Articles
Petition of Circassian Notables to the Porte (ca. 1872). The Introd. Article, Transl. from Turk-Ottoman and Comment.
Georgiy Chochiev
Vostok/Oriens '2013, №2
The paper is a publication of a rare-in-its-kind document from the funds of the Republic of Turkey’s Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives – a collective appeal of Circassian immigrant nobility to the supreme leadership of the empire, aiming at giving an account of the principal complaints and demands of the North Caucasian muhajirs regarding their colonization and adaptation in the new homeland. The petition raises issues related to the economic situation of the settlers, their relationships with the local officials and population, educational opportunities, administrative and legal status in the Ottoman society, etc. Special place is given to the transformation of traditional inter-class relations within the North Caucasian communities (particularly to the problem of ‘Circassian slavery’) under the new socio-political conditions. The document reproduces in a quite full measure the sentiments among the Circassian feudal-patriarchal elite at a rather critical and painful stage of this change.
Keywords: Circassians, Ottoman Empire, immigration, colonization, social adaptation, crime, slavery, military service, education
Pages: С. 124–142
