The Mülâzemet System in the İlmiye Organization in the Ottoman Empire (1520-1620) : According to Candidate Registers (Rumeli Kazaskerliği Rûznâmesi)

Abstract

The Mulazemet System in the Ilmiye Organization in the Ottoman Empire (1520-1620): According to Candidate Registers (Rumeli Kazaskerligi Ruznamesi) In the reign of Sultan Suleyman The Magnificent (1520-1566), Ottoman ulema belonged to Ilmiye, a professional hierarchical organization comitted to judicature and education. Ilmiye consisted of muderris, kadi and mufti offices with their own career patterns and it worked as a bureaucracy. However, it has been difficult so far to know the process of appointment or recruitment to this hierarchy due to the scarcity of historical materials. In 1537, Suleyman ordered Ebussuud Efendi, who was in the office of Rumeli Kazaskeri, to register regularly distinguished students as candidates to Ilmiye officials. These candidates were called mulazim, and mulazemet, which meant the state of being candidates. This mulazemet system was significant in controling the quality and quantity of ulema by unifying the path to Ilmiye. The purpose of this paper is to examine this recruiting system mainly as reported in the unpublished ottoman documents, "Rumeli Kazaskerligi Ruznamesi" (No.1 H.951-959, No.7 H.1007-1016). These documents which contain 1392 registered mulazims will certainly help us understand the details required for the membership of Ilmiye. Through these registers together with other historical materials, this paper tries to reach a comprehensive idea not only outlining the mulazemet system, but also determining its function as a mechanism of promotion in Ilmiye. According to the contents of these registrations, there were five ways for medrese students to acquire mulazemet: (1) Examinations (especially those held among the students whose teachers had deceased) (2) Starting as clerks (fetva emini, tezkereci) under the offices of Seyhulislam and Kazasker for six months (3) Recommendations from high officials in Ilmiye. (4) By the mediation of princes, Vezirazams and other high officials in the central administration (5) Registered automatically when desired if they are sons of high officials or qualified as "beratla mu'id". One should realize that a student had to study and be involved in business practices under the supervision of high officials in order to be a mulazim. If he finished this apprenticeship, his supervisor would then recommend him to the Sultan as an Ilmiye official candidate. The emergence of the mulazemet system brought some changes to the lives of students and to Ilmiye from the latter half of the 16th. century to the early 17th. century. Students came to make connections actively with high officials rather than studying in medrese. As Seyhulislam, Kazasker and Vezirazam gained the privilege of appointment of official posts, including the authority of mulazim recommendations, students rushed at those officials for the purpose of getting a share of the distribution of Ilmiye offices. Some of them tried to forge relationships with many influential ulema and Vezirazams at the same time; others took advantage of these connections to obtain mulazemet without finishing the educational programs in medrese. Most students made use of this relationship (the intisab relationship) with high officials to get their own quick promotions after joining Ilmiye. In this way medrese lost the reason for existing as a high educational institution, and changed into merely a place of supporting students in order to establish contact with high officials. The relationship between a professor and a student changed its shape to one that stands between a superior and a subordinate in the professional hierarchy. Some incumbent officials used to sell their posts or accept bribes from students and lower officials. The order and morals inside Ilmiye were corrupted by degrees. On the other hand, some people attained mulazemet to make ill use of the rule of getting the status in return for business practices. Some of them worked

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