Ethnic Segmentation, Western Education, and Political Outcomes: Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Society

Abstract

During the process of late Ottoman social transformation, why did the minorities try to separate themselves from the Ottoman state, and the Muslims to alter it? This article analyzes the Ottoman social structure, arguing that it was the preexisting Ottoman ethnic segmentation which, polarized in the nineteenth century by new structural and cultural contexts, led to such disparate political outcomes. Ethnic segmentation is defined as the differential economic and social resource accumulation of social groups. In the Ottoman case, the religious differentiation between Muslims and non-Muslims created an ethnic segmentation which favored the former to the detriment of the latter. This segmentation was polarized in the nineteenth century as new structural and cultural contexts, which were introduced to alleviate segmentation, reproduced and reinterpreted it instead. Western-style educational institutions provided the new structural context within which ethnic segmentation was reproduced. The cultural translation from the West to the Ottoman Muslims and minorities created the new context within which social groups reinterpreted ethnic segmentation. Both the Ottoman minorities, who were educated in the foreign and minority schools established in the empire, and the Young Ottomans and Young Turks, who were trained in the Western-style educational system of the Ottoman state, launched political movements. Due to differing cultural interpretations, the political outcome of the first group's efforts took the form of independence movements, while the second group changed Ottoman political rule by deposing the sultan. The author gratefully acknowledges the support of a National Academy of Education Spencer Fellowship in completing this project. Poetics Today 14:3 (Fall 1993). Copyright ? 1993 by The Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics. CCC 0333-5372/93/$2.50. 1. "Memalik-i Mahrusa-i Sahanede Mevcud olup $imdiye Kadar Tahkik olunabilen Mekatib-i Ecnebiyenin Mevaki'ini Mubeyyin Defterdir-Yildiz Arsivi Vesika Koleksiyonu 1311" (The report on the current situation of the foreign schools in Ottoman domains that have been surveyed, Yildiz Palace Archives, Document Collection 1311 [

Missionary Influence and Nationalist Reactions: The Case of Armenian Ottomans

“…The educational system developed by American missionaries often catered to the Christian communities of the Ottoman Empire, with the inadvertent effect of crystallizing ethnic segmentation (Göçek 1993;Barkey 2008, 287). Scholars studying education and ethnic violence have noted that ethnic segregation can amplify social distance between communities and can, in some instances, lead to nationalist violence (Lange 2012).…”

“…Adding to the sense of detachment among students was the general absence of Turkish and even Ottoman cultural influences from the curricula of American schools (Berkes 1998, 192). The exposure of the Armenian population to Western education and culture had the further effect of sharpening existing differences between Armenians and Muslims, alienating Armenians from the local culture (Alan 2008;Badr 2000;Göçek 1993;Zeytinoğlu, Bonnabeau, and Eşkinat 2012;Grabill 1971). The most extreme variant of this argument claims that missionaries instilled among Armenians a hatred for the Turkish race, nation, and Ottoman state.…”

Between Islam and the nation; nation‐building, the ulama and Alevi identity in Turkey

“…The Turkish nation‐building project was fundamentally shaped by the legacy of the Ottoman Empire as a multi‐ethnic and multi‐religious polity where Islam was a crucial reference point; Muslims were positioned at the top and ruled the lands within the hierarchical social structure. In particular, ‘ethnic segmentation’ (Göçek ) under the millet system comprised religiously defined (non‐Muslims recognised by Islam as ‘people of the book’) communities enjoying a degree of administrative and religious autonomy. The polarisation of ethnic segmentation owing to war, imperial penetration and modernisation re‐enforced religion as an ethnic marker, shaping the boundaries of the nascent Turkish nation in the sense that it involved the construction and elevation of a Sunni Muslim‐Turkish identity.…”

The Nation‐State Form and the Emergence of ‘Minorities' in Syria

“…This highly idealised understanding of the system developed at the apogee and under the influence of nineteenth-century European involvement in the Empire and has undergone substantive revision in the last twenty-five years (see inter alia Braude and Lewis 1982;Göçek 1993;Valensi 1997;Encyclopedia of Islam 1999:'Millet';Makdisi 2000;Masters 2001). Under the ideal of the millet system, religion was the main marker of identity, religious law was paramount, and religious hierarchies wielded temporal authority over the non-Muslim communities on the Sultan's behalf.…”