Evliliği Kolaylaştırmak: Geç Dönem Osmanlı’da İzdivaç İlanları

This article aims to discuss the socio-economic and cultural context of the quest for marriage on the basis of matrimonial advertisements, which were published in the Musavver Malumat-i Nafia periodical, Vakit newspaper and Izdivac periodical in the Second Constitutional era during the late Ottoman period. Within this framework, the article examines the conditions revealing marriage by means of advertisements, the Ottoman political authorities' policy for the facilitation of marriage (teshil-i izdivac), how marriage through matrimonial advertisements was perceived and legitimized in the Ottoman society and the contents and the context of matrimonial advertisements which were shaped with the knowledge about wealth, livelihood and lifestyle. The modernization process which had continued throughout the nineteenth century and resulted in many radical changes in the early twentieth century, the developments in the areas of press and education, the Balkan Wars and the First World War are among the most effective dynamics of that change. This article argues that the diversity in the content of matrimonial advertisements, in the views of candidates on marriage, in the ways of introducing themselves and in their expectations from another person reflects the rapid and dramatic change and transformation experienced in social and political life during the late Ottoman period.