The Transformation of the Mülâzemet System from a Status Position to a Power Struggle from the 16th to the 17th Century 16. Yüzyıldan 17. Yüzyıla Geçiş Sürecinde Mülâzemet Sisteminin Bir Statüden Güç Mücadelesine Dönüşümü
Osmanli Medeniyeti Arastirmalari Dergisi, cilt.2026, sa.29, ss.112-143, 2026 (Scopus, TRDizin)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 2026 Sayı: 29
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.21021/osmed.1783128
- Dergi Adı: Osmanli Medeniyeti Arastirmalari Dergisi
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Scopus, TR DİZİN (ULAKBİM)
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.112-143
- Anahtar Kelimeler: 17th Century, Mülâzemet, Ottoman Bureaucracy, Ottoman İlmiye, Scholar-Bureaucrat
- Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
- Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
In the mid-17th century, a marked search for order in the recruitment to the Ottoman learned hierarchy (ilmiye) becomes visible. The mülāzemet system—an arrangement that combines the personal teacherstudent bond with a bureaucratic aspect—undergoes a historical rupture during this period. Initially shaped within the empire’s centralizing policies of the later fifteenth century, mülāzemet acquired a “classical” character in the sixteenth century, functioning chiefly as a symbol of status among the scholar-bureaucrats of the ilmiye hierarchy. During this period, when personal relationships were decisive, there was no clear standard within the system. However, the political and administrative crisis of the seventeenth century structurally transformed the system. The intensification of power struggles between the scholarbureaucrats compelled the institution of various formal procedures. Entry into the learned hierarchy thus became standardized, quantified, and turned into a predictable administrative mechanism. The aim of this study is to examine the transformation of the mülāzemet system around the seventeenth century within its political, administrative, economic, and socio-cultural context. The study is based on an examination of biographical dictionaries of the learned hierarchy (tabakāt), legal-administrative codes (kānūnnāme), and mülāzemet registers from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The findings show that, beginning in the early seventeenth century, the mülāzemet system was gradually standardized through a series of regulations. During this period, the unplanned routes of appointment by vefāt (death of grandee scholars) and nöbet (rotation system) were phased out and replaced by appointment through assistantship (muīdlik) and designation by a grandee (teşrīf), both of which were bound by standardized procedures. For this reason, the contents and archival classifications of mülāzemet registers from the first half of the seventeenth century are disordered, whereas those from the second half are orderly. In this study, all extant registers of the period have been examined, described, and arranged chronologically for the use of future researchers.