Abstract:

Period of Abdülhamid II and his administration started with a ruinous event, Turkish-Russia war of 1877-1878, and he intensely concerned about his Empire and territorial integrity. Thus he and his minister made a great effort for the development of education in the central and provinces of the Empire in order to consolidate Ottoman identity among his tebaa, subjects. One of the provinces that he instrumentalized education was Salonica where nationalist movements gained importance. The purpose of this study is to uncover Muslim schooling in Salonica during Sultan Abdülhamid II era community’s thoughts on education the policy of the government towards Muslim, especially women, and non-muslim population in terms of organization, establishment and funding of schools via mostly primary sources taken from Ottoman archives.

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