Civil Society in the Ottoman Empire

Abstract. An inquiry into the historical background of the Ottoman society reveals early seeds of, or several elements that could form a basis for, civil society in the Ottoman empire. The civil societal elements were important entities until at least the nineteenth century, even though they were not fully developed independently of the state, that is, they did not fully function on a basis of autonomy built upon their own norms and values. Accordingly, sui generis social categories such as the community system, ulama, guilds, and ayan taken together formed a distinctive reservoir for civil society. To correctly understand the ebb-and-flow development of civil society in Turkey up to the present this paper constructs a multi-faceted picture of the historical background and early seeds of civil society in the Ottoman Turkey