Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915 offers new, microhistoric and non-nationalist perspectives on the late 19th century history of the province of Diyarbekir. Focusing on a period dominated by violent conflicts between the authorities and various local elites and population groups of the region – urban Muslims, Kurds, Armenians, Syrian Christians and others – this book offers new insights into the social history of the region and the origins of the Armenian and Kurdish "Questions", which were to gain such prominence in the 20th century.
Joost Jongerden is Assistant Professor at Sociology and Anthropology of Development of Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His research interests include socio-spatial analyses of the Kurdish issue in Turkey. He is co-editor of Nationalisms and Politics in Turkey (Routledge, 2011).
Jelle Verheij is an independent researcher, specializing in the history and geography of Eastern Turkey and the late Ottoman Empire. He has published several articles on Armenian-Ottoman and Kurdish-Ottoman relations before World War I.
'Overall, this collection provides a noteworthy variety of perspectives on Diyarbekir in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from
Ottoman sources, British parliamentary documents, consul reports, the documents of Christian communities (like church archives) and oral
history. All the contributors undertake significant micro-studies to challenge historical generalizations and shed more light on neglected subjects'.
Gülseren Duman, Boğaziçi University, in 'New Perspectives on Turkey, No. 48, Spring 2013
CONTENTS
List of Tables .................................................................................................... vii
About the Authors .......................................................................................... ix
Note on Names and Spelling ....................................................................... xi
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
Joost Jongerden and Jelle Verheij
Confusion in the Cauldron: Some Notes on Ethno-Religious Groups, Local Powers and the Ottoman State in Diyarbekir Province, 1800–1870 ................................................................................... 15
Suavi Aydın and Jelle Verheij
Elite Encounters of a Violent Kind: Milli İbrahim Paşa, Ziya Gökalp and Political Struggle in Diyarbekir at the Turn of the 20th Century ........................................................................................ 55
Joost Jongerden
Diyarbekir and the Armenian Crisis of 1895 .......................................... 85
Jelle Verheij
State, Tribe, Dynasty, and the Contest over Diyarbekir at the Turn of the 20th Century ............................... 147
Janet Klein
A “Peripheral” Approach to the 1908 Revolution in the Ottoman Empire: Land Disputes in Peasant Petitions in
Post-revolutionary Diyarbekir ................................................................ 179
Nilay Özok-Gündoğan
Some Notes on the Syriac Christians of Diyarbekir in the Late 19th Century: A Preliminary Investigation of Some
Primary Sources .......................................................................................... 217
Emrullah Akgündüz
Relations between Kurds and Syriacs and Assyrians in Late Ottoman Diyarbekir ................................... 241
David Gaunt
Disastrous Decade: Armenians and Kurds in the Young Turk Era, 1915–25 ............................ 267
Uğur Ümit Üngör
Annexes
A. Provisional List of Non-Muslim Settlements in the Diyarbekir Vilayet Around 1900 .................. 299
B. Diyarbekir and the Armenian Crisis of 1895—The Fate of the Countryside ............................... 333
C. Telegraphs from Diyarbekir and Pirinççizade Arif Efffendi’s Speech ........................................... 345
D. Family Tree of Ziya Gökalp ............................................................. 353
E. British map of Diyarbekir and Surroundings, 1904 ................... 355
Name and Subject Index .............................................................................. 357
Place Index ...................................................................................................... 365
Tribes (aşiret) Index ....................................................................................... 371
All interested in Ottoman history, history of modern Turkey and the Armenian and Kurdish issues.