Historical background

Dhimmi designates an indefinitely renewed contract through which non-Muslims have a specific status (but are not full citizens), have their property protected, and are ensured safe conduct in return for acknowledging Islam’s domination and paying the jizya (poll tax).(3) In early Islam, they were Christians, Jews, Magians, Samaritans, and Sabians.(4) The Prophet and the early caliphs showed religious tolerance and caution toward religious minorities.(5) The Ottoman sultans made slight changes, but basically followed the same attitude in a more structured fashion.

Dhimmis in the Ottoman State

Some assert that Ottoman society was divided into ruling (Muslim) and (non-Muslim) raaya classes. But it was more complicated than that, for Muslims and non-Muslims were referred to as raaya (followers, the ruled, or non-participants in government). As the Ottoman State was semi-theocratic, raaya should be understood in the biblical sense as the shepherd and the flock.(6)

Government personnel worked in three areas: religion and law, war and statecraft, and the bureaucracy. The first branch was restricted to Muslim-born subjects. The ulema devoted long years to theological, scholastic, and legal studies in order to become judges and professors. The latter two branches were reserved mainly for non-Muslims. Neither group was inferior to the Muslims.

The Ottoman system was so complex that we cannot determine whether there was religious or racial discrimination. After reforms during the nineteenth century, many intellectuals and ecclesiastics argued that applying a unified law would deprive them of their privileges.(7) The Ottoman system of government was holistic, considered all branches interwoven and interconnected, and was fairly well integrated, in socioeconomic matters but not in religious matters, at least in Turkish-majority areas.

The Millet System

Three days after Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror entered Constantinople (1453), he told everyone to go home and continue his or her occupation and religion. He supervised the election of a new Greek Patriarch, a monk named Genadius, who was elected by Synod and consecrated. He proclaimed the patriarch-elect in the most honorific terms, gave him the pastoral staff with his own hands, and said: Be patriarch, live with us in peace, and enjoy all the privileges of your predecessors.(8) Though other communities later were recognized in the same terms, the Greek Orthodox Church always had more privileges and stronger ties with the central government.

Gradually, dealing with minorities engendered the millet system. Controlling the minority communities through their local bishops and rabbis stopped, and the whole Orthodox Church was organized as Rum Milleti (Roman people). The patriarch collected and allocated the poll tax and served as his community’s temporal leader. He was assigned a ceremonial rank with three tugs (horsetails), allowed his own court and prison in Istanbul’s Fener district, and had unlimited civil jurisdiction over and responsibility for his community. The State assigned him other duties and enforced the laws that he laid down for his community.

Since Islamic law is corporate (not territorial) and Ottoman society was corporate in nature, the Ottoman State dealt with dhimmis as members of a community and not as individuals.(9) A community member was directly responsible for and accountable to the community. Thus the government protected the communities from internal and external aggression, while the community’s leaders managed its affairs. The Porte had to ratify the chosen leader, but this was a mere formality. Each millet’s leader represented his people, and these matters were dealt with through the Foreign Ministry. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch had the rank of vizier and was provided with a guard of Janissaries (soldiers).

The Christian Millet. Most Orthodox Christian Balkan territories had been included in the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s jurisdiction. But by the time of Ottoman conquest, the Slavonic branch in the Sultan’s dominion had split into three patriarchates: Ochrida, Trnovo, and Ipek. These divisions were racial, dynastic, and nationalistic, and not doctrinal. Thus the Conqueror placed all Orthodox Christians under the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople and let him decide how to apportion the tax among them.

The sixteenth-century conquests in the Islamic lands and the capture of Cyprus and Crete brought many Orthodox Christians and the ancient patriarchates of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria under Muslim control. As the patriarch was influential with the sultan, the Porte made arrangements through which the Greek elements became dominant.(10)

The Jewish Millet. The Conqueror allowed the Jews, recognized as another millet, to settle in Istanbul. He appointed a haham basi (Chief Rabbi) with powers similar to those enjoyed by the patriarch. The haham basi was given precedence over the patriarch next to the head of ulema, and after the conquest, the Jews’ position improved. Although outcasts under the Byzantines, they now started holding various public offices.(11) Jews fleeing persecution in Spain and elsewhere were welcomed into Ottoman lands.

Each minority community was treated according to how it had been incorporated into the Ottoman State. Under Bayezid II and Mehmed the Conqueror, Muslims seem to have favored Jews over Christians, since Christians were suspected of being too sympathetic to Christian Europe. The Jews had no central authority to follow and be instigated by, save that of the office of haham basi, which the Porte could check easily. Almost all Jews were immigrants and brought their distinctive rituals, habits, and customs with them, Therefore, different regions inhabited by homogeneous groups were represented by different synagogues.

The Armenian Millet. In 1462, the Armenians became the last community recognized as a separate millet until the period of decline. Whereas the Patriarch was the most prominent ecclesiastical figure in the Orthodox Church and the Jews had no spiritual universal director, the head of Armenian Church did not reside within the Empire.

The Orthodox Church considered the Armenian church (Gregorian) heretical. Earlier, it had been as powerful as Orthodoxy. When the Armenians became a separate millet, neither little Armenia nor the Armenian provinces of the East, two important seats, were ruled by the Ottomans. Therefore, Mehmed II chose Horaghim, Gregorian bishop of Bursa, as the Armenian patriarch of Istanbul and gave him powers similar to those of the Orthodox patriarch and the haham basi.

Also belonging to this millet were all unclassified subjects, such as the Bogomils and the Paulicans, two heretical sects that originated from the Armenian church. Most Balkan Armenians accepted Islam after the area was overrun by the Ottoman armies. Remaining subjects have retained their particular faith until today. Other members included various Catholic and other Christian groups that the Orthodox Church considered heretical.

The devshirme and ghulam systems

This devshirme system was based on traditional views of dealing with prisoners of war. In the classical Islamic period, jurists advised immediate execution, allowing some or all to be ransomed or freed, exchanges for Muslim prisoners, or enslavement.(12)

Islam allowed slaves to be emancipated; the Ottomans did not. One-fifth of all captives entered the ghulam system (the sultan’s slave family), and were trained and allowed to rise within the system. Such slaves were recruited from Christians aged 10 to 20 years. The preferred ages were probably between 14 and 18, and boys younger than 12 or older than 20 were considered only in exceptional cases.(13)

Recruits were obtained through capture, purchase, gift, or tribute. Slaves not bought for the sultan or given to him were usually either captives or levied with the tribute boys. There was hardly any other way, since slaves passed too rapidly into the Muslim fold to have their children available for the system. The sons of the recruits (though already themselves Muslim) were eligible, but not their grandsons, because by then the grandchildren would most likely be Muslims. Reliable statistical data is rare, but based on contemporary ac-counts, in the sixteenth century probably 3,000 children were recruited annually. Those within the system might have reached as high as 80,000, and the total number recruited throughout the centuries might have been close to 2 million.

This exclusion of all other Muslims’ children and grandchildren lasted until Suleyman the Magnificent broke them. He allowed the Janissaries’ children to join their ranks or other parts of the system. This proved to be a fatal move, for it became the only hereditary institution after the sultanate.

At first, parents were anxious to keep their children out of the system. But later on, even Muslim families tried to get their children into it because of the prestige it conferred. Originally restricted to the sons of villagers and poor families, it eventually spread to the townsmen’s children. The earlier practice resulted in great social upward mobility; the later practice opened up a new way of accumulating wealth and prestige, and thus undermined the State.

This tribute system brought children from Austria, the Caucasus, the Crimea, and the Balkans. Those captured by raiders and corsairs were presented to the sultan as gifts. Otherwise, recruiting officers visited some villages every 4 years to fill their quota. The officer summoned the priest and got a list of children, visited the houses, and took the most suitable children. If he received more than required, the surplus was sold elsewhere.(14) Contemporary accounts say that it produced the ablest and most talented children.

These children became known as ghilman. The sultan had the absolute sovereignty over them. However, they felt honored by this title and tried to show their loyalty to him. The Ottoman system raised slaves to ministers of state, courtiers, husbands of princesses, rulers of the Islamic state, soldiers and generals, bureaucrats and prime ministers. Race was irrelevant, for only potential talent was considered.(15)

They were taught Turkish, Arabic, Persian, physical training, war affairs, administration, the Ottoman governing institutions, and so on. The successful and meritorious could expect to serve in some of the Empire’s highest positions. Its graduates became fully Muslim, as did those who served in the Ottoman armed forces. However, many non-Muslims served in respectable positions during the reigns of Murad II, Mehmed the Conqueror, and Salim I. Muslims and non-Muslims held provincial administration positions and were members of court slave families (e.g., the grand vizier, governors, princes, military officers, and so on).

Taxation

Dhimmis paid two special taxes: jizya (a tribute or a poll tax) and kharaj (land tax). Ottoman ulema ruled that this rule still was in use, but since all agricultural land belonged to the State, it applied to private holdings. Another tax was taken from all peasants. Many other dues levied on peasants and traders were heavier for dhimmis than for Muslims. Though the land tax was discontinued during the early days of Islam, the Ottomans continued to levy the poll tax in lieu of military service.(16) Interestingly enough, it was confused with land tax and the dhimmis were confused with the masses. The masses’ payment of the land tax thus was actually the dhimmis’ payment of the poll tax.(17)

Originally it was levied only on free men who could earn and afford to pay it. But later on, ministers, rabbinical representatives, the chief rabbi, teachers, slaughterers, and a few Jewish families in Istanbul were excluded. Many Christian families obtained a decree from the sultan that made them exempt. Gibb and Bowen estimate that probably only one-third of all eligible dhimmis paid this tax during the State’s later period.(18)

During the nineteenth century, the land tax was abolished (in principle) and yet retained as a compensation for military duty. Shortly thereafter, Istanbul’s people were exempted from it in toto, although it was still collected in the provinces. Until the republican era, all non-Muslims (except for Istanbul residents) paid only a military and a road tax.

Conclusion

The Ottoman State acted according to Islam and its own interests. It recognized each community’s rights and frequently protected them at the expense of its own citizens. It opened up state offices to non-Muslims as an incentive to become Muslim. Such a policy was unknown to the Europe of that time. However, the Ottomans did not spread the Islamic educational system among the non-Muslims to encourage their conversion, which constituted the state’s very raison d’etre.

Footnotes

1. Abu Jaber, book title/pub. info needed, 213.
2. H.A.R. Gibb and Harold Bowen, Islamic Society and the West (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1950-), 1:43.
3. H.A.R. Gibb et al., eds., Encyclopedia of Islam, Dhimma (Leiden: Brill, 1960-).
4. M. Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1955), 176-77.
5. Ibid., 173.
6. Abu Jaber, 212.
7. Carel Bertram, book title/pub. info needed, 127.
8. Ibid.
9. Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel K. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976-77), 1:151.
10. Ibid., 153.
11. Cyrus Adler et al., eds., The Jewish Encyclopedia, Turkey (New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901-06).
12. A. H. Lybyer, The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913).
13. Ibid., 54.
14. Ibid., 46.
15. Vernon Parry, Elite Elements in the Ottoman Empire, in Governing Elites: Studies in Training and Selection, ed. Rupert Wilkinson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969), 50-73.
16. Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society, 253.
17. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Turkey.
18. Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society, 255.

I, hereby declare and record this decree for my followers. Regarding the Christians, known or unknown, in East or West, far or near. The ones who do not follow this decree, and follow my commands, will actually be opposing the God’s will, whether he is sultan or an ordinary Muslim, deserves to be cursed. If priests or monks find shelter in a mountain, or a cave; or if they reside in the plain, desert, city, village or a church, personally I am backing them with my armies and followers and defend them against their enemies. Those priests are my people (tabaa). I refrain from giving any harm to them. It is prohibited to expel a bishop from his duty, a priest from his church, a hermit from his shelter. A Muslim is not allowed to hinder a Christian woman, whom he has married, from worshipping in her church and obeying the scriptures of her religion. Anyone who opposes these will be considered as Allah’s and his Messenger’s enemy. Muslims are obliged to follow these commands till the end of the world”
THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD (Peace and blessings be upon him)

Sultan Mehmed II1 reorganized Greek Orthodoxy when he conquered Istanbul (then known as Constantinople). Even though he could have stunted and stifled Eastern Orthodoxy (from this point on just referred as Orthodoxy), he supported it and assigned Georgios Skelarios, a Greek cleric, as the patriarch with the title ‘Gennadios.’

As the Turkish political presence in Anatolia (Asia Minor) rose in prominence, the Byzantine church was already experiencing a severe decline. The leadership of the Balkans broke its ties with the Byzantine Church due to the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, while the Greek Orthodox Church was collapsing, the Ottoman government saved it from demise.

GREEK MINORITY IN ISTANBUL

After his conquest of Istanbul, Sultan Mehmed Khan said the following words to a crowd gathered in front of the mosque of Hagia Sophia2: “I am telling you all, that as my subjects do not fear for either your lives or for your freedom, you are safe from my wrath.” The Sultan then declared that people who had left the city out of fear, could return to their homes to continue their lives in accordance with their own traditions and customs among the Turks. In addition, he settled some of the captives to homes near Halic (The Golden Horn).3 In an effort to establish a sense of normalcy, the Ottoman State, repaired damaged houses, and provided public stability by establishing new courts. In order to revive the city, many Greeks were brought from the east and west of the country. Greeks, who were new to Istanbul were exempt from some taxes, and were granted new houses or land if they did not own either one. In addition, landowners were furnished with animals in order to cultivate their lands. The Greeks who emigrated from Epin to Galata brought many talents with them and were encouraged to utilize them. Many emigrants either chose to settle in coastal areas or at the center of a thriving city. The Greeks who came to Istanbul in the following centuries settled in their original places of origin often within close proximity of established churches.

SULTAN MEMMED II REVITALIZED THE ORTHODOXY

When Mehmed II became aware of the installation of the new patriarch to his position of Gennadios, the Sultan invited him to a banquet. In order to show his respect for both the ceremony and the patriarch’s position, Sultan Mehmed II, along with his elder vezirs4 personally welcomed the patriarch. The Sultan, who was often the recipient of a good deal of pomp and circumstance, welcomed the patriarch by shaking his hand and by offering him a seat near him. Sultan Mehmed, who made the patriarch the “head of the Greek nation,” presented the patriarch a white horse and the ‘stick of Moses’-as the Byzantine emperors had done for centuries. This formality legitimized the patriarch’s position in the eyes of both the Ottomans and the Byzantines. Since Sultan Mehmed spoke five languages, one of which was Greek, he assured the patriarch of his position by stating in Greek: “In safety and comfort, and as a government official, now and later, know that you have my support and the patriarchal office.”

ISLAM AND THE NON-MUSLIM MINORITY

The tolerance and the leniency of Sultan Mehmed II showed toward all none-Muslim minorities was a manifestation of his inner Islamic beliefs that had been established by the Muhammad (Peace and Blessings Be Upon Him). According to a strong hadith-an account of the actions or words of the Prophet Muhammad-The Messenger prohibited even a minute disturbance, offense or harm against non-Muslims, “A person, who torments a Jew or a Christian, will find me as a plaintiff against him in the Day of Judgment.” In another account, he states: “If anybody torments and offends the non-Muslim subjects in an unjustifiable manner, I am an adversary of him, and I’ll become his enemy in the Day of Judgment.”

CONQUEST BY KINDNESS AND NOT BY THE SWORD

The armies of Islam, conquered the hearts of many non-Muslims by allowing them the opportunity to practice their own religion without fear of undue influence. By demonstrating tolerance and forbearance toward Christians, Sultan Mehmed II was following the example of many of his Muslim predecessors. The first caliph Hazrat5 Ebubekir (the first Islamic spiritual leader after the passing of the Prophet Muhammad), ordered the military and civilian rulers to refrain from tormenting clergy members or ruin churches and monasteries because they were serving God. In keeping with this tradition, Hz. Omar could have used his position of caliphate to torment non-Muslims; however, he did not. When the clergy of the conquered lands presented the cities to him voluntarily, the patriarch invited Hz.Omar to perform prayers (salah) in the main Church of Jerusalem. He refused the offer by saying, “The church in which I perform prayer, becomes a masjid (a place where Muslims perform prayer) for Muslims. I don’t want to deprive Christians from this Cathedral by praying here.” 

Thus, Sultan Mehmed II, like other Islamic leaders, followed and remained steadfast to the doctrine of Islam. Consequently, he defended those who considered him an enemy. In the days when oppression ran rampant, Sultan Mehmed II showed that conquership and maintance of the dignity and respect could coexist in the same sphere.

ENDNOTES

1. Sultan Mehmed II, is more widely known as Fatih Sultan Mehmed. Fatih literally means ‘the opener’, but generally it is translated as ‘conqueror’. This name is given due to his conquest of Constantinople, then known as the former capital of Byzantium.
2. Hagia Sophia: A place of worship that was transformed from a church to o mosque. Currently, it is a museum.
3. The Golden Horn: A waterway that was of strategic importance to the Byzantines.
4. Vezir: An advisor to the Sultan.
5. Hazrat: A person with highly spiritual convictions.