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SourcesPage 1 of 2
Among the sources of the history of education in Turkey, the archives, vakif registers, court registers and yearbooks come to the forefront. The Ottoman archives contains thousand (perhaps millions) of documents on Turkish education. The researchers can search on the website of Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives. Some of the files in the archives are quite more related to the educational institutions. For instance the catalogue of Ruus Defters contains 261 defters referring to the developments in the last two centuries of Turkey. Among other things, the Ruus Defters include Medaris-i Edirne ve Bursa (two defters), Medrese, Müderrislik, Müderrislik-i Istanbul, Müderrislik-i Edirne, Müderrislik-i Bursa, Medaris-i Edirne Ruusu, and Medaris-i Asitane-i Aliyye (Hizli, 2008, 577-592). These registers are quite crucial for the traditional schools in Istanbul as well as neighboring cities of Bursa and Edirne. The vakfiyes (foundation certificates) are also significant sources of history of education in Turkey. Vakfiye is the register of a foundation (vakif), which resembles to present-day NGOs. In the Ottoman Empire, the construction of public works, including the educational institutions, were mainly conducted by these foundations. Though a considerable number of these foundations were established by the member of the Ottoman dynasty and the leading bureaucrats, these foundations were distinct from state bureaucracy and played very important role in the spread of educational institutions. Each foundation has a register, known as vakfiye. These registers were prepared by the founder of the foundation and ratified by the local court. They include information concerning the functioning of the foundation, its revenues and expenditures, and the management of the foundation. Most of the traditional schools in the Ottoman Empire were built by foundations. Therefore, they have usually a register document (vakfiye). The register of a traditional school usually contain information about the number of students, the scholarship to be given to the students, the accommodation of the students, the number of teachers and their salaries, the courses to be taught to the students etc. In short, these data are quite crucial for the understanding of traditional educational institution. The registers of the foundations can be found in the archive of the Vakiflar Genel Müdürlügü Arsivi (General Directorate of Foundation) however, unfortunately, not all of these registers reached our present day. As these documents were also registered in the local court, they could also be found in the court registers (ser‘iyye sicilleri). Hence, the court registers are also one of the sources of history of education. Another significant source for the history of Ottoman-Turkish history is the yearbooks known as salnames. Salnames began to be published in the Ottoman Empire after 1847 and between 1847 and 1911, 68 volume state yearbooks (devlet salnameleri) were published4. While the earliest yearbooks were approximately around 100 pages, gradually their volume increased and reached more than 1000 pages. The state yearbooks contain data concerning not only administrative, military organization of the empire, but also cultural and historical issues as well. Apart from state yearbooks, there were provincial yearbooks, which are more important for the local history of a particular region. The provincial yearbooks were usually published in the provincial print house. These provincial yearbooks contain data pertaining agriculture, natural sources, animal husbandry, local population, hospitals, schools, administrative and military officials and so on. The first provincial yearbook was published in 1866 in Bosnia. Until the end of the Ottoman Empire more than 500 provincial yearbooks were printed.
4 For detaled information on yearbooks in the Ottoman Empire see, Hasan Duman, Osmanli Salnameleri ve Nev-salleri Bibliyografyasi ve Toplu Katalogu, Ankara, 1999. |
