The Ottoman Empire and Iran have been in political and economic competition for centuries. Problems arising from nomadic tribes, uncertain borders, commercial competition and sectarian differences were experienced between the two states. One of these problems was the subjecthood controversy. Starting from the second quarter of the 19th century the Ottoman Empire decided to implement the discrimination of subjects policy against the subjecthood problem, which emerged due to the weakening of the control over its subjects because of the chronic financial crisis and the loss of the central state’s effectiveness during the dissolution process that stated with the last quarters of the 18th century. The implementation of the discrimination of subjects policy was carried out simultaneously with the implementation of population and property census due to the increasing number of people under protection who resided in the Ottoman territory and acquired property indirectly in violation of the law, and on the other hand, those who changed their nationality in order to obtain certain exemptions. The aim of this study is to elaborate a policy initiative aimed at resolving the subjecthood dispute between the Ottoman Empire and Iran in a multidimensional manner. In this context, the policy of Ottoman Empire to discriminate its own subjects from Persian subjects is discussed through archival documents and in a historical perspective. The fact that the state of Iran was Muslim, carried the issue of subjecthood to different areas such as inheritance, military service, taxes and property. The findings of the study show that sectarian differences stand out in the implementation of the discrimination of subjects policy.
Primary Language | Turkish |
---|---|
Journal Section | Makaleler |
Authors | |
Publication Date | June 30, 2021 |
Published in Issue | Year 2021 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 |
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY NC) International License.
The Journal of Iranian Studies accepts the Open Access Journal Policy for expanding and flourishing of knowledge.