The Yezidis and the Ottoman state: modern power, military conscription, and conversion policies, 1830-1909

Abstract

The community on which this thesis builds and fixes its narrative is the “heterodox” Yezidi tribes that lived in the eastern provinces of the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire, with Mosul holding the first place. Yet it is not an anthropological or ethnological study concentrated on the community itself. However, based on these tribes, it rather approaches the political order and new regime of power of nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire along with the Hamidian policy of “taming” formulated for the population segments that lived on the margins of the empire and were regarded as “heretic”, “uncivilized and nomadic” on the grounds of the discrepancy in their religious beliefs. Hence it preeminently claims to be a monograph on nineteenth-century Ottoman history. The Yezidis, who had survived beyond the state’s political authority and military penetration to a large extent in previous periods, were on the agenda of the state, more than they ever had been, in the time period discussed owing to the formation of a modern regime of power. From the 1830s onwards, there emerged several problems between the Yezidis, who were not recognized by the state as a separate religious group, and the Ottoman State, which attempted to exploit bodies and tax resources of its subjects more effectively, sought to ensure public security, and desired to gain the loyalty of communities under its hegemony. Among the leading problems between the two parties were military conscription, to which the Yezidis were opposed allegedly in accordance with their religious beliefs, and the conversion policies of the Hamidian period, firstly launched on the basis of “advice and persuasion” tactics as long as applicable, but, if not, implemented by pressure and violence. The focal points of this study are the afore-cited topics in addition to how the Yezidi identity was perceived by the state, and the question of status, which is closely interrelated with their position in the political structure. Based on Ottoman archival documents, and contemporary observers’ and researchers’ narratives, the state policies and discourse in combination with their effects on the Yezidis and subsequent reactions are analyzed in this thesis. This study presents military conscription, a modern phenomenon, as a story of “abstaining from both call to arms and threats to their beliefs” in the case of Yezidis. It is also argued in this study that endeavors to “tame” the Yezidis and “correct their beliefs” (tashih-i akaid) and to subjugate them by means of military operations in the Hamidian regime, all in one, resulted from general characteristics and “strategies for hegemony” of the regime. Finally, it is oriented to show that attempts of penetration, and discourse and politics of the state had seriously affected the realities of the Yezidi community yet eventually did not culminate in an accomplishment as the state desired.