Buçuk millet: The Ottoman Gypsies in the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909)

Abstract

This thesis, in general, aimed to examine Gypsies who were the most neglected ethnic group of the Ottoman history. Until this time, it is witnessed that so many research and studies were done about various ethnic communities living within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, such as Armenians, Greeks, Jews, Assyrians... etc. Unfortunately, researches as already done about the ethnic group, nominated as Gypsy, are so under-developed quantitatively and qualitatively compared to studies about above-mentioned ethnic groups. Against the approach which almost ignored Gypsies, in this study, Gypsies were placed on the main axis of the thesis, and the clause of Buçuk Millet, which is typically used to describe Gypsies, was designated as the thesis title in reaction to current situation. This master thesis, specifically, touches on the place of the Ottoman Gypsies in state and societal system of the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II within the political, socio-economic and cultural context as well as it concerns itself with the problematique that how lives of the Ottoman Gypsies were affected in the reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909), one of the most critical periods of the Ottoman history; what kinds of changes they had experienced or what kinds of things remained as unchanged in their lives. In the name of adding new, profound and realistic dimension to ‘Gypsy’ phenomenon, the issue was handled without showing Gypsies as passive elements, so the relation of Gypsy-state and Gypsy-society tried to be scrutinized with doubled-sided approach. Besides, the reality, which Gypsies were fractionated as Muslim Gypsies and non-Muslim Gypsies in the eyes of the Ottoman State and between each other, and different perceptions in Gypsy groups caused by differentiation were exemplified. In order to underline ideally changes and stabilities in that period, primary materials were used predominantly in the thesis. In other words, the present thesis is largely based upon archival materials which were the most powerful testimonies of the reign, so the objective reality and reliability attempted to be provided by these documents. Next to archival materials, regarding secondary sources, literature survey was done and obtained sources related to the subject such as books, articles, thesis, novels, stories, monographs, traveller accounts, folkloric studies were adapted to the thesis. By dint of informations acquired through secondary sources, a chance has been grasped to investigate the matter from different aspects and profound standpoint of the thesis was reinforced.