Vilayet Tuna

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The Vilayet Tuna (imprecise) referred to here as Bulgaria

The Vilâyet Tuna ( Turkish Tuna vilâyeti , German " Danube Province " rarely also " Danubia ") was created in 1864 as part of the Tanzimat reforms, or by the administrative law (1864) from the merger of the Ottoman provinces of Silistria , Niş and Widin and existed until 1878. The wide, still Ottoman strip of land south of the Danube reached from the Serbian Niš (Nisch) and across the flat north of Bulgaria to the Dobruja and the Danube Delta . The first administrator, Wali, was Midhat Pasha , who carried out extensive reforms over the next few years.

Already in the Middle Ages there was an administrative district of the same name in the Byzantine Empire : Paristrion - "Land on the Danube".

Limits and special features

The Vilâyet Tuna thus comprised today's south-east Serbia and northern Bulgaria (north of the Balkan Mountains and south of the Danube ), as well as the Romanian north Dobrudscha from 1878 . The Vilayet Tuna was often imprecisely called Vilayet Bulgaria because the Bulgarians made up the majority of the population. The administrative center of the vilayet was Russe (Ottoman Rusçuk), the most important Ottoman fortress on the Danube and at that time a flourishing city in northeastern Bulgaria.

The Vilâyet was built on the French model and, according to the presentation of the Sublime Porte, should function as a model province for a new provincial order. According to the administrative tasks of a department , the vilayet was divided into several sanjaks, which in turn took on the task of the French arrondissements . At the head of the vilayet was the wali instead of the earlier Beglerbeg . The Sanjaks were led by a Mutasarrif instead of the previous Sanjakbeg. The advisory Dīwān was abolished and a board of directors was set up in its place at both the Vilayets and Sanjak levels, which included Muslim dignitaries and three non-Muslim religious communities (Armenians, Greek Orthodox and Jews). This should include the non-Muslim population.

Over the next three years, Midhat Pasha carried out large-scale reforms in the Vilayet. They included the construction of roads and bridges, the establishment of credit institutes, trade schools and a Danube shipping company, the organization of taxation and the police budget, the establishment of a postal service and local government. By increasing the quick-wittedness of the military and police units, it was possible to increase public safety and to pull the ground for a long time from the underground Bulgarian liberation movement. The construction and opening of the Varna – Ruse railway line in 1866 also fell during his reign .

The formation of the Vilayet Tuna and the reforms carried out were unable to appease the dissatisfied Bulgarian population, who made up the majority, as they were not represented in the new administrative system either. Because with the Greek-influenced ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople , which she was supposed to represent, she fought for an independent Bulgarian church (see Bulgarian-Greek church struggle ). This did not change with the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870, which was nominally subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople. At the local level there were Bulgarian municipal councils, mayors and church councils in some places.

Administrative division

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Mathias Bernath , Felix von Schroeder, Gerda Bartl (eds.): Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe. Volume 3: L - P (= Southeast European Works. 75, 3). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-486-48991-7 , p. 193.

literature

  • Josef Matuz : The Ottoman Empire. Basics of its history 2nd, unchanged edition. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1990, ISBN 3-534-05845-3 , pp. 234-235.