Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.17234/RadoviZHP.51.7
Interreligious Relations in 17th century Istanbul in the Light of Immigration and Demographic Change
Eunjeong Yi
Abstract
This article attempts to shed new light on the heightened interreligious tensions in seventeenth-century Istanbul in the context of immigration and changes in the composition of the urban population. It is well known that Christian immigrants flooded Istanbul in the early 17th century, and that there were as many as 62,000 non- Muslim adult men registered in the cizye register of Greater Istanbul in the 1690s. After re-examining the sources used by the pioneers of Istanbul’s urban history, such as Robert Mantran and Stephane Yerasimos, in addition to some fiscal edicts and court records, I consider them alongside the total population of the city (300,000 to 400,000) estimated by leading Ottomanists. It seems that the non-Muslim population went through a sizeable increase over the 150 years leading into the late 17th century, at which time it probably accounted for a half or even more of the population of the Greater Istanbul area. The whole process would have adversely affected intercommunal relations and provoked tensions and violent incidents at many levels of urban life, as we can glean from the period’s historical records. At the same time, however, one should not forget that the complex dynamics of non-Muslim immigrants settling down in Istanbul involved conversions, as well as demands for immigrant wealth and labour from existing social structures such as mahalles and janissary regiments, which makes it more difficult to characterize the interreligious relations of the time in a simple way.
Keywords
Istanbul; seventeenth century; migration; non-Muslims; interreligious relations; Ottoman Empire
Hrčak ID:
235947
URI
Publication date:
16.12.2019.
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