Pax Ottomanica: Millet Sisteminin Felsefi Arkaplanı

Yıl 2018, Cilt: 4 Sayı: 1, 109 - 128, 01.06.2018

Mehmet Fatih Arslan

Öz

Bu çalışmanın temel amacı Osmanlı millet sisteminin muhtemel felsefi kaynaklarına

işaret etmektir. Bu amaçla ilk olarak millet sisteminin önemli bir

bileşeni olan ortak kimlik kavramını gözden geçirerek “Pax Ottomanica”

ifadesi ile ne kastedildiğini açıklayacağım. Daha sonra kimlik kavramının

çeşitli kullanımları üzerinde durarak bu çalışmanın kapsamı içerisinde yer

alan temel kavramların değişik kullanım biçimlerine değineceğim. Son olarak

Osmanlı millet sisteminin İslam felsefesi bağlamındaki muhtemel nazari

kaynaklarını ve bunun uygulamadaki bazı tezahürlerini inceleyeceğim.

Fârâbî ve İbn Bâcce’nin siyaset felsefesine ilişkin teorilerinin bazı yönleri

Osmanlı millet sisteminin âmelî boyutu ile büyük paralellik arz ettiğinden,

söz konusu teorilerin millet sistemi için teorik bir arka plan oluşturduğu

söylenebilir. Ö􀇆 zellikle de millet sisteminin dini kimlikleri korumak amacıyla

onları birbirinden belirli ölçüde ayrıştırmayı esas aldığı göz önünde

bulundurulduğunda, Fârâbî ve İbn Bâcce’nin benzer bir yaklaşımı esas alan

erdemli toplum eksenli siyaset felsefesinin bu sistemin teorik arka planını

inşa etmek için kullanıldığı söylenebilir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Millet Sistemi, pax ottomanica

Pax Ottomanica: Philosophical Background of the Millet System

Öz

This study aims to shed light on the philosophical background of the Ottoman

millet system. First, I will review the nature of collective identity

to establish a basis for further identity-related discussions and define the

term of “Pax Ottomanica”. Then I will explain diverse and complicated utilizations

of identity to clarify the scope of the key concepts of this article.

Finally, I will identify the theoretical sources of Ottoman millet system

within Islamic philosophy and show how it affected practical implementation.

Since al-Fārābī and Ibn Bajjah political theory has reflected theoretical

approaches to governance that closely parallel the practical usage of

Ottoman millet system I will argue that these approaches can reasonably

be considered inspirational sources and justifications for the millet system.

Especially considering that the millet system maintained a policy of the

protection of religious identities through detachment, I conclude that al-

Fārābī’s and Ibn Bajjah’s political theories were highly influential in shaping

the practical implementation of the millet system.

Anahtar Kelimeler

pax ottomanica, millet system

Kaynakça

• Abu Nasr al-Fārābī􀇉, Kitāb al-Millah wa Nusūs Ukhrā, ed. M. Mahdi, Beirut: 1968-a. _______________, Kitābu ārā’ ahl al-madīna al-fādila, ed. Albert Nasri Nader, Dar Al-Machreq, Beirut: 1968-b. _______________, Al-Siyāsah al-Madaniyah, ed. F. Najjar, Beirut, 1964.
• Ammerman, Nancy T., “Studying Everyday Religion: Challenges for the Future” Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives, Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Barkey, Karen, Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective Cambridge, University Press, New York: 2008.
• Bat Ye’or, The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians under Islam, (tran.) David Maisel, Associated University Presses, London: 1985.
• Butterworth, Charles E., “Ethical and Political Philosophy”, in Peter Adamson and Richard C. Taylor (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2005. p. 276.
• Braude, Benjamin, Foundation Myths of the Millet System, in Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis (eds), Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, 2 vols., Holmes & Meier, New York and London: 1982.
• Brubaker, Rogers and Frederick Cooper. “Beyond ‘Identity’.” Theory and Society, Vol. 29, No. 1 (February, 2000), pp. 1-47.
• Burke, Peter J., “The Self: Measurement Implications from a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective”, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Mar., 1980), pp. 18-29. _____________, “Gender Identity, Sex, and School Performance” Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Jun., 1989), pp. 159-169. _____________, “Identity Change”, Social Psychology Quarterly, Vol. 69, No. 1 (Mar., 2006), pp. 81-96.
• Burke, Peter J. and Tully, Judy C., “The Measurement of Role Identity”, Social Forces, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Jun., 1977), pp. 881-897.
• Cardahi, Choucri, Conflict of Law, in Majid Khadduri and Herbert Liebesny (eds.), Law in The Middle East, The Middle East Institute, Washington: 1955.
• Cerulo, Karen A., “Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions”, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 23 (1997), pp. 385-409.
• Chen, C., “The Religious Varieties of Ethnic Presence: A Comparison Between a Taiwanese Immigrant Buddhist Temple and an Evangelical Christian Church”, Sociology of Religion, Vol. 63(2) (2002), pp. 215-238.
• Cohen, Julia Phillips, Becoming Ottomans: Sephardi Jews and Imperial Citizenship in the Modern Era, Oxford University Press, New York: 2014.
• Düzdağ, Ertuğrul, Ebussud Fetvaları Işığında 16. Asır Türk Hayatı [Turkish Life in the Sixteenth Century in Light of the Fatwas of Shaykh al-Islam Ebussuud Efendi], Enderun, Istanbul: 1983.
• Eisenstadt, Shmuel and Giesen, Bernhard, “The construction of collective identity”, European Journal of Sociology, Vol. 36, No. 1 (1995), pp. 72- 102.
• Eliade, Mircea, Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism, Princeton University Press, New Jersey: 1961.
• Fakhry, Majid, Al-Fārābī, Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism, Oneworld Publications, Oxford: 2002.
• Feher, S., “From The Rivers of Babylon to The Valleys of Los Angeles: The Exodus and Adaptation of Iranian Jews” Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and The New Immigration, edited by R. S. Warner and J. G. Wittner, Temple University Press, Philadelphia: 1998.
• Goffman, Erving, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, University of Edinburgh Social Sciences Research Centre, Edinburgh: 1956. ______________, Strategic Interaction, University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia: 1969.
• Goldsworthy, Adrian, Pax Romana, Yale University Press, New Heaven: 2016.
• Grotevant, Harold D.; Dunbar, Nora; Kohler, Julie K., Esau, Amy M. Lash, “Adoptive Identity: How Contexts within and beyond the Family Shape Developmental Pathways”, Family Relations, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Oct., 2000), pp. 379-387.
• Hermanowicz, Joseph C. and Morgan, Harriet P., “Ritualizing the Routine: Collective Identity Affirmation Sociological Forum”, Sociological Forum, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jun., 1999), pp. 197-214.
• Howard, Judith A., “Social Psychology of Identities”, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 26 (2000), pp. 367-393.
• Hurh, W. M. and Kim, K. C., “Religious participation of Korean immigrants in the United States”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 29 (1990) pp. 19-34.
• Karpat, K. H., Millets and Nationality: The Roots of the Incongruity of Nation and State in the Post-Ottoman Era, in Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis (eds), Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, 2 vols., Holmes & Meier, New York and London: 1982.
• Ibn Bajjah, Tadbīr al-Mutawahhid, Ceres Edition, Tunisia: 1994. Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah, Trans. Franz Rosenthal, Princeton University Press Princeton, New Jersey: 1981.
• Linton, R., The Study of Man, D. Appleton-Century Camp. Inc., New York: 1936. Masters, Bruce, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Arab World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2004.
• McCall, George J. and Simmons, J. L, Identities and Interactions, Free Press, New York: 1966.
• Merton, R., Social Theory and Social Structure, The Free Press, Illinois: 1957. Peek, Lori, “Becoming Muslim: The Development of a Religious Identity”, Sociology of Religion, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 215-242.