Rebelling for the old order: Ottoman Bosnia, 1826-1836

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the reasons why the local people of Bosnia rebelled against the centralization and reform policies of the Ottoman Empire during the period between 1826 and 1836, the ways in which the rebels legitimized their actions and struggled for the acceptance of their demands and how those reactions were interpreted by the Ottoman statesmen. The present study mainly concentrates on the theme within a three partite theoretical framework, by examining it according to the cases of rebellion in that period, the centralization policies of the state and the borderland situation of the region. As this rebellion against the Ottoman center was a provincial one, the dissertation seeks to analyze the dynamics of the region as well as of the Ottoman center which led the people to rebel. Since the rebellion was an attempt to keep the ancien régime unchanged, the dissertation inquires into the reasons which turned Bosnia into one of the main battlegrounds for the conflicts between centralization and local autonomy. Hence, since the rebellion has direct relationships with the borderland situation of Bosnia, the dissertation concentrates on Bosnia in terms of changing conditions in its borderland position. Within this context, the study first examines the Bosnian rebellion against the abolition of the Janissary corps in 1826 and then focuses on the subsequent rebellion of 1831 against the new orders of the Porte, the nizâmât, including the changes in land tenure and in the military system, the changes in uniform as well as the changes in the status of some districts of Bosnia.