AN EXAMPLE OF COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY IN OTTOMAN: UZUNKOPRU (CİSR-İ ERGENE) COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY AT T

Abstract

The expansion route of the Ottoman Empire was generally on the lands where Christians lived. On this occasion, it carried out a liberal and egalitarian policy of tolerance on the non-Muslim population it dominated and gave the necessary permission for these elements to worship or perform rituals according to their own religions and sects. The state, which brought a new perspective to the politics of tolerance with the understanding of the modern nation that developed after the Tanzimat, allowed a wide autonomy of the community regardless of religion, language, race, tradition and custom. The non-Muslim communities governed according to this understanding maintained their religious and cultural immunity in accordance with the regulations published by the Ottoman State specific to them. In line with the determined laws, the internal organization and administration of these communities was not interfered with, and the administration of their places of worship, schools and charity was left to the management organizations of the relevant communities. The structuring process of local communities and the creation of community councils, which are discussed in this article, have been prepared by giving the example of Uzunköprü community councils. The aim of the article is to reveal how all ethnic elements living in the Ottoman Empire were managed and to give information about the community structure formed down to the smallest administrative units. Although there are various studies on the administrative structure of the communities living in the Ottoman Empire in general, studies on local communities are insufficient. For this reason, in this study, which was based on the structure of Uzunköprü community councils, it was tried to give information about local communities. The article gains importance in this aspect. While preparing this study, archival documents of the period, yearbooks and studies on congregations were used. However, due to the lack of documents and resources on the function of local communities and their work, it has not been possible to evaluate the benefits of communities and community councils to the regions where they were established.

Keywords

• ottoman empire
• uzunköprü
• communities
• religion
• parliament.