Abstract:

By the 18th century, the classical institutions and the centralized structure of the Ottoman Empire weakened due to the long-term military, social and economic wars that took place in the previous century. Parallel to this, âyan-ı vilayet (local notables), who both assisted the local officials in the implementation of the orders sent from the center and who were the representative of the people in the Ottoman provincial organization, gained power. Müsellims (estate administrators or civil governors), who came out of this group and maintained public order in a province or a sanjak on behalf of a governor or a sanjak, were among those who benefited from this increasing influence. It was inevitable that such an important task and authority caused some struggles. The struggles of those who wanted to benefit from this influence in the local frame caused important conflicts in the Ottoman provinces. These conflicts were caused by the struggles of the two prominent families of the city, Dulkadiroğulları and Bayezidoğulları, to take over the city in the 18th century Maraş. This study deals with the effects of the weakening of the central power in Maraş and the methods used by the families mentioned above to fight each other and to eliminate their rivals. In this study, the struggles of two families in the 18th century are discussed. There is some information which supports that the struggles of these two families continued in the 19th century, too. This requires a separate study. The study is important in terms of showing the efforts of the two families to get the support of the judiciary members to prove their own claims or to keep the power. In the study, Kalebend Nefy and İcla Notebooks containing the Bâb-ı Asâfi Divan-ı Hümayun Kalemi records, which are among the Ottoman Archive document funds; Atik Complaint Notebooks, Maraş Ahkam Notebooks, relevant documents in the Ali Emiri and Cevdet Classifications and related research works about Ottoman social history have been used as sources.

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