the late 19th century (II 162f.).

With the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the new secular republic said goodbye to the Millet system. Later, under Young Turkish rule and in the Republic of Turkey, there began an increasing rejection of minorities on Ottoman and Turkish soil. Since the shameful decline of the Ottoman Empire, the republic had been terrified of minorities and had a deep distrust of them because it no longer believed in their loyalty.

literature

  • Fikret Adanır : The fall of the Ottoman Empire . In: Alexander Demant (ed.): The end of the world empires. From the Persians to the Soviet Union . Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-41850-3 , pp. 108-128.
  • Benjamin Braude, Bernard Lewis (ed.): Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire. The functioning of a plural society . Part 2: The Arabic-speaking lands . Holmes & Meier, New York NY et al. 1982, ISBN 0-8419-0520-7 .
  • Youssef Courbage, Philippe Fargues: Christians and Jews under Islam . Translated by Judy Mabro. Tauris, London et al. 1997, ISBN 1-86064-013-3 .
  • Yavuz Ercan: Osmanlı Yönetiminde Gayrimüslimler. Kuruluştan Tanzimat'a kadar Sosyal, Economics ve Hukuki Durumları . [The non-Muslims in the Ottoman administration. Social, economic and legal situation from founding to Tanzimat]. Turhan, Ankara 2001, ISBN 975-6809-59-0 ( Türk kältürü dizisi. Araştırmalar, inçelemeler 2).
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  • Çağlar Keyder: Bureaucracy and Bourgeoisie. Reform and Revolution in the Age of Imperialism . In: Review XI, 2, Spring 1988, pp. 151-165.
  • Elcin Kürsat : The Westernization Process of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th Century. On the complementarity of state-building and intellectualization processes. 2 volumes. IKO-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2003, ISBN 3-88939-683-6 ( ZwischenWelten 7, 1–2), (At the same time: Hannover, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 1999).
  • Bernard Lewis: The Jews in the Islamic World. From the early Middle Ages to the 20th century . Beck, Munich: Beck, 1987, ISBN 3-406-32037-6 , passim.
  • Bernard Lewis: Star, Cross and Crescent. 2000 years of Middle Eastern history . Piper, Munich et al. 1997, p. 302, ISBN 3-492-03541-8 .
  • Nicola Melis: Il concetto di ğihād . In: Patrizia Manduchi (ed.): Dalla penna al mouse. Gli strumenti di diffusione del concetto di gihad . Angeli, Milan 2006, ISBN 88-464-7835-5 ( Temi di storia 83), pp. 23-54.
  • Nicola Melis: Lo statuto giuridico degli ebrei dell'Impero Ottomano . In: Martino Contu, Nicola Melis, Giovannino Pinna (eds.): Ebraismo e rapporti con le culture del Mediterraneo nei secoli XVIII-XX . Atti del Convegno storico internazionale Ebraismo e rapporti con le culture del Mediterraneo nei secoli 18.-20. Villacidro (Cagliari), April 12-13, 2002. Giuntina, Florence 2003, ISBN 88-8057-183-4 .
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  • Fatih Öztürk: The Ottoman millet system. In: Güneydoğu Avrupa Araştırmaları Dergisi , Volume 16 (2009), pp. 71–86 ( online ) (in English).
  • Rudi Paret : Tolerance and Intolerance in Islam . In: Saeculum 21, 1970, ISSN  0080-5319 , pp. 344-365.
  • Ernest Edmondson Ramsaur: Young Turks prelude to the revolution of 1908 . 2nd edition. Sander Yayınları, Istanbul 1982, pp. 40–41, note 30: “Meşveret”, Paris, December 3, 1895.
  • Irwin Cemil Schick: Osmanlılar, Azınlıklar ve Yahudiler . [Ottomans, minorities and Jews]. In: Tarih ve Toplum 29, Mayıs 1986, pp. 34-42.
  • Michael Ursinus: On the discussion about “millet” in the Ottoman Empire . In: Südost-Forschungen 48, 1989, ISSN  0081-9077 , pp. 195-207.
  • Elizabeth A. Zachariadou : Co-Existence and Religion : In: Archivum Ottomanicum 15, 1997, ISSN  0378-2808 , pp. 119-129.

Other sources

  • Yohanan Friedman: Classification of Unbelievers in Sunni Muslim Law and Tradition. In: Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 22, 1998, ISSN  0334-4118 , pp. 163-198.
  • Kamral Ekbal: Tolerance, a basic principle in Islam. In: Conscience and Freedom 19, No. 36, 1991, ISSN  0259-0379 , pp. 67-73.
  • Adel Theodor Khoury : Christians under the half moon. Religious minorities under the rule of Islam . Herder, Freiburg 1994, ISBN 3-451-22851-3 .
  • Albrecht Noth : Possibilities and Limits of Islamic Tolerance. In: Saeculum 29, 1978, 2, ISSN  0080-5319 , pp. 190-204.
  • Christian Rumpf : Minorities in Turkey and the question of their legal protection. In: Zeitschrift für Türkeistudien 6, 2, 1993, ISSN  0934-0696 , pp. 173-209.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donkeys were allowed, only coarsely woven fabric was allowed to be used for clothing, Muslims had to be given space, etc. Cf. Karl Binswanger's dissertation: Studies on the status of non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. With a redefinition of the term Dhimma . Munich 1977
  2. ^ Kramer, Heinz / Reinkowski, Markus: Turkey and Europe. A changeable history of relationships. Stuttgart 2008, p. 60-61 .
  3. ↑ Merten, Kai: Among each other, not next to each other. The coexistence of religious and cultural groups in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Berlin u. a. 2014, p. 11 .
  4. ↑ Merten, Kai: Among each other, not next to each other. The coexistence of religious and cultural groups in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century. Berlin 2014, p. 11 .
  5. ^ Günzel, Angelika: Religious communities in Israel. Basic legal structures of the relationship between state and religion. Tübingen 2006, p. 9 .
  6. ↑ Pro Oriente Foundation
  7. ^ Hans-Dieter Döpmann: Religion and Society in Southeast Europe . In: Hans-Dieter Döpmann (Ed.): Religion and Society in Southeast Europe . Munich 1997, p. 15 .
  8. ^ Victor Roudometof: Globalization and Orthodox Christianity. The Transformations of a Religious Tradition . London / New York 2014, pp. 69 .
  9. ↑ Nikolaos-Komnenos Hlepas: A Romantic Adventure? National revolution, modern statehood and the Bavarian monarchy in Greece . In: Alexander Bormann (Ed.): Non-simultaneities of European Romanticism . Würzburg 2006, p. 169 .
  10. ↑ Hans-Dieter Döpmann: The Orthodox Churches in Past and Present . Frankfurt am Main u. a. 2010, p. 58 .
  11. ↑ Kemal H. Karpat: Studies on Ottoman Social and Political History. Selected Articles and Essays. Suffering u. a. 2002, p. 587 .
  12. ↑ Aleksandra Pištalo: Religious Law in Serbia . Tübingen 2013, p. 15 .
  13. ^ Keith Brown: The Macedonian Question . In: Imogen Bell (Ed.): Central and South-Eastern Europe 2003 . 3. Edition. London 2002, p. 51 .
  14. ^ Klaus Buchenau: Orthodoxy and Catholicism in Yugoslavia 1945-1991. A Serbian-Croatian comparison. Wiesbaden 2004, p. 44 .
  15. ^ S. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume I: Empire of Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1202-1808, p. 152.
  16. ^ Sophie Wagenhofer: "The Ottoman Jews in the Perspective of European Travelers of the 16th Century", PDF file  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / geku.oei.fu-berlin.de  
  17. ↑ Matuz Josef: The Ottoman Empire. Darmstadt 1985 p. 203 ff
  18. ↑ Ortayli Ilber: The Problem of Nationalities in the Ottomen Empire follwowings the secend Siege of Vienna. In: The Ottoman Empire and Europe 1683 to 1783: Conflict, Relaxation and Exchange. Ed. Heis / Klingenstein. Munich 1983 pp. 223-236
  19. ↑ Helmuth Scheel: The constitutional position of the ecumenical church princes in ancient Turkey , p. 10
  20. ↑ Elcin Kürsat: The Westernization Process of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th Centuries , p. 161
  21. ↑ Elcin Kürsat: The Westernization Process of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th Centuries , p. 162
  22. ↑ Cem Özdemir: The city of my mother. ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oezdemir.de