An educational prescription for the Sultan: Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's advice for the maladies of empire

Middle Eastern Studies

Volumn 43, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 439-459

  Evered, E Ønhan ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EDUCATION REFORM; OTTOMAN EMPIRE;

EID: 34247353771     PISSN: 00263206     EISSN: 17437881     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00263200701246140     Document Type: Article

References (89)

1. On various matters of Ottoman decline, see L.T. Darling, Revenue-Raising and Legitimacy: Tax Collection and Finance Administration in the Ottoman Empire, 1560-1660 (Leiden: Brill, 1996)
2. Ş. Pamuk, 'Institutional Change and the Longevity of the Ottoman Empire, 1500-1800', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol.35, No.2 (2004), pp.225-47,
3. and U. Makdisi, 'Ottoman Orientalism', The American Historical Review Vol.107, No.3 (2002), pp.768-96.
4. Regarding a periodization of Ottoman history, note the key works in this ongoing inquiry by L.T. Darling, 'Another Look at Periodization in Ottoman History', Turkish Studies Association Journal, Vol.26, No.2 (2002), pp.19-28
5. and by J. Hathaway, 'Problems of Periodization in Ottoman History: The Fifteenth through Eighteenth Centuries', Turkish Studies Association Bulletin, Vol.20, No.2 (1996), pp.25-31.
6. For recent critical histories of the late Ottoman era, see especially S. Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1876-1909 (London: I.B. Tauris, 1998).
7. On the conduct of both states and citizens, note J.C. Scott's seminal works; Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998);
8. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990);
9. and Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985).
10. For biographical material on Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa, see I.M.K. Inal, Osmanii Devrinde Son Sadrazamlar, 14 vols. (Istanbul: Maarif Matbassi, 1940-53), especially pp.1654-1703.
11. In this context, Rumelia refers to those Ottoman territories in Europe. Furthermore, it is interesting to speculate as to the symbolic significance of this particular official place name (i.e., Vilayat-i Şahane, or Imperial Vilâyets). In most previous sources, such places were simply referred to as vilâyets (or provinces); was this novel reference to their 'imperial' status a means of restating imperial sovereignty over the empire's remaining European territories?
12. On this aspect of Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's career, note some of the passing references to the statesman in H. Kayali, Arabs and Young Turks: Ottomanism, Arabism, and Islamism in the Ottoman Empire, 1908-1918 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), pp.56-7, 71, 72, 74, 100-101, and note 63 on p.235.
13. S. Shaw and E.K. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Vol.2 (1977; repr., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p.209.
14. It should be reiterated that this was an administrative consolidation; Kosovo, Monastir, and Salonika were still regarded as distinct vilâyets under the larger 'Three Provinces' entity.
15. B. Fortna, Imperial Classroom: Islam, the State, and Education in the Late Ottoman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p.156.
16. Hilmi Paşa attracted a great deal of attention for the census that he ordered in 1905. In short, different ethnic groups have tried ever since to use his census - and any other available statistics from the period - to justify subsequent territorial claims and ambitions. For an analysis of those statistics, see I.D. Michailidis, 'The War of Statistics: Traditional Recipes for the Preparation of the Macedonian Salad', East European Quarterly, Vol.32, No.1 (1998), pp.9-21.
17. As found in the Başbakanlik Archive (or Prime Minister's Archive) in Istanbul, Turkey.
18. B. Fortna, 'Education for the Empire: Ottoman State Secondary Schools During the Reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909)' (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1997), pp.24-5.
19. Most of those pleas were written to warn the empire about the number and danger of foreign and missionary schools in the empire. For example, see A. Çetin, 'II. Abdülhamid'e Sunulmuş Beyrut Vilâyetindeki Yabanci Okullara Dair Bir Rapor', Türk Kültürü, Vol.253 (May 1984), pp.316-24;
20. A. Çetin, 'Maarif Naziri Ahmed Zühdü Paşa'nin Osmanli İmparatorluǧu'ndaki Yabanci Okullar Hakkinda Raporu', İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Güney-doǧu Avrupa Araştirmalari Dergisi, Vol.10-11 (1983), pp.189-219;
21. Y. Akyüz, 'Abdülhamid Devrinde Protestan Okullari ile İlgili Orijinal İki Belge', Ankara Üniversitesi Eǧitim Fakültesi Dergisi, Vol.3, No.1-4 (1970), pp.121-8.
22. For the Ottoman schools, common level-based classification included the ibtidaî (or primary schools), the rü-cesdiye (secondary schools), and the idadî (or post-secondary schools which functioned much like lycée or high schools in the West). Beyond these levels, there were also darülmuallimin (or teachertraining schools), and these sometimes were limited in terms of the levels that teachers were trained for (e.g., the darülmuallimin-i ibtidaî prepared teachers for the ibtidaî).
23. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Inspector General to Imperial Vil-ciayets of Rumelia, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report, 19 Şevval 1320/18 Jan. 1903.
24. The education tax (maarif hisse-i ianesi) was introduced in 1884. Proposed by Grand Vizier Said Paşa's, this tax was intended to finance the support and spread of post-primary education by funding the opening of rüşdiye and idadî across the empire. It was also intended to cover the expenses of establishing education directorates to administer educational policies in the empire's peripheries. After initial confusion about its calculation, it was arranged in 1887 as follows: The 10% annual tithe would be increased to 11.5%, of which 10% was the standard amount of tithe assigned for the state budget; 1% was assigned for local public works funds (menafi hissesi) and the remaining 0.5% was for the educational fund. The tax amount for noncultivators was 5%, based on the value of their property. M.Ş.N. Cevad, Maarif-I Umumiye Nezareti Tarihçe-i Teşkilat ve İcraati (Istanbul: Matbaa-yi Amire, 1338 [1919-1920]), pp.237-39
25. B. Kodaman, Abdülhamid Devri Eǧitim Sistemi (Istanbul: Ö tüken Nesriyat, 1980), pp.244-5;
26. S.A. Somel, The Modernization of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire (1839-1908): Islamization, Autocracy, and Discipline (Leiden: Brill, 2001), p.146.
27. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
28. This statistic was submitted as an attachment to Hilmi Paşa's letter to the Sublime Porte. It was not dated but, based on the letter that it accompanied, it might reasonably be assumed to be from 1903. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report. See Table 1 for this statistic.
29. The Ottoman archives contain large numbers of documents on Ottoman - Italian, Ottoman - French, and Ottoman - British competition over issues of education and schooling in the empire's European and Arabic-speaking territories. See, for instance, BOA IM 1312 Z 6; BOA IM 1313 L 2; IM 1320 Za 5.
30. For a longer discussion of the empire's educational agenda and its secular-versus-religious component, see B. Fortna, 'Islamic Morality in Late Ottoman "Secular" Schools', International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol.32, No.3 (2000), pp.369-93.
31. To achieve that goal, the Ottoman state required the teaching of Ottoman Turkish in all schools, whether they were Muslim or non-Muslim. In order to eliminate any complaints about their financing, the state paid the salaries of Ottoman-Turkish teachers from its own budget. The budget from Kosovo vilâyet indicated that non-Muslim schools' Ottoman-Turkish class teachers were paid 17,280 kuruş in a year. The budget was prepared by the education accountant of Kosovo and dated 2 Kanun-i Sani 1318/15 Jan. 1903. It was submitted to the Ottoman state as an attachment to Hilmi Paşa's report. BOA IM Za 17 1320.
32. BOA IM 1312 Za 5, Daire-i Sadaret, Amedi-i Divan-i Hümayun #2991, 20 Zilkade 1312/15 May 1895.
33. BOA IM Za 17 1320, H-dsuseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
34. BOA IM Za 17 1320, H-dsuseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
35. BOA IM Za 17 1320, H-dsuseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
36. See, for example, BOA IM 1310 M 4;
37. BOA IM 1310 M 12;
38. BOA IM 1310 Ş 23;
39. BOA IM 1310 M 9;
40. BOA IM 1311 Za 27;
41. BOA IM 1312 Z 4 has illustrations of the pleas from the Balkans and Arabicspeaking territories of the empire, describing their conditions as 'desperate' and referring to the sultan's duty to provide educational opportunities for his citizens in need.
42. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
43. I. Blumi, 'Teaching Loyalty in the Late Ottoman Balkans: Educational Reform in the Vil-ciayets of Monastir and Yanya, 1878-1912', Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol.21, No.1-2 (2001), pp.15-23, 18.
44. In 1894, people in those two towns negotiated with the Ottoman state to keep their education tax for local needs and the state agreed. BOA IM 1311 Za 27. What seemed like a temporary agreement became a permanent one because the budget Hilmi Paşa submitted to the sultan shows that those two towns were still keeping their education taxes for their own local expenses rather than sending it to the state. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
45. For a sample of village ibtidaî curricula, see Somel, Modernization of Public Education, pp.297-99.
46. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
47. Teacher shortage in the empire led to the idea of using local medreses as Medrese-i Muallimin to train teachers. This would give medrese students a new career opportunity and also eliminate the pressure from darülmuallimin. In the later (and significantly shortened) third edition of his Abdülhamid Devri Eǧitim Sistemi, Kodaman argued that this decision was never realized, with a few exceptions; see Kodaman, Abdülhamid Devri Eǧitim Sistemi, 3rd ed. (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1999), pp.155-6. It is not clear from the document if those medrese graduates had any teacher training because they were not referred to as graduates of Medrese-i Muallimin.
48. Blumi, 'Teaching Loyalty in the Late Ottoman Balkans', p.16.
49. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
50. Blumi, 'Teaching Loyalty in the Late Ottoman Balkans', p.17.
51. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
52. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
53. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
54. For a longer discussion on Hamidian ideologies, see K. Karpat's introduction in The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp.3-19.
55. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report, p.2.
56. Blumi, 'Teaching Loyalty in the Late Ottoman Balkans', p.19.
57. The issue of people from faraway villages and towns not being able to attend darülmuallimin in vilâyet centres for two to three years because of the distance and its cost was a major concern for other parts of the empire. In 1888, the issue was discussed in education commission meetings, which noted that most of the darülmuallimin in the vilâyet centres of the empire's periphery had very low enrolments and started accepting ibtidaî students. See the first edition (1980) of Kodaman's Abdülhamid Devri Eǧitim Sistemi, p.236. It is interesting that Hilmi Paşa was trying to overcome that obstacle by spreading those darülmuallimin beyond the centre of the vilâyets and into the sanjaks and kazas.
58. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
59. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report. p.2.
60. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Telegram from Inspector General to Imperial Vilâyets of Rumelia, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa, #42456, 5 Kanun-i Sani 1318 [only the Rumi date was listed]/18 Jan. 1903.
61. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye, Umumî #51997, Hususî #258, 28 Şevval 1320/27 Jan. 1903.
62. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye, Umumî #51997, Hususî #258, 28 Şevval 1320/27 Jan. 1903.
63. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye, Umumî #51997, Hususî #258, 28 Şevval 1320/27 Jan. 1903.
64. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye, Umumî #51997, Hususî #258, 28 Şevval 1320/27 Jan. 1903.
65. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye, Umumî #51997, Hususî #258, 28 Şevval 1320/27 Jan. 1903.
66. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye, Umumî #51997, Hususî #258, 28 Şevval 1320/27 Jan. 1903.
67. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye, Umumî #51997, Hususî #258, 28 Şevval 1320/27 Jan. 1903. Although the document did not specify the intended recipient of this letter, based on the emphasis on the financial details of the plan, it is assumed that it was written for the Ministry of Finance.
68. The sultan's letter was dated 9 Kanun-i Sani 1318/21 Jan. 1903 and #3070. It was referred to in Celâl Paşa's second letter detailing his ministry's plans. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye.
69. BOA IM 1318 Ş 22, Meclis-i Mahsus #2272, 27 Recep, 318/20 Nov. 1900.
70. BOA IM 1318 Ş 22, Daire-yi Meşihat-i Islamiye, Bâb-i Fetva #178, 25 Recep 1318/18 Nov. 1900.
71. BOA IM 1318 Ş 22, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiye, Umumî #38082, Hususî #175, 22 Recep 318/15 Nov. 1900.
72. The Education Department appointed Abdullatif Efendi to Yanya and Işkodra, Hüseyin Şükrü Efendi to Salonika and Edirne, and Ahmed Vas. to Kosovo and Monastir. BOA IM 1318 Ş 22, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiye.
73. The Ministry of Internal Affairs appointed Faik Bey (an Evkaf-i Hümayun Mahlülat Müdiri, or Director of Escheat for the Imperial Vakif) to Salonika and Edirne; Kâzim Efendi to Kosovo and Monastir;
74. Hakki Efendi to Yanya and Iskodra. BOA IM 1318 SH 22, Daire-i Umur-u Dahiliyye, Mektubî Kalemi #3852, 26 Receb 318/19 Nov. 1900.
75. The office of Şeyhulislam appointed Avni Efendi, previously a naib (an appointed Ottoman o.cial), to Monastir and Kosovo; Görice Fehmi Efendi, also a former naib, to Yanya and Işkodra; and Şerif Efendi, then serving as a naib to Siroz, to Edirne and Selanik. BOA IM 1318 Ş 22, Daire-yi Meşihat-i Islamiye.
76. BOA IM 1318 Ş 22, Daire-yi Meşihat-i Islamiye.
77. BOA IM 1318 Ş 22, Daire-yi Umur-u Dahiliyye.
78. BOA IM 1318 Ş 22, Meclis-i Mahsus #2272.
79. BOA IM 1319 B 7, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiye, Umumî #42595, Hususî #120, 28 Cemaziyelevvel 1319/12 Sept. 1901.
80. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa's Report.
81. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye.
82. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye.
83. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye.
84. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye.
85. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Nezaret-i Maarif-i Umumiyye.
86. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Daire-i Sadaret, Amedi-i Divan-i Hümayun #2236, 17 Zilkade 1320/15 Feb. 1903.
87. The sultan's approval appeared on the letter submitted to him by his grand vizier. BOA IM Za 17 1320, Daire-i Sadaret.
88. E. Rogan, Frontiers of the State in the Late Ottoman Empire: Transjordan, 1850-1921 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p.15.
89. Somel, Modernization of Public Education, p.157.