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Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until December 17, 2028

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Rebellion, Reform, and Taxation in the 17th-Century Ottoman Empire: The Struggles of the Imperial Household Cavalry

Whitehead, Christopher Raymond
http://orcid.org/0009-0000-8535-0082
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1697274071981982

Abstract Details

2023, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, History.
This dissertation is a study of the role of the prestigious cavalry branch of the Ottoman dynasty’s household troops, “the People of the Six Regiments,” or altı bölük halkı, in the political upheavals, administrative transformations, and provincial rebellions that shook the Ottoman Empire between the 1620s and 1660s. Scholars of this period have devoted little attention to the altı bölük halkı, based on the assumption that the relevance of their organization in Ottoman state and society was on the wane in comparison to their infantry counterparts, the janissaries. Using extensive archival material, the present study challenges this view, arguing that the seventeenth-century altı bölük halkı evolved into a dynamic political and socio-economic elite in Anatolia, the Balkans, and northern Syria. Their members fortified their authority in these regions by functioning as tax collectors, a privilege that reached its greatest proportions in the decade following the infamous 1622 regicide of Sultan Osman II. Their consolidation of power in turn provoked a reaction when, in 1632, Sultan Murad IV initiated a reform program intended to strengthen the central government vis-à-vis the altı bölük halkı’s new elites. These developments provide the essential context for the bloody rebellions that broke out in Istanbul and Anatolia after 1648. Rather than spontaneous uprisings, these rebellions emerged from efforts of members of the altı bölük halkı to preserve their elite status and to recover the privileges that the reforms of Murad IV had eliminated. By tracing the volatile trajectory of the altı bölük halkı, this dissertation makes a new contribution to debates over the Ottoman Empire’s seventeenth-century transformation and its experience of the global ‘crisis of the seventeenth century.’
Jane Hathaway (Advisor)
Elizabeth Bond (Committee Member)
Scott Levi (Committee Member)
274 p.
History; Middle Eastern History; World History
Anatolia; Early Modern; Crisis; Political Economy; Altı Bölük Halkı; Abaza Hasan

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Whitehead, C. R. (2023). Rebellion, Reform, and Taxation in the 17th-Century Ottoman Empire: The Struggles of the Imperial Household Cavalry [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1697274071981982

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Whitehead, Christopher. Rebellion, Reform, and Taxation in the 17th-Century Ottoman Empire: The Struggles of the Imperial Household Cavalry. 2023. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1697274071981982.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Whitehead, Christopher. "Rebellion, Reform, and Taxation in the 17th-Century Ottoman Empire: The Struggles of the Imperial Household Cavalry." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2023. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1697274071981982

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1697274071981982
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.