The millet system was the organization of the non-Muslim subjects of the Ottoman state into communities on the basis of religion and denomination. This order defined non-Muslim rights broadly in worship, community administration, family law and education. In return, the communities paid the jizya, remained loyal to the state and were governed through their spiritual leaders. Rights were granted not to the individual but to the community.
Quick Summary
- The word in the system’s name meant a religious community in Ottoman documents, not an ethnic group.
- The Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Jewish communities were represented by their own spiritual leaders.
- The communities gained wide freedom in worship, family law, schools and endowments.
- Non-Muslims paid the jizya; there were restrictions on matters such as dress and the building of places of worship.
- The Reform Edict of 1856 abolished the jizya and brought lay members into community administration.
Contents
- What is the millet system?
- The meaning of the word
- The communities after the conquest
- The rights granted
- Community courts and the kadı
- The limits of the rights
- Trade and daily life
- The Tanzimat and the Reform Edict
- Misconceptions
- Frequently asked questions
What Is the Millet System?
The millet system was the legal and administrative order of the non-Muslims under Ottoman rule. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, when a region joined the Islamic state, its ahl al-dhimma came under the protection of the state through a covenant (ahdname). The community organization was a legal entity arising from this protection. The encyclopedia emphasizes that this covenant was a unilateral act of the state.
A dhimmi was a non-Muslim under the protection of the Islamic state. The safety of the dhimmis’ lives and property was guaranteed by the state. In return they paid the jizya, a poll tax, and observed public order. According to the encyclopedia, the Ottoman state, the last Islamic empire, gave this old institution a distinct legal and administrative structure.
Reading this order through today’s idea of equal citizenship is misleading. Rights were granted not to the individual but to the recognized community. A person’s legal position was determined by the religious community into which he or she was born. That is why the millet system must be assessed within the imperial conditions of its time.
What Did the Word “Millet” Mean?
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, in Islamic literature the word is used in the sense of religion and for the adherents of a religion. In Ottoman documents, too, it denotes religious groups from the classical period onwards. Expressions such as “millet-i Ermeniyan” appear in documents of the 16th–18th centuries. Only in the 19th century did the word begin to be used as the equivalent of the French “nation”.
According to the encyclopedia, the organization was based not on ethnic origin or language but on religion and denomination. For this reason the Armenians were not counted as a single community. Gregorian and Catholic Armenians were organized as two separate communities. When Protestantism was also recognized, the Armenians were divided among three separate communities.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, for its part, did not cover the Greeks alone. According to the encyclopedia, Bulgarians, Serbs, Orthodox Albanians and Orthodox Arabs were also under the control of the patriarchate in the Phanar. This control extended over spiritual, financial, administrative and legal matters. The patriarchate also censored schools and publications.
How Were the Communities Organized After the Conquest?
As the encyclopedia reports, Halil İnalcık notes that a policy called istimalet, or conciliation, was followed in the Ottoman conquests. After a conquest various privileges were granted to peasants, craftsmen and clergy. Old legal institutions were preserved if they did not contain harsh terms. Some of the old ruling groups were also admitted into the military class.
The conquest of Istanbul became the symbol of this order. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, when Mehmed the Conqueror appointed the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Gennadios, he showed him great respect and granted him privileges of protocol. He presented the patriarch with a horse. From then on spiritual leaders enjoyed the privilege of riding mounts, like members of the military class.
The year 1461 is generally accepted as the beginning of the Armenian community. According to the encyclopedia, in that year Mehmed the Conqueror brought the metropolitan Hovakim from Bursa and appointed him patriarch in Istanbul. The Jewish communities, on the other hand, were scattered and multilingual. According to the encyclopedia, the chief rabbi of Istanbul’s supremacy over the other Jewish communities was only established in practice in the 19th century.
The authority to appoint and dismiss spiritual leaders always lay with the Sublime Porte. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, fifty-eight Greek patriarchs were changed in the 17th century. Their average term of office was twenty months. This shows that community autonomy operated under state control.
Which Non-Muslim Rights Did the Millet System Recognize?
The millet system gave non-Muslims the opportunity to practise their religion and maintain their own institutions. Non-Muslim rights varied from period to period and from region to region. Even so, the general framework can be summarized as follows:
- Worship: Religious life continued in churches, monasteries and synagogues.
- Representation: The patriarch and the chief rabbi represented their communities before the state.
- Family law: The community’s own rules were applied in matters of marriage, divorce and inheritance.
- Education: Communities could open schools; schools and book printing were under the control of the patriarchates.
- Security: Safety of life and property was ensured in return for loyalty to the state and taxes.
The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam sees the greatest richness of this order in the field of family law. Each community preserved its own structure in this field. According to the encyclopedia, even post-Byzantine Greek law went through a distinctive phase in the Ottoman period, known as the “Turkokratia”. This shows that the communities were able to keep their legal heritage alive among themselves.
According to the encyclopedia, this organization was not based on a division into social classes. There could be privileged, tax-exempt individuals in every community. Christian soldiers called martolos, the voynuks, metropolitans and rabbis belonged to this group. The tax-paying reaya, on the other hand, included everyone, whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish.
Community Courts and the Kadı’s Court
Personal matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and wills were largely settled within the community. Christians turned to church law and Jews to the authority of the rabbis. This autonomy, however, was not unlimited. Criminal cases, taxation and public order were subject to the state’s legal order.
Non-Muslims could also go to the kadı’s court. In disputes over sales, debts and inheritance, the kadı registers had the force of official record. Cases between Muslims and non-Muslims also came before the kadı. We described the daily work of the kadıs in our article What did Ottoman kadis do?
Order within the community also depended on the support of the state. According to the encyclopedia, if the tax collected by the spiritual leader was resisted, the forces of order intervened. Disrespect towards the head of the community and collective revolt were regarded as acts against the state. The revolt of the Gregorian Armenians against Patriarch Boghos in 1820 was harshly suppressed.
The Limits of Non-Muslim Rights: The Jizya and Differences in Status
Although non-Muslims were under the protection of the state, they did not have the same status as Muslims. The most obvious difference was the jizya tax. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, in the Ottoman Empire those liable for the jizya were divided into three groups, ala, evsat and edna, meaning rich, middling and poor. Women, children, the disabled, the unemployed and the poor were exempt from this tax.
According to the encyclopedia, in the principles of Islamic law the jizya was the equivalent of the obligation of military service. Non-Muslims were generally not conscripted. The building of new places of worship usually required permission, and rules such as the obligation to wear different clothing were applied. The use of a wooden clapper instead of church bells to call the congregation was also among these rules.
The encyclopedia also points out that these distinctions were not one-sided. The non-Muslim communities had also adopted practices such as distinctive dress and living in separate quarters. This was because such a path helped them preserve their own religion and traditions.
Non-Muslims in Trade and Daily Life
Non-Muslims were influential in fields such as trade, crafts, money-changing and interpreting. Especially in the port cities, Greek, Armenian and Jewish merchants were important actors in the economy. Markets, khans and covered bazaars were places where people of different religions did business together. We described these places in our article on commercial spaces in the Ottoman state.
According to the encyclopedia, relations between the different communities were limited, but there was also little conflict. Everyone lived within his or her own religious community, with a sense of security provided by family and community. The modern concept of a minority, by contrast, entered Ottoman life only in the last decades of the empire.
What Changed with the Tanzimat and the Reform Edict?
The Gülhane Rescript, proclaimed on 3 November 1839, declared that all subjects were equal before the law. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the Western powers did not find this sufficient. During the Crimean War they increased their pressure regarding non-Muslim rights. The intellectual background of this pressure also included the effects of the French Revolution.
According to the encyclopedia, on 10 May 1855 the government decided to abolish the jizya and to conscript non-Muslims into the army. The strongest reaction to the decision came from the non-Muslims. In some places those who did not want to do military service rose up. The government had to change its decision.
The Reform Edict was read out in a ceremony at the Sublime Porte on 18 February 1856. The edict preserved the communities’ old religious privileges. Patriarchs would now serve for life. Community affairs would be run by mixed councils made up of clergy and members elected from the laity. The repair of places of worship, schools, hospitals and cemeteries was not to be obstructed.
The jizya was also abolished with the Reform Edict. According to the encyclopedia, however, a tax called bedel-i askeri, or military exemption tax, continued to be collected from non-Muslims who did not do military service. In the following years each community issued a regulation (nizamname), and community councils were set up. In this way the authority of the patriarchates diminished and the role of lay members increased.
According to the encyclopedia, in the 19th century the proportion of the non-Muslim population was taken to be one third. Non-Muslim youths were admitted to schools such as the School of Medicine, the School of Administration and Galatasaray in accordance with this proportion. Nationalist currents, however, increasingly strained relations between the communities. We discussed the result of this process in the Balkans in our article on the Balkan Wars.
Misconceptions About the Millet System
The first misconception is to regard this order as a model of equality and tolerance in today’s sense. Rights were granted to communities, and differences in status were preserved. The second misconception is to see the system merely as an order of oppression. For centuries the communities kept their languages, their worship and their institutions alive.
The TDV Encyclopedia of Islam also approaches with reservation the claim that the dhimmis were a “second-class” group. According to the encyclopedia, in this order every religious community lived in its own compartment. A person’s advancement and punishment alike took place within this compartment. This structure differed both objectively and subjectively from modern minority status.
Frequently Asked Questions
When did the millet system emerge?
Its roots lie in the concept of dhimma in Islamic law. In the Ottoman state it developed with the conquests and took on an institutional form after the conquest of Istanbul.
What does the name of the millet system mean?
It means a religious community, not an ethnic group. The meaning “nation” became widespread in the 19th century.
Did non-Muslims do military service?
In the classical period they were generally not conscripted and paid the jizya instead. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the exemption was largely lifted in the First World War, and non-Muslims were also taken into the army.
Which edict changed non-Muslim rights under the millet system?
The Reform Edict of 1856. It abolished the jizya, brought lay members into community administration and limited the powers of the patriarchs.
Was building churches free?
Repairs were generally possible, but new construction required permission. The Reform Edict also kept the requirement of government permission for new buildings.
Conclusion
The millet system was the Ottoman state’s way of governing communities of different religions together with their own institutions. It opened a wide field for non-Muslims in worship, community administration, family law, education and trade. These non-Muslim rights were limited by the authority of the sultan, the jizya and the difference in religious status. After 1856 the millet system changed and took on a new form in the age of nationalism.
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