Osmanlı Kaynaklarında Hayvanları Aramak

Abstract

Bu makale, Erken Modern Dönem toplumunun ve devlet yapısının temelde insan dışı emeğe ve kaynaklara bağımlı olduğunu vurgulayarak, Osmanlı bağlamında gelişmekte olan hayvan tarihi alanını incelemektedir. Belge eksikliği ve eskiden her yerde hazır bulunan iş hayvanlarının "görünmezliği" nedeniyle tarihsel olarak ihmal edilen bu alan, son dönemdeki çalışmalarla arşiv kayıtları, Evliya Çelebi'nin Seyahatnâme'si gibi gezgin anıları ve çevre çalışmaları aracılığıyla insan-hayvan ilişkilerini yeniden inşa etmeye başlamıştır. Çalışma; at, deve ve öküzlerin askeri mobilizasyon, posta haberleşmesi ve tarımdaki lojistik rollerini araştırmaktadır. Ayrıca, avcılık ve saray ahırları aracılığıyla hayvanların seçkin prestij göstergeleri olarak kullanımı ve birincil gıda kaynağı olma rolleri ele alınmaktadır. Anadolu, Balkanlar ve Mısır'daki bölgesel özellikleri inceleyen makale; hayvan refahı, hayvan öldürülmesi, devlet inşası ve çevresel kısıtlamalar arasındaki karmaşık etkileşimi vurgulamaktadır.

Keywords

• Osmanlı İmparatorluğu
• Hayvan Tarihi
• Çevre Tarihi
• Ulaşım
• Askeri Tarih
• Et Tüketimi
• Avlanma
• Anadolu ve Balkanlar
• Arşiv Kaynakları

Searching for Animals in Ottoman Sources

Abstract

This article explores the evolving field of animal history within the Ottoman context, emphasizing that early modern society and statecraft were fundamentally dependent on non-human labor and resources. Historically neglected due to sparse documentation and the "invisibility" of omnipresent working animals, recent scholarship has begun to reconstruct human-animal relationships through a synthesis of archival records, travelogues like Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname, and environmental studies. The study surveys the logistical roles of horses, camels, and oxen in military mobilization, postal communication, and agriculture. It further examines animals as markers of elite prestige through hunting and imperial stables, as well as their role as a primary food source. By addressing regional specificities in Anatolia, the Balkans, and Egypt, the article highlights the complex interplay between animal welfare, animal killing, state-building, and environmental constraints.

Keywords

• Ottoman Empire
• Animal History
• Environmental History
• Logistics and Transportation
• Military History
• Meat Consumption
• Imperial Hunt
• Anatolia and the Balkans
• Archival Sources

References

1. Akın, Yiğit. When the War Came Home: The Ottomans’ Great War and the Devastation of an Empire. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018.
2. Allsen, Thomas T. The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History. Philadelphia: The University of Pennsylvania, 2011.
3. Altıntaş, Mustafa. Osmanlı İstanbul’unda Ta’âm Bişirüb Satanlar: Aşçılar, Başçılar, Büryancılar, Börekçiler, Tatlıcılar (1500-1800). Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2020.
4. Artan, Tülay. “Feasting in Adversity: Enhancing the Ordinary”, Starting with Food: Culinary Approaches to Ottoman History. Edited by Amy Singer, 93-138. Princeton NJ: Markus Wiener Publications, 2011.
5. Ayalon, Yaron. Natural Disasters in the Ottoman Empire: Plague, Famine and Other Misfortunes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
6. Bilgin, Arif. Osmanlı Saray Mutfağı (1453-1650). Istanbul: Kitabevi, 2004.
7. Borromeo, Elisabetta. “The Ottomans and Hunting according to Julien Bordier’s travelogue (1604-1612)”, Animals and People in the Ottoman Empire. Edited by Suraiya Faroqhi, 219-34. Istanbul: Eren, 2010.
8. Bulliet, Richard W. The Camel and the Wheel. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.

9. Clarence-Smith, William G. “Animal transport in the Balkans, c1300 to 1914”. Forthcoming in ‘Proceedings of the World Draft Cattle Symposium, Lorsch, 8-9 March 2024.’
10. Cvetkova, Bistra A. “Les registres des celepkeşan en tant que sources pour l’histoire de la Bulgarie et des pays balkaniques”, Hungaro-Turcica: Studies in Honour of Julius Németh. Edited by Gyula Káldy-Nagy, 325-35. Budapest: Loránd Eötvös University, 1976.
11. Çelik, Semih. “’Ormana yakın doğmak talihsizlik’: 19. Yüzyıl Kuzeybatı Anadolusu’nda Orman, İnsanlar ve Mandalar”, İktidar Tohumları: Osmanlı Çevre Tarihi Üzerine İncelemeler, edited by Onur İnal, and Yavuz Köse, 111-33. Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2019.
12. ________. “‘Sheep Go to Heaven, (Angora) Goats Go to Hell’ A Spatiotemporal Analysis of the Angora Goat Economy in Ankara Province (1889-1905)”, Weaving the History: Mystery of a City, edited by Filiz Yenişehirlioğlu and Gözde Çerçioğlu Yücel and tr. by Turgut Berkes. Ankara: Koç University VEKAM, 2018.
13. ________. “Humans in Animalscapes: Reconstructing Vermin-Human Interactions in Rural Anatolia and Mesopotamia (ca 1600-1850)”. Diyâr 3(1), 2022, 49-66.
14. Çelik, Semih and Christina Luke. “Of Wetlands and Reclamation Regimes: Climate Change, Social Upheaval, and Political Practice in Western Anatolia in the Long Nineteenth Century”, Winds of Change Environment and Society in Anatolia. Edited by C.H. Roosevelt and J. Haldon, 251-76. Chicago and Koç University Press, 2022.
15. Değirmenci, Tülün. İktidar Oyunları ve Resimli Kitaplar: II. Osman Devrinde Değişen Güç Simgeleri. Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2012.
16. Dolbee, Samuel. Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East (Studies in Environment and History). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
17. Dölek-Sever, Deniz. “Hayvan Tarihi: Osmanlı Geçmişine Türlerarası Perspektifle Bakmak”. Reflektif: Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi/Journal of Social Sciences 5(2) (2024): 241-260 doi 10.47613/reflektif2024.158.
18. Erdoğan İşkorkutan, Sinem. The 1720 Imperial Circumcision Celebrations: Festivities and Representation in the Early Eighteenth Century. Leiden: Brill, 2020.
19. Ergenç, Özer. Şehir, Toplum, Devlet: Osmanlı Tarihi Yazıları. Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2012.
20. Erler, Mehmet Yavuz. Osmanlı Devleti’nde Kuraklık ve Kıtlık Olayları (1800-1880). Istanbul: Libra Kitap, 2010.
21. Establet, Colette. “Live Horses owned by Dead Damascenes: Evidence from around 1700”, Animals and People in the Ottoman Empire. Edited by Suraiya Faroqhi, 187-202. Istanbul: Eren, 2010.
22. Evliya Çelebi b. Derviş Mehemmed Zılli. Evliya Çelebi Seyahatnâmesi. Edited by Seyit Ali Kahraman et alii, 10 vols. Istanbul: Yapı ve Kredi Yayınları, 1999-2007.
23. Faroqhi, Suraiya. “Before Döner: ‘Fast Food’ in Pre-Tanzimat Istanbul”, From Kebab to Ćevapčići: Foodways in (Post-) Ottoman Europe. Edited by Arkadiusz Blaszczyk and Stefan Rohdewald, 107-123. Wiesbaden/Germany: Harrassowitz, 2018.
24. ________. “When the sultan ordered a great feast, was everybody in a festive mood?”, Celebration, Entertainment and Theater in the Ottoman World. Edited by Arzu Öztürkmen and Suraiya Faroqhi, 208-24. Calcutta, London, New York: Seagull Books, 2014.
25. ________. “Fish and fishermen in the Istanbul region during the Ottoman period”, Water on Sand: Environmental Histories of the Middle East and North Africa. Edited by Alan Mikhail, 91-109. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
26. ________, ed. Animals and People in the Ottoman Empire. İstanbul: Eren Yayıncılık, 2010.
27. ________. “Town Officials, Timar-holders and Taxation: The Late Sixteenth-Century Crisis as seen from Çorum”. Turcica XVIII, 1986, 53-82.
28. ________. Towns and Townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia, Trade, Crafts, and Food Production in an Urban Setting 1520-1650. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
29. ________. “The material culture of poverty and the place of animals in it: Cristina Trivulzio di Belgiojoso in Anatolia.” Kitāb-ı Hedāyā: Studien zum Osmanischen Reich und seinen Nachbargebieten, Zu Ehren von Hedda Reindl-Kiel, edited by Sevgi Ağçagül and Henning Sievert, 249-268. Göttingen and Bonn/Germany: V&R unipress and Bonn University Press, 2020.
30. Fawaz, Leila Tarazi. A Land of Aching Hearts: The Middle East in the Great War. Cambridge MA, London: Harvard University Press, 2014.
31. Gökbilgin, M. Tayyib. Rumeli’de Yürükler, Tatarlar ve Evlad-ı Fatihan, 2nd edition. Istanbul: İşaret, 2008.
32. Gratien, Chris. The Unsettled Plain. An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2022.
33. Husain, Faisal H. Rivers of the Sultan: The Tigris and Euphrates in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
34. İnal, Onur. “One-humped history: the camel as historical actor in the late Ottoman Empire”. International Journal of Middle East Studies 53, 2021, 57-72.
35. Jennings, Ronald. “The Locust Problem in Cyprus”. Bulletin of the School for Oriental and African Studies 51(2), 1988, 279-313.
36. ________. “Urban population in Anatolia in the sixteenth century: a study of Kayseri, Karaman, Amasya, Trabzon, and Erzurum”. International Journal of Middle East Studies 7, 1976, 21-57.
37. Karademir, Zafer. İmparatorluğun Açlıkla İmtihanı: Osmanlı Toplumunda Kıtlıklar (15601660). Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2014.
38. ________. İmparatorluk Ekonomisinin Can Damarları: Osmanlı Ülkesinde Hayvancılık İşletmeleri (1500-1800). Istanbul: Libra Publications, 2018.
39. Keskin, Özkan. “XIX. Yüzyılda Ankara Keçisinin Islahına Yönelik Tedbirler”. Tarihte Ankara Uluslararası Sempozyumu: Bildiriler 25-26 Ekim 2011, organized by Yılmaz Kurt et alii, vol. 2, 737-48. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Tarih Bölümü, 2012.
40. Kıran, Batuhan İsmail. “Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Doğancılık”. Akademik Tarih ve Düşünce Dergisi 2(5), 2015, 148-63.
41. Koh, Choon Hwee. The Sublime Post: How the Ottoman Imperial Post Became a Public Service. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2024.
42. ________. “The Mystery of the Missing Horses: How to Uncover an Ottoman Shadow Economy”. Comparative Studies in Society and History 64(3), 2022, 576-610.
43. Köksal Özyaşar, Yonca and Can Nacar, eds. Animals on the Move: Tracing Livestock in the Ottoman Empire from Farm to Table to Waste. Istanbul: Koç University Press, 2025.
44. ________. Anatolian Livestock Trade in the Late Ottoman Empire. Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2024.
45. Kut, Günay. “Şirvânî’nin Yemek Kitabı Çevirisine Eklediği Yemekler Üzerine”, Ağız Tadı: Türklerde Yemek Kültürü. Edited by Fatma Büyükkarcı Yılmaz, 80-7. Istanbul: Simurg, 2021.
46. Kuzucu, Kemalettin. İstanbul’un Sokak Köpekleri: Muhafazakârlık ve Modernlik Bağlamında Osmanlıdan Cumhuriyete. Istanbul: Kapı Yayınları, 2022.
47. Küçük, Mustafa Emir. “The stables of the Constantinople Tramway Company”. Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association 8, no. 1 (2021): 415-20.
48. Lindner, Rudi Paul. Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia. Bloomington IND: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies Indiana University, 1983.
49. Mikhail, Alan. Under Osman’s Tree: The Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Environmental History. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2017.
50. ________. The Animal in Ottoman Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
51. ________, ed. Water on Sand: Environmental Histories of the Middle East and North Africa. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
52. ________. Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt: An Environmental History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
53. Michel, Nicolas. L’Égypte des villages autour du seizième siècle. Paris, Louvain, Bristol CT, 2018.
54. Murphey, Rhoads. Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700. London: UCL Pree Ltd, 1999.
55. Nath, Pratyay. Climate of Conquest: War, Environment, and Empire in Mughal North India. Delhi, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019.
56. Nurdan, Semiha. “Osmanlının Son Döneminde Ankara Tiftik Keçisinin Yok Oluşuna Karşı Beypazarı’nda Yapılan Bazı Mücadeleler”. Tarihte Ankara Uluslararası Sempozyumu: Bildiriler 25-26 Ekim 2011, organized by Yılmaz Kurt et alii, vol. 2, 749-60. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Tarih Bölümü, 2012.
57. Pastoureau, Michel. L’ours: Histoire d’un roi déchu. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 2007.
58. Pehlivan, Zozan. The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2024.
59. Philliou, Christine M. Biography of an Empire: Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2011.
60. Pinguet, Catherine. “Istanbul’s Street Dogs at the End of the Ottoman Empire: Protection or Extermination?”, Animals and People in the Ottoman Empire. Edited by Suraiya Faroqhi, 353-371. Istanbul: Eren, 2010.
61. De Planhol, Xavier. Les fondements géographiques de l’histoire de l’Islam. Paris: Flammarion, 1968.
62. Reindl Kiel, Hedda. “The Chickens of Paradise: Official Meals in the Mid-seventeenth Century Ottoman Palace”, The Illuminated Table, The Prosperous House: Food and Shelter in Ottoman Material Culture. Edited by Suraiya Faroqhi and Christoph K. Neumann, 89126. Würzburg/Germany: Ergon Verlag, 2003.
63. Shopov, Aleksandar. “Hybridizing Camels in Sixteenth-Century Selanik: Mobility, Natural Knowledge and Debates about the Breeding of the Rumis”. Osiris 40, 2025, 197-215.
64. Singer, Amy, ed. Starting with Food: Culinary Approaches to Ottoman History. Princeton NJ: Markus Wiener, 2011. Şakul, Kahraman. II. Viyana Kuşatması: Yedi Başlı Ejderin Fendi. Istanbul: Timaş Yayınları, 2021.
65. Tabak, Faruk. The Waning of the Mediterranean 1550-1870: A Geohistorical Approach. Baltimore MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008.
66. Tilly, Charles. “War-making and State-making as Organized Crime”, Bringing the State Back In. Edited by Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Theda Skocpol, 169-91. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
67. Trépanier, Nicolas. Foodways and Daily Life in Medieval Anatolia: A New Social History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014.
68. Tuchscherer, Michel. “Some Reflections on the Place of the Camel in the Economy and Society of Ottoman Egypt”, Animals and People in the Ottoman Empire. Edited by Suraiya Faroqhi, 171-85. Istanbul: Eren, 2010.
69. Usta, Ibrahim Can. “Oxen in the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire”. Ph. D. dissertation, Boğaziçi University, 2025.
70. Uzun, Ahmet. İktisâdî ve Malî Yönleriyle Istabl-ı Âmire (1500-1900). Ankara: TTK, 2020.
71. ________. İstanbul’un İaşesinde Devletin Rolü: Ondalık Ağnam Uygulaması 1783-1857. Ankara: TTK, 2006.
72. White, Sam. “The Little Ice Age Crisis of the Ottoman Empire: A Conjuncture in Middle East Environmental History”, Water on Sand: Environmental Histories of the Middle East and North Africa. Edited by Alan Mikhail, 71-90. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
73. ________. The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
74. Veinstein, Gilles. “Sur les sauterelles à Chypre, en Thrace et en Macédoine à l’époque ottomane”, Armağan: Festschrift für Andreas Tietze. Edited by Ingeborg Baldauf, Suraiya Faroqhi, with Rudolf Vesely, 211-26. Prague: Enigma Corporation, 1994.
75. Vratçalı Sofroni. Osmanlı’da bir Papaz: Günahkar Sofroninin Çileli Hayat Hikayesi. Tr. by Aziz Nazmi Şakir Taş, 2nd edition. Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2016.
76. Yerasimos, Marianna. Evliya Çelebi Seyahatnâmesi’nde Yemek Kültürü: Yorumlar ve Sistematik Dizin. Istanbul: Kitap Yayınevi, 2011.