Governing a frontier sancak in the Ottoman Empire: Notables, tribes, and peasants of Muş (1820s-1870s)

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the reflections of nineteenth-century administrative, fiscal and social transformations on the sub-province of Muş that was situated on the frontiers of the Ottoman Empire. It examines the transition from the pre-Tanzimat to the Tanzimat era in a frontier region on a fertile plain surrounded by mountain ranges with its heterogenous population and nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes. Collaboration with local power-holders was vital for governing and maintaining order and security in this agriculturally fertile, tribally populated region that bordered Russian and Iranian empires. us, the implementation of rule in such a sub-province was based on negotiation among various powerholders. Accordingly, the dissertation first explores the roles and functions of Kurdish notables, whose power stemmed mainly from their inherited control over large plots of lands – called “yurtlukocaklık”- as well as their influence over seminomadic and nomadic tribes of the region in the pre-Tanzimat period. en, the study examines how said notables reacted and adapted themselves to the fiscal and administrative centralization of the Tanzimat. us, by focusing on the sub-province of Muş to analyze the implementation of Tanzimat reforms, the study demonstrates how the intermediary role, local knowledge, and experience of local powerholders were important in the fulfillment of reforms with specific concern for reforms’ effects on the common people and tribal groups of Muş.