Fatma Sel Turhan - The Ottoman Empire and the Bosnian Uprising: Janissaries, Modernisation and Rebellion in the Nineteenth Century

Fatma Sel Turhan has worked as an editor at the Turkish Journal Anlay as a Balkan Specialist at the SETA Foundation, and as the Strategy Development Manager at the Yunus Emre Institute in Ankara. She is currently Assistant Professor at the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Waqf University in Istanbul.

THE OTTOMAN
EMPIRE AND
THE BOSNIAN
UPRISING

F ATMA S EL T URHAN

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Copyright 2014 Fatma Sel Turhan

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Library of Ottoman Studies 34

ISBN: 978 1 78076 111 4

eISBN: 978 0 85773 676 5

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

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To my lovely children, Glru, Yahya and Katre, and to
my husband, brahim

CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

The Bosnian districts according to the four arms (Drt Kol).

The list of kapudanlks.

The leading figures of the rebellion in the first stage.

The leading figures of the rebellion for the second stage.

INTRODUCTION

During my Masters degree study on the abolition of the janissary corps and its repercussions in 1826, I placed special emphasis on the provincial responses to the abolition. At the same time I realized that, among the Ottoman provinces, Bosnia showed the strongest reaction in that its cities and districts were not pacified for a long time. Even a short perusal of archival documents showed that the period of rebellion followed a fluctuating line, with short periods of suppression, followed by recurring reactions. In addition, these reactions were not limited only to the professional janissaries, but almost all members of the various strata of society took an active part in the rebellion. When I broadened my research, I realized that the Bosnians were not only against the abolition of the janissary corps, but were also uncomfortable about the changes brought about by the centralization and reform policies of the state in general. In terms of local issues, centralization and reform meant a new army for the Bosnians as well as a new land system, a new administration, a change in the status of non-Muslims to the disadvantage of Muslim Bosnians and the establishment of a more interventionist state than before. The reaction of the Bosnians against the centralization policies took the form of outbreaks of rebellion against the Ottoman centre. This reactionary position of Bosnia drove me to study the topic further.

Therefore, this study seeks to analyse the reactions of the Bosnians to the centralization and reform policies of the Porte between 1826 and 1836. It is important to note that the period under consideration witnessed many rebellions in Bosnia, large and small, some of which affected only very limited areas and could be suppressed through small-scale interventions. Two of these rebellions, however the one that took place after the abolition of the janissary corps and the rebellion of Hseyin Kapudan affected the whole region and could only be suppressed through large-scale interventions. In both of these rebellions, although the leaders had changed, the general participation and demands of the rebels as well as the reasons for the rebellion followed a very similar pattern, indicating, in essence, a certain continuity which can be formulated as reactions against the centralization policies of the empire. For this reason, I prefer to evaluate the process as two stages of a period of rebellion rather than calling them two separate rebellions.

Within this context, the study first examines the Bosnian rebellion against the abolition of the janissary corps in 1826 and then focuses on the subsequent rebellion of 1831 against the new orders of the Porte, the nizmt, including the changes in land tenure and in the military system, the changes in uniform as well as the changes in the status of some districts of Bosnia. The main aim of this study is, therefore, to discuss the underlying factors that led the local people to rebel against the central authority, as well as the reasons for the tumultuous situation of the region and the social, political and economic effects on the lives of its inhabitants. It also tries to show how these reactions by local people were interpreted by the Ottoman statesmen, including the Sultan, and what kind of counter-measures were taken by the central authorities. In that sense, my examination of the rebellion tries not only to describe the dynamics of a regional, organized, popular resistance, but also to demonstrate the perception of the state towards the rebellion and show its methods of suppression. However, this does not mean that the study seeks to analyse all the social, political and economic dynamics of Bosnia during the period under discussion. Rather, it attempts to present the all-embracing reasons that led the Bosnians to rebel against the central authorities. Thus, the basic aim of this study is to focus on ten years in Bosnia, between 1826 and 1836, in order to show how underlying factors paved the way for popular rebellions. In this respect, in spite of the suggestion that clear-cut distinctions of the period would have led the people of the region to rebel, it is believed that historical continuities provided the background for the rebellion. It is mainly for this reason that the study has been extended until 1836, four years after the rebellion of Hseyin Kapudan had been suppressed, in order to show that the problems did not end even with the suppression of rebellion. On the contrary, it was only the first phase in the establishment of the new order in which the changes followed a very tortuous path, and occasionally even a regressive one.

In this context, in order to understand the reasons behind the reactions of the Bosnians, this study mainly seeks answers to the following questions: why did the Bosnian people become so reactive during the centralization and reform programme of Mahmud II? What were the real causes of their grievances? Did the rebellion include a national agenda? What form did the rebellion take? Who were the rebels? What were the social classes, professions, religious beliefs, etc., of the rebels? What kind of stimuli motivated the rebels? Did the rebellion arise because of a shared consciousness? Where did the rebellion occur? What were the aims of the rebels? Who were the leaders of the rebellion? What was the policy of Ottoman statesmen towards the Bosnian rebellion? In what ways did the central authorities suppress the rebellion? Were the rebels punished? What kind of punishments took place? What were the effects of the rebellion on the lives of the Bosnians?

In this respect, this study seeks to provide a profile of a regionalprovincial rebellion and, related to this, the perception and response of the Ottoman centre in terms of coping with a provincial rebellion. As the questions above indicate, this study is built mainly on a two-dimensional approach. First, concentrating on the rebels within an inductive approach, it tries to define the rebels from all points of view; including their demands, aims and grievances. In that sense, the study looks at the popular resistance from the rebel point of view. Since defining the rebels is closely associated with having an intimate knowledge of the historical background of that province, there is a special stress on Bosnias geography, people and population, social life, administration, military organization and land tenure system, as well as its economy. Second, by focusing on the policies of the state in terms of coping with the rebellion, the study seeks to analyse the internal dynamics of the state administration by looking at it from within. It tries to find reliable answers to the questions: How did Ottoman statesmen cope with internal conflicts within Bosnia during the period under discussion? and What kind of counter-measures and policies did they initiate? Studies of archival materials show that, in dealing with the rebellion, apart from suppressive movements against the rebels, the Ottoman centre put into practice a series of different counter-measures and policies. The change of