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Gökcen, A. (2026)

The Ottoman State and the Ezidis: a comparative approach

Doctoral Thesis
This thesis aims to understand the Ottomans’ 19th century centralisation policies as experienced by one of the smallest religious groups within the Ottoman Empire. These two power centres would finally meet ‘directly’ during execution of the Ottomans’ centralisation policies. One significant aspect of this encounter is that it shone a clear light on the problems these policies were confronted with because of the disordered, fragmented structures that were the Empire’s provinces, in many of which control had long been in the hands of local elites. Thus, when Ottoman military forces arrived in the provincial sphere and attempted to become the new power centre, the chaos that ensued was so great that any hopes the Ottomans had of their centralisation ideals finding an echo there were immediately dashed. In this very chaos, it became important not only who/what the subjects/Yezidis were but also who/what they should be, and this thesis will clearly demonstrate this bureaucratic...Show moreThis thesis aims to understand the Ottomans’ 19th century centralisation policies as experienced by one of the smallest religious groups within the Ottoman Empire. These two power centres would finally meet ‘directly’ during execution of the Ottomans’ centralisation policies. One significant aspect of this encounter is that it shone a clear light on the problems these policies were confronted with because of the disordered, fragmented structures that were the Empire’s provinces, in many of which control had long been in the hands of local elites. Thus, when Ottoman military forces arrived in the provincial sphere and attempted to become the new power centre, the chaos that ensued was so great that any hopes the Ottomans had of their centralisation ideals finding an echo there were immediately dashed. In this very chaos, it became important not only who/what the subjects/Yezidis were but also who/what they should be, and this thesis will clearly demonstrate this bureaucratic incompetence/confusion. Despite it is the 19th century that this study places under the microscope, many of the arguments it makes apply equally well to the problematics in the nature of state-society relations in the 21st century. It was in the latter century, that the Yezidis suffered catastrophic experiences in Iraq. The analysis of these problematics will make a modest contribution to the ongoing research on the Ottoman case in terms of revealing the policies of multinational states to govern society.
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Ottoman studies
Yezidis
State-society relations
Military
Bureaucracy
Centralization
Ottoman archives
Oral history
Iraq
Mosul
All authors
Gökcen, A.
Supervisor
Zürcher, E.J.; Douwes, D.
Committee
Berger, M.; Murre-van den Berg, H.; Bozarslan, H.; Theunissen, H.P.A.; Jong, A.F. de
Qualification
Doctor (dr.)
Awarding Institution
Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
Date
2026-04-15