Abstract:

The transformations experienced by the seyfiye, ilmiye, and kalemiye, which constitute the administration of the state, have been different for each institution since the period of Selim III, when the modernization process began in the Ottoman Empire. In the process, the kalemiye began to turn into a civil bureaucracy with the changes it went through, and it started to be called as Mulkiye. Mulkiye, which started to be a new power center in the 19th century Ottoman administration, formed an important branch of the ruling class in the new administrative organization of the Ottoman Empire. In this sense, this study focuses on the Mulkiye class, which plays an important role in the rebuilding process of the state. Within the scope of this article, it is aimed to illuminate the social history of diplomats who graduated from Mekteb-i Mulkiye between 1877 and 1935 and served as ambassadors in the late Ottoman Empire and the early republican period. In parallel with the increase in the need for qualified personnel of the Ottoman administration, which rapidly continued its institutionalization and professionalization process at the end of the 19th century, the importance of qualified ambassadors who graduated from modern schools such as Mekteb-i Mulkiye increased. In this context, this study examines thirty-four diplomats who worked as ambassadors in diplomatic staff in three different periods (1877-1908, 1909-1923 and 1924-1935), which were determined by examining the personnel records of the graduates of Mekteb-i Mulkiye between 1877-1935. By comparing the social origins, educational backgrounds, positions in the state hierarchy and professional careers of the thirty-four diplomats examined, it is aimed to observe the changes, transformations and continuities experienced by ambassadors in three different periods. In addition, in this study, the social history of the ambassadors graduated from Mulkiye will be evaluated in terms of the elements of continuity of the institutional and bureaucratic state understanding adopted by the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century to the early republican period.

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