Lords or Bandits? The Derebeys of Cilicia

Andrew G. Gould

doi:10.1017/S0020743800024661

Lords or Bandits? The Derebeys of Cilicia

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009

Andrew G. Gould

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The study of Ottoman history must move out of Istanbul and into the provinces and, in so doing, it must come to grips with the derebeys, local rulers of Anatolia whose independence contributed to the weakness of Ottoman government in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The derebeys of Cilicia are of special interest because they were the last to succumb to the expanding control of the nineteenth-century reformers. The purpose of this article is to examine the nature and extent of the power of these autocrats and to see why they were able to continue in defiance of the Porte until 1865.

Type: Articles
Information: International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , October 1976 , pp. 485 - 506

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743800024661 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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^{page 485 note 1} Slade, Adolphus, Record of Travels in Turkey, Greece, etc.… in the Years 1829, 1830 and 1831 (2nd ed.; London, 1833), 1, 215–20.Google Scholar

^{page 485 note 2} Hobsbawm defines social bandits as ‘peasant outlaws whom the lord and state regard as criminals, but who remain in peasant society, and are considered by their people as heroes, as champions, avengers, fighters for justice, perhaps even leaders of liberation, and in any case as men to be admired, helped and supported’ (Bandits [London, 1969], p. 13).Google Scholar The derebeys of Cilicia, being of tribal origin, would seem to fall outside this definition, but Hobsbawm goes on to say that tribal societies, ‘especially those familiar with feuding and raiding such as hunters and pastoralists, develop their own systems of class differentiation, or when they are absorbed into larger economies resting on class conflict, they may supply a disproportionately large number of social bandits’ (ibid. p. 14). He notes also that the true peasant is too bound to the land to have much time for banditry, that it is in pastoral economies or areas of mountains and poor soil which have small labor demands that one finds a surplus of able-bodied men who make their living through seasonal emigration, enlistment in an army or in banditry (ibid. p. 25). In both respects the mountain tribes of Cilicia would seem a likely source of social bandits, but the crucial factor, as I argue below, is that of popular support.

^{page 486 note 1} ‘Oğul’ means ‘son’ and is used as a suffix to form family names either in the singular possessive ‘oğlu’ or the plural possessive ‘oğullari’.Google Scholar

^{page 486 note 2} Toros, Taha, Dadaloğlu (Adana, 1940), p.44 Faruk Sümer, ‘cukurova Tarihine Dair Araştirmalar (Fetihten XVI yüzyilin ikinci yarisina kadar)’, Ankara Üniversitesi Dii ve Tarih-Cografya Fakltesi Tarih Araetzrmalarz Dergisi, I (1963), 62–6, on the Özero ğullari; Mahmud Sakir, ‘Payas Ayani Küçük Ali-oğullari’ (bachelor's thesis, Istanbul University, 1964), p. 10.Google Scholar

^{page 487 note 1} Barker, William Burckhardt, Lares and Penates or Citicia and Its Governors (London, 1853), pp. 74–83;Google ScholarSakir, pp. 16–21.Google Scholar

^{page 487 note 2} Cevdet, Ahmed, Tarih-i Cevdet (2nd ed.; Istanbul, 1891–1892), 3, 323–7; IV, 274–9; Sakir, pp. 21–35.Google Scholar

^{page 487 note 3} de Corancez, Loui Alexandre Olivier, Itinéraire d'une partie peu connue de l'Asie Mineure (Paris, 1816), pp. 97–8;Google ScholarAhmed Cevdet, ‘Maruzat’, Türk Tarih Encümeni Mecmuasi (hereafter TTEM), no. 10 (87) p. 284; Tarih-i Cevdet, vii, 138.Google Scholar

^{page 488 note 1} Corancez, pp. 99–102; Barker, pp. 84–6; Tarih-i Cevdet, X, 217;Google ScholarCevdet, Ahmed, Tezâkir, edited and transliterated by Baysun, Cavid (Ankara, 1953–1967), 3, 131. (All subsequent references are to this volume.)Google Scholar

^{page 488 note 2} Barker, pp. 87–90;Google Scholar Cevdet Pasha says that Mustuk was not in real control of Payas at the time the Egyptians arrived, that after having gone along with Ibrahim Pasha for a while he decided to establish himself in Payas in opposition to the Egyptians, but that he soon realized the futility of this effort and, surrendering to Ibrahim, got himself reinstated in Payas (Tezâkir, p. 131). Another derebey who is discussed later, Menemencioğlu Ahmed Bey, wrote a history of his family (to be published by Professor Faruk Sümer of Ankara University) which provides intimate detail on this period. Ahmed Bey allied himself with Ibrahim Pasha at the outset of the occupation and received orders to capture Mustuk Bey dead or alive. According to his account, Mustuk avoided him and went over to the Ottomans shortly before the Egyptians were forced to withdraw (pp. 123–33 in the typed transliteration made available to me by Professor Sümer; quoted in part in Ener, Kasirn, Tarih Boyunca Adana Ovasina Bir Bakiş [Istanbul, 1964], pp. 298–301).Google Scholar On the rule of the derebeys in Adana between 1826 and 1832 see Ener, pp. 289–91.Google Scholar

^{page 488 note 3} Stanford Shaw, J, ‘The Origins of Representative Government in the Ottoman Empire: An Introduction to the Provincial Councils, 1839–1876’, Near Eastern Round-table, 1967–1968 (New York University offset, 1969), pp. 57–59.Google Scholar

^{page 489 note 1} Barker, pp. 99–102; Menemenci-oğlu Ahmed Bey, pp. 157–8; Başbakanlik Arşivi, Istanbul (BBA), Irade-Dahiliye (ID) 4328 no. 8 (21 Ra, 1260) and Irade (4 R, 1260); Irade-Meclis-i Vâlâ (IMV) 1070, Meclis-i Vâlâ mazbatasi (2 Ca, 1260); IMV-1198, no. 2 21 Z, 1260).Google Scholar

^{page 489 note 2} Barker, pp. 98–9.Google Scholar

^{page 489 note 3} Ibid. pp. 98–9, 103; Foreign Office, Great Britain (FO) 195/595, Skene to Buiwer (12/31/61); FO 195/675, Skene to Buiwer (3/29/62). For another report on the Bey's hospitality see de Belgiojoso, Princess Christine Trivulse, ‘La Vie intime et la Vie nomade en Orient: Les Montagnes du Giaour, le Harem du Mustuk Bey et les Fenimes turques’, Revue des Deux Mondes, ser. 7, vol. 9, no. 3 (03 1855), p. 1045.Google Scholar

^{page 489 note 4} BBA-IMV-1198, Irade (25 M, 1261).Google Scholar

^{page 489 note 5} BBA-ID-4328, Irade (4 R, 1260).Google Scholar

^{page 489 note 6} BBA-IMV-2959, from Adana (27 M, 1264).Google Scholar

^{page 490 note 1} Tezâkir, pp. 128–9; BBA-ID-1489, from Adana (gurre S, 1268).Google Scholar

^{page 490 note 2} BBA-IMV-8623, from Adana (gurre S, 1269).Google Scholar

^{page 490 note 3} BBA-IMV-3110, Meclis-i Vâlâ mazbatasi (10C, 1264).Google Scholar

^{page 490 note 4} BBA-IMV-21462 no. 5 (17 S, 1279); Irade-Meclis-i Mahsus (1MM) 1256, no. 14 (15M, 1280) and no. 16 (26 Ca, 1280); ID-35253, telegram (29 teşrin-i evvel, 1279) ‘Maruzat’, TTEM, 10 (87), 288–9.Google Scholar

^{page 490 note 5} ‘Maruzat’, TTEM, 10 (87), 289.Google Scholar

^{page 490 note 6} Refik, Ahmet [Āltinay], Anadolu'da Türk Aşiretleri, (966–1200) (Istanbul, 1930), p. 201.Google Scholar

^{page 491 note 1} Tezâkir, pp. 127–8; ‘Maruzat’, TTEM, 10 (87), 285–6.Google Scholar

^{page 491 note 2} Tezâkir, p. 126.Google Scholar

^{page 491 note 3} BBA-IMV-1070, Meclis-i Vâlâ mazbatasi (2 Ca, 1260).Google Scholar

^{page 491 note 4} Altinay, p. 89; Tezâkir, p. 108; on Varsaks see Sümer, pp. 70–98.Google Scholar

^{page 491 note 5} Altinay, pp. 90–1.Google Scholar

^{page 491 note 6} Ibid. pp. 134, 536, 138, 139, 162–63; Adana Şer'i Mahkeme Sicilleri (Religious Court Records in the Adana Museum), vol. 44, p. III, vol. 23, pp. 114–15.

^{page 491 note 7} Sicilleri, Adana, vol. 57, pp. 88, 102; ‘Maruzat’, TTEM, 10 (87), 279; Tezâkir, pp.109–10.Google Scholar

^{page 491 note 8} Tezâkir, p. 109.Google Scholar

^{page 491 note 9} A title deed bearing the seal of Kozan-oğ1u Yusuf Aga and the date 1219 (1804–5) is in the possession of Nezir Arik of Kozan, who was kind enough to help me read it.Google Scholar

^{page 492 note 1} Tezâkir, p. 110.Google Scholar

^{page 492 note 2} Ibid. pp. 111–14.

^{page 493 note 1} Barker, pp. 102–3.Google Scholar

^{page 493 note 2} Pierre de Tchihatcheff, ‘Reisen in Kleinasien und Armenien, 1847–63’, Petermann's Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes Geographischer Anstalt, Ergänzungsheft, no. 20, p.57;Google ScholarKotschy, Theodor, ‘Dr Theodor Kotschy's Reise nach Cypren und Klein-Asien, 1859’, Petermann's Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes Geographischer Anstalt, 9 (1863), 135.Google Scholar

^{page 493 note 3} Tchihatcheff, p. 57.Google Scholar

^{page 493 note 4} BBA-IMV-3848, Meclis-i Vâlâ mazbatasi (21 Ca, 1265).Google Scholar

^{page 493 note 5} BBA-IMV-4469, Meclis-i Vâ1â mazbatasi (5 M, 1266); IMV-7064, Meclis-i VâIâ mazbatasi, (25 Ş 1267).Google Scholar

^{page 493 note 6} BBA-ID-14762, from 4^cü Ordu Muşiri (28 Za, 1267) ID-14656, from Serasker (17 Z, 1267); ID-16356, from 5^el Ordu Muşiri (5 S, 1269).Google Scholar

^{page 494 note 1} BBA-IMV-9403, from Ferid Efendi (17 Z, 1268) and Meclis-i Vâlâ (8 S, 1269).Google Scholar

^{page 494 note 2} BBA-IMV-9667, from Ankara (gurre S, 1269).Google Scholar

^{page 494 note 3} BBA-IMV-15047, Irade (27 R, 1272); IMV-14910, Irade (21 Za, 1272).Google Scholar

^{page 494 note 4} BBA-IMV-16694, frm Avşar müdürü (11 L, 1273), from Ankara (18 L, 1273), Irade (15 Za, 1273) and from Meclis-i Maden-i Hümayun (9 M, 1274); ID-26261, Irade (3B, 1274).Google Scholar

^{page 494 note 5} BBA-ID-30164, from Adana (25 N, 1276), Irade (18 L, 1276).Google Scholar

^{page 494 note 6} ‘Maruzat’, TTEM, 10 (87), 271–2.Google Scholar

^{page 495 note 1} Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Paris (MAE) – Correspondance Politique (CP) – Turquie-Alep 3, Bentivoglio to Walewski (6/16/58); J. Coffing, Archives of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), Central Turkey Mission vol. I, no. 236;Google ScholarSanjian, Avedis, The Armenian Communities in Syria under Ottoman Dominion (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), pp. 233–6.Google Scholar

^{page 495 note 2} Coffing, ABCFM no. 236.Google Scholar

^{page 495 note 3} On Armenian reform see Davison, Roderic H., Reform in the Ottoman Empire: 1856–76 (Princeton, 1963), pp. 123–6.Google Scholar

^{page 495 note 4} Coffing, ABCFM no. 239; Tezâkir, p. 114.Google Scholar

^{page 495 note 5} Tezâkir, pp. 114, 174.Google Scholar

^{page 495 note 6} Menemenci-oğlu Ahmed Bey, pp. 135–42, 162–3; second episode also quoted in Ener, p. 299.Google Scholar

^{page 495 note 7} Langlois, Victor, Voyage darn la Cilicie et darn les montagnes du Taurus (Paris, 1861), p. 79.Google Scholar

^{page 496 note 1} Kotschy, p. 131.Google Scholar

^{page 496 note 2} Tchihatcheff, p. 57.Google Scholar

^{page 496 note 3} Ibid. p. 14; Kotschy, p. 131.

^{page 496 note 4} Tchihatcheff, pp. 57–8; Yezâkir, p. III.Google Scholar

^{page 496 note 5} BBA-IMV-23861, nos. 2 and 3 (5 Z, 1281) and no. 5 (12 Z, 1281).Google Scholar

^{page 496 note 6} Menemenci-oğlu Ahmed Bey, p. 9.Google Scholar

^{page 496 note 7} Sümer, Faruk, Oğuzlar (Türkmenler) (Ankara, 1967), p. 194.Google Scholar

^{page 496 note 8} Gould, Andrew G., ‘Pashas and Brigands: Ottoman Provincial Reform and Its Impact on the Nomadic Tribes of Southern Anatolia, 1840–1885’ (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1973).Google Scholar The best published source is Cevdet Pasha's Tezâkir, pp. 107–91.Google Scholar

^{page 497 note 1} BBA-IMM-1256, no. 46b, and Irade (17 L, 1281); IMM-1267, talimatname to Dervi Pasha and Cevdet Efendi (22 Z, 1281); Tezâkir, pp. 133–9.Google Scholar

^{page 497 note 2} Tezâkir, p. 140.Google Scholar

^{page 497 note 3} Ibid. p. 141–53.

^{page 498 note 1} Kiliç, Ahmet, Osmaniye Tarihi (Osmaniye, 1962), p. 57.Google Scholar

^{page 498 note 2} Ibid. p. 45.

^{page 498 note 3} Tezâkit, pp. 164–9.Google Scholar

^{page 498 note 4} Ibid. pp. 177–9. These salaries compare very favorably with data on the salaries of officials in the Ottoman Foreign Ministry in Istanbul which was presented by Dr Carter Findley at the 1972 meeting of the Middle East Studies Association.

^{page 499 note 1} Ibid. pp. 183–7.

^{page 499 note 2} Ibid. p. 200.

^{page 499 note 3} BBA-Yildiz tasnifi (Y)–18–553/183–93–34, no. 14 (19, Kanun-i sani, 1296).Google Scholar

^{page 500 note 1} For details and sources see my dissertation cited above, pp. 107–12.Google Scholar

^{page 500 note 2} BBA-Y-18–553/183–93–34, no. 14.Google Scholar

^{page 500 note 3} International Who's Who, 1970–71, p. 1073.Google Scholar

^{page 500 note 4} BBA-Y-18–553/183–93–34, no. 14;Google ScholarEberhard, Wolfram, ‘Change in Leading Families in Southern Turkey’, Anthropos 49 (1954) 999–1001.Google Scholar

^{page 500 note 5} Şakir, pp. 72–4.Google Scholar

^{page 501 note 1} BBA-IMV-18633, petition from chiefs of the Sirkinti tribe (21 S, 1276); IMV-18906, from Sirkinti müdürü (I9 Ra, 1276) and from chiefs of the Kirinti tribe (11 B, 1276); IMV-19709, from Adana (11 C, 1277).Google Scholar

^{page 501 note 2} BBA-IMV-13617, from Uzeyr (11 R, 1272).Google Scholar

^{page 501 note 3} Tchihatcheff, p. 14.Google Scholar

^{page 502 note 1} öztelli, Cahit, Köroglu ve Dadaloglu (Istanbul, 1971), pp. 106–7. On the life of Dadaloglu see pages 9–13.Google Scholar

^{page 502 note 2} Belgiojoso, p. 1045.Google Scholar

^{page 502 note 3} BBA-ID-38475, telegram from Halep (3 R, 12839; ID-38523, telegrams from Halep (4 Ca, 1283) and Ankara (8 Ca, 1283) and (10 Ca, 1283); ID-38921, from Ismail Pasha (3 Ca, 1283); FO 195/800, Skene to Lyons (8/22/66); BBA-Irade, Divan-i Ahkâm (IDA) no. 2 (27 Ra, 1283).Google Scholar

^{page 502 note 4} Tezâkir, p. 203; BBA-IDA-18 no. 2 (22 Za, 1284).Google Scholar

^{page 503 note 1} Firat, no. 14 (25 R, 1284).Google Scholar

^{page 503 note 2} Tezâkir, pp. 213–14; ‘Maruzat’, TTEM 14. (91), pp. 130–2; FO 195/800, Skene to Lyons (5/22/67); Firat, no. 4 (14S, 1284), no. 8 (13 Ra, 1284), no. 9 (20 Ra, 1284), no.10 (27 Ra, 1284) and no. 11 (4 R, 1284).Google Scholar

^{page 503 note 3} BBA-IMV-29069, Meclis-i Vâlâ mazbatasi (23 B, 1284); ID-39330 no. 2 (15 S, 1284).Google Scholar

^{page 503 note 4} BBA-Irade, Şurayi Devlet (1ŞD)-101, Irade (16 M, 1285); 1ŞD-321, Irade (15 Ra, 1285); IŞD-346, Irade (20 Ra, 1285); IşD-440, Irade (13 R, 1285); ID-41691, Irade (13 C, 1286); ID-41697, Irade (15 C, 1286); 1ŞD-1958, Irade (22 Ra, 1295); 1ŞD-2037, mazbata (5 Ca, 1295); 1şD-2027, Irade (8 Ca, 1295); IŞD-2021, Irade (I9 Ca, 1295); 1şD-2076, Irade (24 B, 1295); IşD-2087, Irade (7 ş, 1295).Google Scholar

^{page 504 note 1} Riza, Au [Yalgin], Cenupta Türkmen Oymaklari, 4 (Adana, 1934), 24–8.Google Scholar

^{page 504 note 2} FO 195/1202, Henderson to Layard (8/30/78).Google Scholar

^{page 504 note 3} BBA-ID-63910 no. 4 (11 L, 1295).Google Scholar

^{page 504 note 4} BBA-ID-67242, Irade (20 L, 1298).Google Scholar

^{page 504 note 5} MAE-CP Turquie-Alep 6, Destrees to Waddington (9/14/78); Constantinople Messenger (Levant Herald), 9/25/78, p. 2 (quoting story from Hadikat al-Ahbar).Google Scholar

^{page 504 note 6} BBA-ID-62990, Irade (14 N, 1295).Google Scholar

^{page 505 note 1} BBA-ID-62934, Irade (selh N, 1295); ID-63047, no. 2 (7 Eylül, 1294); ID-63620, no. 3 (25 Teşrin-i evvel, 1294); ID-63910, no. 3 (10 L, 1295) and no. 4 (11 L, 1295); ID-65525, Irade (20N, 1297); Constantinople Messenger, 9/6/78 and 9/25/78; MAE-CP Turquie-Alep 6, Destrees to Waddington (9/24/78), (9sol;28/78), (10/12/78) and (20/24/78); FO 424 (Confidential Print)/106, p. 93, Cooper to Wilson (1/7/80); Yalgin, pp. 26–7.Google Scholar

^{page 505 note 2} Yalgin, p. 30.Google Scholar Variants of the second, fifth and sixth verses occur in many songs about the Kozan-ogullari including one ascribed to Dadaloglu (Eberhard, Wolfram, Minstrel Tales from Southeastern Turkey [Berkeley, 1955], pp. 55–6;Google ScholarÖztelli, p. 89).Google Scholar

^{page 506 note 1} Eberhard, Minstrel Tales, p. 13.Google Scholar

^{page 506 note 2} Perhaps there was even something about the mountains which inspired their rebelliousness. A popular legend recorded in the Gâvur Daği says that Mustuk Pasha, after having rebelled and been exiled for the last time, said to the Sultan, ‘I don't know if it's the earth or the water, [but] when I go [there] I become rebellious. Settle me in Istanbul and let me remain in your retinue’ (Kiliç, p. 47). Such an attitude would help to explain the readiness with which most of the derebeys gave up their fur cloaks and bandoliers for frock coats and fezzes.Google Scholar

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