Tribal School (Ottoman Empire)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The school building, photo from 1892 or 1893

The tribal school ( Ottoman مكتب عشيرت همايون İA Mekteb-i ʿAşīret-i Hümāyūn , German , 'Großherrliche Stammesschule' ) was an Ottoman school that was founded on September 21, 1892 by Sultan Abdülhamid II in Istanbul . Their aim was to bind the sons of tribal leaders more closely to the Ottoman state , as its continued existence was in danger. Initially, only sons of Arab tribes were admitted to school. Later came Kurdish and Albanian tribal children added.

The school can also be seen as an attempt to bring state-sanctioned, supranational identities according to the ideas of Ottomanism and Pan-Islamism closer to the students and thus the residents of the Arab and Anatolian provinces on the edge of the Ottoman Empire .

The Ottoman State and the Tribes

Nomadic tribes could hardly be recorded by the tax authorities of the empire. They were armed, obeyed tribal law, organized raids in villages and towns and were therefore a constant source of unrest. The government tried to promote the loyalty of the tribal leaders through their training in the capital, Istanbul.

In 1886 48 students from distant provinces like the Hejaz , Yemen and Tripolitania were sent to Istanbul and trained at the officers' school ( Harbiye ). Before they returned to their homeland, they were received personally by the Sultan and awarded the title of Adjutant to the Sultan ( Yaver-i fahrî ).

In the 1890s tribal leaders were invited to Istanbul with the intention of persuading them to settle down by awarding titles. This was first achieved with the tribal leader of the Ruwala, Sheikh Sattam al-Sha allan, who was awarded the rank of pasha and the medjidie order of second class. Several other leaders from nomadic tribes also asked for an audience with the Sultan.

With the establishment of a tribal school in 1892, the loyalty of the tribes was to be strengthened.

Foundation of the school

Sultan Abdülhamid II
Tribal school students, group photo from 1892 or 1893

Sultan Abdülhamid II , who was very interested in the school, gave the instructions for its founding and was honorary director and founder. On July 6, 1892, the Grand Vizier instructed the Ministry of Education to make the preparations. The school was to be symbolically opened on the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed on October 4, 1892 (Ottoman calendar: 12th Rabīʿ al-awwal 1310). School rules ( nizam name ) and curriculum were drawn up and teachers were appointed. The Nizamname was adopted by the Ministerial Assembly at the end of July. The provincial governors received instructions to find suitable students. The unused Esma Sultan Konağı , located in the Kabataş district, was to serve as the school building . The student accommodation was to be set up in five buildings in the Beşiktaş district .

The school was run by a director ( Müdir ) with a secretary ( Katip ). The Ministry of Education was responsible for the appointment or dismissal of employees, for textbooks and the curriculum, but the sultan made decisions in the background.

In the first year, 50 students between the ages of 12 and 16 should be admitted and 40 more in each of the following years. The government paid for board and lodging. In addition, each student received 30 Ottoman kurus per month . According to Article 4 of the Nizamname, only the sons of the most respected tribes should be selected. But up to a month before the school opened, only 20 students had been sent to Istanbul. Overall, it was less than the targeted 50. The students were taken to Istanbul by steamboat, where most of them saw a big city for the first time. The impression and presentation of modern civilization was planned to make the students understand the importance of the empire and the center.

The Minister of Education gave the opening address in Arabic on October 4th. In his speech he emphasized the contrast between the “natural” world from which the students came and the “civilized” world in which they were now located. Each student was then photographed in traditional clothing by the court photographer Abdullah Frères . As a contrast, a group photo was taken in which the students were wearing the school uniform and a fez headgear. The Sultan had these photos sent to European and American libraries to promote his policies.

curriculum

The training lasted five years and included subjects such as Islamic Sciences, Turkish Spelling, Calligraphy and French. During this period, the seven-year curriculum of the state middle and university, the Rüşdiye and İʿdâdiye , was treated in a compressed manner. The students learned classical Arabic and Ottoman or Turkish and received three years of French and two years of Persian lessons. To prepare them for their later careers and professions, the curriculum last year also included technology classes.

1 year 2 years 3rd year 4th year 5th year
Koran Koran Koran Koran Koran
(Arabic) alphabet Quran recitation Quran recitation Quran recitation Quran recitation
Islamic Sciences ( ulûm-i-diniye ) Islamic Sciences Islamic Sciences Islamic Sciences Islamic Sciences
Turkish spelling Turkish spelling Turkish spelling Turkish spelling Turkish spelling
Physical fitness ( taʿlim ) Physical exercise Physical exercise Physical exercise Physical exercise
Turkish texts Turkish texts Turkish texts Persian Persian
Catechism ( ilmihal ) calligraphy calligraphy calligraphy calligraphy
Language and lexicology Language and lexicology Language and lexicology Arabic syntax
arithmetic arithmetic arithmetic arithmetic
Stories about the prophets Islamic history Ottoman history
Turkish grammar Turkish syntax Ottoman grammar
geography geography - French French French
French calligraphy French calligraphy French calligraphy
Arabic grammar Conversation in Turkish
To draw To draw
Writing in Turkish Writing and reading Turkish
various various
mechanical engineering
First aid
Accounting basics
Step exercises ( ayak taʿlimi )

Source: Salname-i Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiye 1316 p. 296

Everyday school life

Tribal school students, photo from 1892 or 1893

The exams at the end of each school year lasted four weeks and were carried out by two or three examiners per subject. There were a maximum of ten points, with four points being necessary to pass. Students with more than 90% of the possible points received an Aliyülʿ aʿlâ (علی الاعلا / 'Very good'), with more than 80% an Aʿlâ (علی / 'Good') and with more than 60% a Karib-i aʿlâ (قریب علی / 'Almost good'). Students with scores between 40 and 60% received a zayıf (ضعيف / 'Weak') and under 40% a Fena (فنا / ,insufficient'). In the August 1894 exams, four out of 23 students failed. The highest failure rate was in Ottoman orthography . With a few exceptions, the students achieved more than 60% of the points.

The students had to keep three exercise books, which were checked regularly by the teachers. One of the notebooks contained daily notes made. At the end of the week, a summary of a week's lessons was entered in another. This booklet was used by the director to assess the students. A third booklet contained the weekly events. Mistakes were not allowed to be retouched, but had to be crossed out. The correct word was written over it.

Letters to the families were also checked, corrected and presented to the principal by the teachers. Everyday school life was tough. The buildings were inadequately heated, many students became ill, and clothes and food were inadequate. The pupils had to spend the first winter in the accommodation of the court music group because of the poor heating. After the class and the meal, the classes met with the principal to pray together to express their gratitude to God, his prophet and the sultan.

Contact with the outside world was strictly controlled. On the way from their accommodation to the school building, the students were accompanied by school employees. A mosque was visited on Friday for Friday prayers. External visits were strictly forbidden.

Because of this control, there were sometimes riots and “wrongdoing” ( yaramazlık ). On the whole, it seemed that the students were being alienated from their original goal rather than being tied more to the Ottoman Empire.

Career after leaving school

If a student graduated from school after five years, they were between 17 and 21 years old. In front of him was either the Military Academy ( Mekteb-i Harbiye ) or the Administration College ( Mekteb-i Mülkiye ). However, the graduates were not on the same level as the university students, because they had to master the subject matter of seven years within five years. But the curriculum was also compressed for them at the universities. While normal college education took three years to complete, tribal school graduates graduated from college in just one year. The sultan's intention was to get many tribal sons into high positions as quickly as possible.

The tribal school graduates were taught in separate classes. So there was a separate tribal class ( Aşiret Sınıfı ) at the military academy . The curriculum included subjects such as religion, practical and theoretical topography , civil and military criminal law, military formations and maneuvering exercises.

The Administration College also had a special class ( Sınıf-ı Mahsus ) for the tribal school graduates. Some subjects were civil law , administrative law , principles of administration, philosophy , Turkish, Persian and calligraphy. The examination results decided on the later position in the administration.

Apparently the graduates were not as well trained as the regular graduates of the administration college, so that they were increasingly deployed in distant provinces. They received 350 kurus per month. First they worked as an assistant to the governor ( Maiyet memuru ) of their home province. Later they were mostly employed as administrators of communities ( Nahiye müdiri ) or as kaymakam .

In 1897 the first 45 students graduated from universities. Of these, 33 went to the infantry or cavalry, the other twelve worked in the imperial administration.

School closes

The school closed in February 1907 after students went on strike over poor food. The students were sent back to their homeland. The Kabataş İʿdâdiye (Kabataş University) was housed in the building.

It turned out that the school had largely missed its goals. For one thing, the number of people starting school had declined over the years because it was difficult to convince the tribal leaders to send their sons to Istanbul. This was also due to the fact that between 1876 and 1909 the number of Rüşdiye (middle schools) rose from 250 to 600 and İʿdâdiye (universities) from 5 to 104. Many of these schools were located in the Arab provinces, so that the tribal leaders preferred to send their sons to the nearby schools, which were also less restrictive of visiting rights.

In many cases the training was quite successful for the students. Of 88 students in the first three years, 45 studied at the military and administrative academies. Many became kaymakam , two were given the rank of pasha and five later sat in the Ottoman parliament.

It is more difficult to determine whether the goal of greater loyalty to the Sultan has been achieved. Some graduates remained loyal to the end of the empire and continued to work in the Turkish Republic, while others became advocates of Arab nationalism and acted against the empire.

References and comments

  1. ↑ Engin Akarli: Abdulhamid II's Attempt to Integrate Arabs into the Ottoman System . In: David Kushner (Ed.): Palestine in the Late Ottoman Period: Political, Social and Economic Transformation . EJ Brill / Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi, Leiden / Jerusalem 1986; cited in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 83
  2. ^ Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 86
  3. ↑ Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 83
  4. ↑ Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 84
  5. ↑ Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, pp. 84f
  6. ↑ a b Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 85
  7. ↑ The first Nizamname was in the Salname -i Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiye (The Ministry of Education's annual book) on pp. 293-295. A second, more extensive Nizam name with 24 articles was issued in January 1893.
  8. ↑ Document YA.Hus 274/72 of May 20, 1893 (from the AMP), cited in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 86
  9. ↑ Complete speech in document YA Hus 265/20 (from the AMP), quoted in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 91
  10. ^ Carney ES Gavin, Ed .: Imperial Self-Portrait: The Ottoman Empire as Revealed in the Sultan Abdul Hamid II's Photographic Albums . Published in Journal of Turkish Studies No. 12, 1988, cited in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 91
  11. ↑ cited in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 93
  12. ↑ A selection of the tests from 1895 is contained in document Y.Mtv 122/11, June 13, 1895 (from the AMP), cited in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 92
  13. ↑ Article 12 of the Nizamname (from the AMP), quoted in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 94
  14. ↑ Article 20 of the Nizamname (from the AMP), quoted in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 94
  15. ↑ Document YA.Res 112/59 of June 10, 1901 (from the AMP), cited in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 96
  16. ^ Ali Çankaya: Yeni Mülkiye , Volume 1, p. 290, quoted in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 98
  17. ↑ Document Y. Mtv 165/90 of August 20, 1897 (from the AMP), cited in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 98
  18. ↑ Osman Ergin: Türkiye Maarif Tarihi , quoted in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 100
  19. ↑ Bayram Kodaman: Abdülhamid Devri Eğitim Sistemi , p. 164. Published 1988, cited by Eugene L. Rogan, 1996, p. 100

swell

  • Archives of the Turkish Prime Minister (AMP for short). Documents with a Y are from the Sultan's Yıldız Palace . Both cited in Eugene L. Rogan, 1996.

literature

  • Alişan Akpınar, Eugene L. Rogan: Aşiret Mektep Devlet: Osmanlı Devleti'nde Aşiret Mektebi . Aram Yayınları, Istanbul 2002, ISBN 978-975-8242-18-4 , (Turkish, extension by Eugene L. Rogan, 1996).
  • Eugene L. Rogan : Asiret Mektebi: Abdulhamid II's School for Tribes (1892-1907) . In: International Journal of Middle East Studies , Vol. 28, No. 1 (Feb., 1996), pp. 83-107.
  • Bayram Kodaman: Abdülhamid devri eğitim sistemi . Ötüken Neşriyat, İstanbul 1980, p. 277.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on January 21, 2009 .