Negotiating the Ottoman Constitution, 1839-1876; Collection Turcica 24 (Leuven: Peeters, 2018)

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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1.  Historiographical Narratives and New Approaches . . . . . . . 1 2.  Methodological Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 3.  The Ottoman Empire as a “Negotiated Enterprise” . . . . . . . 18 The Ottoman Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 –  Opposition Groups within the Centre . . . . . . . . . . 19 –  The Imperial Political Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Periphery of the “Imperial Domain” . . . . . . . . . . . 22 –  Provincial Notables and Administration . . . . . . . . . 22 – The Millet System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 The Enlargement of the Ottoman Centre . . . . . . . . . . . 27 From Flexibility towards Rigidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 4.  Organisation of the Chapters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 5.  Sources, Approaches and Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Chapter I:  Three Preceding Moments: Actors, Interactions and Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 1. The 1839 Imperial Rescript: the Beginning of Negotiations with the Great Powers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 The Imperial Rescript of 1839 and its Foundations: Textual Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 2.  The 1856 Reform Edict and New Negotiations . . . . . . . . . 70 The Rothschilds and the Fourth Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 The Reform Edict of 1856: Textual Analysis . . . . . . . . . 97 3.  New Trends: the 1860s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Millet Constitutions: the Beginning of Constitutional Debate in the Ottoman Empire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 The Armenian Constitutional Experience . . . . . . . . . . . 112 –  The Road to the Armenian National Constitution . . . . 118

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– The Armenian National Assembly: a Legitimate Interme diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 The Regulation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate . . . . . . . . 130 The Regulation of the Jewish Millet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 –  The Road to the Jewish Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . 140 –  New Institutions: the Alliance israélite universelle . . . 147 Young Ottomans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Chapter II: Actors, Interactions and Negotiations in 1875-76  161 1.  The Great Powers and their Representatives . . . . . . . . . . 162 Britain’s Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Individual Agencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 –  The Case of Sir Henry Elliot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 – A Russian Scheme: an American-Authored Autonomy of Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 The Austrian Scheme: the Andrassy Note . . . . . . . . . . . 184 –  The Content of the Andrassy Note . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 2.  A Multi-Layered Liberal Effort among Ottomans . . . . . . . 190 3.  Diasporas and Ethnic Lobbies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 The Armenian Diaspora of Manchester . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 The Camondos: Another Banking Family . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Ethnic Solidarity beyond Diasporas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 4.  The Ottoman Government’s Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 The Special Mission of Odyan Effendi . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 The Provincial Law and the Ottoman Counter-Project . . . . 209 The Drafting Commission: a Platform of Tensions . . . . . . 216 – The “Constitutional Calendar” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 – The Composition of the Drafting Commission . . . . . 223 – The Agenda of the Drafting Commission . . . . . . . . 227 Midhad’s Banishment and the Suspension of the Ottoman –  Constitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  230 Chapter III:  Drafts and the Final Version of the Ottoman Constitution: Textual and Political Analysis . . . . . . . . 237 1.  Draft Constitutions: the Commission’s Work . . . . . . . . . . 249 2. From the Commission’s Work to the Council of Ministers’ Amendments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255



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3.  Which European Constitutions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 4.  The Final Text of the Ottoman Constitution . . . . . . . . . . 275 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479