Son Dönem Osmanlı Bürokrasisinde Gazzeli Memurlar
Gazan Officials in the Late Ottoman Bureaucracy

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to analyze the dynamics of transformation in the provincial bureaucracy through a concrete example by examining the socio-demographic profiles, educational backgrounds, career patterns, and economic positions of officials of Gazan origin during the late Ottoman period. The main sources of the study consist of archival documents and personnel files preserved in the Ottoman and Sheikh al-Islam archives, and quantitative and qualitative data on 29 officials born in Gaza have been evaluated comparatively. A prosopographic (collective biography) approach was adopted; the physical descriptions of the officials, their family affiliations, educational institutions, areas of responsibility, languages they knew, and salary levels were analyzed through tables and graphs. The findings of the research reveal the structural weight of cadres with scholarly backgrounds among the Gazan officials and the decisive role of an educational network centered around the Grand Mosque Madrasah and Al-Azhar Mosque. However, it has been determined that a "mixed-education" group, educated in primary, secondary, military schools and modern institutions such as Darülfünun (Istanbul University), acted as an intermediary cadre between the traditional scholarly class and the modern bureaucracy thanks to flexible job transitions ranging from deputy qadi to clerks, from professors to education and foundations commissions. Linguistic data shows that Arabic retained its weight as the de facto administrative and judicial language in Gaza, while Turkish was a functional determinant, especially in clerical and central-related official positions. The employment of nonMuslim officials predominantly in clerical and correspondence services points to the pragmatic and inclusive character of the provincial bureaucracy. Salary data shows that judges and especially new judicial institutions such as judicial inspectors were supported by a significantly higher financial status compared to traditional judicial members such as qadi and deputy qadi. This situation reveals that the transition from Sharia justice to regular justice was concretized through financial hierarchy. A comparison of living standards reveals that only a limited number of high-ranking officials were able to rise above a mediocre standard of living, while lower and middle-ranking officials suffered from a structural income deficiency. Consequently, this study, using the example of Gaza, demonstrates how institutional transformation in the late Ottoman provincial bureaucracy was reproduced through educational structures, language use, and wage policies, offering a unique and quantitatively based contribution to understanding the human resource dimension of centerprovincial relations.

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