OSMANLI TAŞRASINDA AFET YÖNETİMİ: 19. YÜZYIL AMASYA’SINDA DOĞAL AFETLER VE TOPLUMSAL KIRILGANLIK0F
DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN THE OTTOMAN PROVINCES: NATURAL DISASTERS AND SOCIAL VULNERABILITY IN 19TH CENTURY AMASYA

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the natural disasters that occurred in nineteenth-century Amasya. Disasters are addressed within the relationship between environmental conditions, social vulnerabilities, and the forms of intervention adopted by the Ottoman provincial administration. The main argument of the study is that, although the types of disasters varied, they activated a similar repertoire of administrative intervention in Amasya. The principal elements of this repertoire included the assessment and recording of damage, the transmission of local demands to the central authorities, the provision of in-kind and cash assistance, the alleviation of tax burdens, the mobilization of waqf and fund revenues, and reconstruction activities. What makes Amasya significant, however, is not merely that these practices reflected the general patterns of Ottoman disaster management, but also that they materialized within the city’s multifaceted disaster vulnerability. While the Yeşilırmak River’s passage through the city and its impact on bridges increased the risk of flooding, earthquakes caused severe damage particularly to public buildings such as mosques; drought and famine, in turn, produced longer-term effects on agricultural production and provisioning. Within this framework, the study first examines Amasya’s environmental and historical structure that made it vulnerable to disasters, and then evaluates sudden destructive events such as earthquakes and floods together with more slowly developing crises such as drought and famine. Consequently, the case of Amasya demonstrates that natural disasters did not merely produce physical destruction, but also rendered visible state-society relations, local demands, and the functioning of provincial administration.

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