Mustafa Arif Efendi’s Years in Salonica: An Example of the Making of Bourgeoisie in An Ottoman Province in the Nineteenth Century Cover Image

Mustafa Arif Efendi’nin Selanik Yılları: 19. Yüzyılda Osmanlı Taşrasında Burjuvazinin Oluşumu
Mustafa Arif Efendi’s Years in Salonica: An Example of the Making of Bourgeoisie in An Ottoman Province in the Nineteenth Century

Author(s): Dilek Akyalçın Kaya
Subject(s): Cultural history, Local History / Microhistory, 19th Century, The Ottoman Empire, Socio-Economic Research
Published by: İzmir Kâtip Çelebi Üniversitesi, Sosyal ve Beşeri Bilimler Fakültesi
Keywords: Salonica;Bourgeoisie;Mustafa Arif Efendi;microanalysis;socio-economic transformation;

Summary/Abstract: The city of Salonica lived through a profound social and economic differentiation throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. One of the primary reasons of such differentiation was the commercial expansion due to its geographical position as a port-city. Together with this characteristic several other factors also played a significant role on the social and economic differentiation between urban factory workers and the emerging bourgeoisie: the agricultural transformation of its hinterland, capital accumulation thanks to commercial wealth and its investment in industry, etc. The secondary literature contains various studies on the emerging commercial bourgeoisie in the port cities during the nineteenth century. These studies argue that this bourgeoisie was comprised of the Ottoman non-Muslims and foreigners living in the Empire. According to this approach, when dealing with the Muslim bourgeoisie, there is a need to refer to the bureaucracy and/or administration. However recent studies on the subject criticized these theoretical frameworks demonstrating that such divisions along ethnic and/or religious lines fall short to analyze the much more complex social structure of the Ottoman society. Though still limited in number, there are increasingly more studies focusing on the characteristics of the bourgeoisie, its lifestyle, etc. through personal notebooks, journals and diaries.This article aims to analyze the effects of social and economic transformations that Salonica underwent in the nineteenth century upon its inhabitants and to examine the making of bourgeoisie in an Ottoman provincial town through the personal notebook of Mustafa Arif Efendi, a Sabbatian. It deals with his life course and how it was affected by the social and economic transformations of his time. It argues that contrary to the commonly held view in the secondary literature Sabbatians were actually not a homogenous group comprised of individuals who were part of the well-off grand bourgeoisie dealing with international trade. Moreover it also claims that an analysis of the making of the Ottoman bourgeoisie during this period reveals the underlying elements of the social change as well as the complex nature of the Ottoman social structure in the nineteenth century.

  • Issue Year: I/2015
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 39-60
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Turkish