<<The>> Imperial School for Tribes educating the provincial elite in the late Ottoman Empire

To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. xv Hiba also did a meticulous translation of Omar Mansour's memoirs. Habibe Çıkılıoğlu scanned the Tercüman-ı Hakikat newspaper for the duration of the school and discovered hundreds of articles about the School for Tribes, which I later transcribed. Budak Kayabek and Ekrem Sırma supported me in deciphering some difficult texts in the Ottoman script. Several friends read my manuscript and gave useful comments. I am indebted particularly to Charles Allen from California, who improved my writing style significantly. Special thanks to Turgay Bayındır and Samira Shami. I am very grateful to my final readers Deniz Akyüz and Jean and Barry Robinson. Finally, my mother, Professor Olcay Neyzi, who passed away on 3 February 2022, was my great supporter and read all my draft chapters. She was an ardent Kemalist (Ataturk fan) and this project allowed us to have long discussions on our Ottoman past. xvi The Auspicious Event was the term adopted by the Ottomans for the bloody abolition of the traditional Janissary Corps in 1826. The Ottoman state was determined to centralize its power in Istanbul and remove all impediments towards this objective. A new structure named The Mohammedan Victorious Army was established, modelled on the Napoleonic example. 1 Over the previous centuries, the Janissaries had become a strongly entrenched and privileged group, becoming the terror of subjects and statesmen instead of being the terror of enemies. This landmark event paved the way for the social, fiscal, legal and educational reforms known collectively as the Tanzimat, which continued unabated until the First World War. With increased centralization, the tentacles of the empire began to extend even to the remotest corners of the realm. Like the Habsburgs in Austria and the Romanovs in Russia, the Ottomans strived to realize 'a transition to a modern imperial model infused with national imagery and identity' , 2 hence the concept of Ottomanism was introduced along with centralization. The land law of 1858 and the provincial reform law of 1864 laid out the legal foundations for the penetration of the state into the countryside. The new system of government was gradually introduced into the provinces, Syria (1866), Libya (1867), Hijaz (1868), Eastern Arabia (1871) and Yemen (1872). Carefully picked governors were charged with building local administrative councils to control their regions, boost agricultural output and maximize tax revenues. 'Ottoman modernity involved a process of mediation and translation to adapt new ideas from the West to radically different settings across the Empire' . 3 During this period, the government began to intervene more directly in the lives of individual Ottoman subjects. The first census was carried out in most parts of the empire in 1831, and censuses were repeated throughout the century. Founded in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire, the Imperial School for Tribes ( Asiret Mektebi ) was an initiative by Sultan Abdulhamid II to bring the sons of prominent Arab tribal leaders to Istanbul for a world-class education and transform them into loyal Ottoman future military and governmental leaders. Utilizing a plethora of new documents recently made available in the Ottoman archives as well as Ottoman newspaper collections in Istanbul and Beirut, this is the first book to shed light on the School for Tribes. It provides a detailed analysis of the origins and families of the over 500 graduates of the school, as well as the recruitment and placement processes developed by the administration. The further careers and allegiances of the graduates are examined, allowing us to better understand relations between Turks and Arabs both during the last years of the Empire as well as in the following decades. The book shows that many graduates who became prominent leaders in their newly formed countries, including Abdulmuhsin al-Sadoun (Prime Minister of Iraq), Omar Mansour and Orhan Kologlu (Prime Ministers of Cyrenaica-Libya), and Ramadan al-Shallash (Lebanon) availed of their Ottoman training and preserved their imperial loyalties even as rifts that occurred between the Republic of Turkey and the Arab states widened. Cover Contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgements Introduction 1 The school for tribes: A chronology 2 Recruitment and placement 3 Educators and curriculum 4 Life stories – Greater Syria 5 Life stories – Libya 6 Life stories – Iraq Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index