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To answer the essay question use the powerpoint presentations attached below. The essay should be based on the class material studied. Thus, find the power points attached

Essay prompt) Discuss the significance for an ethnic community on the path to creating a nation-state of constructing a written constitution. Considering the Armenian case more directly, review the main provisions of the draft constitution compiled by the Madras group under the title Snare of Glory in 1787 and the Armenian National Constitution of 1863 ratified for the Armenian Millet in the Ottoman Empire and comment on their effectiveness in their particular contexts.

Armenian Nationalism in the 1770s-80s Arm 153 Prayers of Catholicos Simeon Erevanc‘i (c. 1710-1780) • Thanks to God for His Special Benefits to Our Armenian Nation and Renewed Requests that He be yet more Merciful and Benevolent • Taking up again my petition to You, o Merciful God, I beseech You on behalf of the remnant of our nation. That is, for our monasteries and churches, and for the clergy and all our people. Those whom You have preserved until now in stability and in good order I pray with great earnestness that You will continue to preserve in Your care to the glory of Your holy name. Do not regard my sins and my unworthiness, but rather look to Your own inexhaustible love and Your immeasurable care for humanity. And those things which I ask according to my own faulty nature and according to my own weak thoughts, do indeed grant through Your omniscient and inerrant wisdom, You who know so much better than we can ask or think our needs and the things which are to our benefit. • Now, before I lay my petitions before you, spreading them out to You, my God, I recall with enormous gratitude the great and principal benefits which you have bestowed on our Armenian people in particular. So that You may be compassionate and have mercy upon us, if not sparing us for our own worthiness, then having regard to those benefits. • First, O my Lord Jesus Christ, I recall to you the See which You built and established for our parent in faith and in spirit in Holy Etchmiadzin, whose foundation You laid by Your descent, whose shape You dictated through Your divine light, erecting and establishing it as its all-wise architect. • I speak of Holy Etchmiadzin, which like a most brilliant sun rose over the plain of Ararat and like a flashing and precious jewel lent its luster to the city of Vagharshapat. You set it in the midst of the Armenian nation as a storehouse of Your inexhaustible grace, and You made it gush forth as an eternally-flowing fountain of spiritual gifts in the land apportioned to Torgom. • For this reason You made it an object of desire and e3nvy in the eyes of all peoples and lands. With special love did You bestow this singular, most superlative and incomparable gift upon us Armenians, Your little flock. • And not only this, but with a remarkable love you singled us out among the nations in many other ways as well. For although every nation and people has its See and its churches, yet they were not formed of light and built by God as was our See of Holy Etchmiadzin. • And although other believing nations have pastors and holy illuminators, yet none of them. like our illuminator St. Gregory, was purified and refined through fifteen years of testing in the crucible of divine tortures, a living death. • Other nations have writing and an alphabet with which to flesh out Your incorporeal and divine word, yet none of them was given explicitly by You and drawn by Your own finger, as was our writing. • And while You have called many nations to yourself and made them Your faithful ones through the preaching and teaching of Your holy apostles and disciples, yet because our Armenians were especially dear to You, You were not satisfied to gather them through Your apostles and their preaching, but, as it were, You who are God allpowerful and beyond labor, expended such labor and took such pains [on our behalf] that by sheer force and through unprecedented miracles You called us to Yourself and made us Your own people (1 Peter 2:9). • You have ordained kings and physical princes for other nations; for our Armenian nation, Your little flock, You Yourself became king, lord, and prince, teaching us that “My kingdom and the kingdom of those who belong to me is not of this world,” (John 18:36) and that, according to Your faithful Paul, those who are Christians should crucify their flesh (Galatians 5:24). • And that when You sometimes make us suffer and admonish us at the hand of others, that too is a demonstration of Your paternal and particular love, for those whom You love You admonish and chasten (Revelation 3:19). All of these things are signs and heralds of the particular and outstanding love and compassion, which you have toward our insignificant Armenian nation. • In truth, O my Lord, You have not dealt with other peoples as You have with us. Now, we have nothing with which to repay You for Your many beneficences except eternally to offer our praise and grateful thanks to You, O God, who have no need of anything. • Since You have done great and exceptional things for us, do not withhold from us the lesser and easier ones, O benevolent and merciful God, for whom everything is possible and everything is easy. • I beseech You therefore, O benevolent and merciful God, according to Your own true promise, to keep firm and fixed upon the immovable rock our See and our Mother, Holy Etchmiadzin, which You Yourself established and gave to us as the particular glory, boast and consolation of us Armenians, the flock who follow the Illuminator’s faith. Insure that the everbountiful and spiritually nourishing grace of the Holy Spirit does not fail from it as long as the world shall last, to the consolation and rejoicing of us and of our churches. • From day to day empower and render more resplendent [the See] which You established among us; cause it to shine to all the ends of the earth, for the glory of Your name. According to Your true pledge, forever glorify in the eyes of all the sacred place of Your feet. Through Your almighty power crush and destroy those who strike against that rock, and blind the eyes of those who look askance at it. • Keep it ever ornamented and splendid with patriarchs of Your choosing, with bishops and church doctors magnificent in Your grace, and with all its children. Be the aid and succor of our present patriarch, the catholicos (name) at all times; may he be pleasing to You in all his endeavors, and in all his way of life. Preserve him in peace for many years, for the majesty of Your sacred house and for the consolation of us Your servants. • Together with our holy See, preserve also all our other monasteries and churches in edification, in good order and in peace, together with their primates, teachers, priests, and princes, with their people and with all their congregations, free of and unblemished by any foreign or deviant heresies. • Set Your cross, the sign of Your all-victorious and unconquerable power, together with the armies of the heavenly hosts and the ranks of all your saints, as protector of our holy churches and their children, by day and by night, and save them from all spiritual and physical enemies and temptations in order that through them Your name may be glorified forever. • O Lord our God, grant to our spiritual pastors and primates the wisdom inspired by You, and the meekness and humility ordained by You, so that they may shepherd Your flock according to Your will and so that, when You the Great Shepherd appear, they may be able to say with boldness “Here am I and the children You have given me” (Isaiah 8:18) and receive form You the crown of glory. • Arm them with power and courage that they may be able to stand against the wolves that would slay their sheep, and against those who would violate our churches and our religion. • Give to our priests sensitivity and purity in order that they may be able to serve Your holy mystery worthily and be forthright mediators between You,. O God, and the people, offering You their prayers and drawing down upon them Your mercy. By making profitable use of the talents You have given them, may they receive from You many times as much. • To our deacons, choristers, and all the children of our holy churches grant modesty and studiousness so that they may each remain blameless in their calling, serve Your holy church in a worthy manner and by You be named good servants, noble and trustworthy. • Lord, accept the works of those who labor, and the gifts of those who give to Your holy church for Your glory, and to please You. In return grant them many times more, spiritually and physically, and make them worthy of that bliss which the merciful shall inherit. • To the princes and leaders of our people give pity and firm faith in You, love and unity with one another, and compassion and solicitude toward the poor and those in trouble. • Cause them to be esteemed and favored in the eyes of all authorities and oppressors so that they may be the pride and joy of Your church and the help and comfort of the population, and so that they may be servants pleasing to You, and receive from You their reward together with all Your saints. • Remember, O Lord, our entire nation, Your little flock, wherever they may be, great and small, men and women alike, and visit them all for Your great mercy’s sake. Allow them all to live in love and peace, in the faith of the Illuminator and in virtuous works, in safety and in upstanding conduct. • Be their help and succor at all times, when they lie down and when they rise up, at home and on the road, on sea and on dry land, in their giving and taking, in their life, and in their work. To all their beneficial and blameless activities grant success and a good outcome. • In addition, grant health to the sick and suffering, gladden the sad and soothe the wounded. Liberate those in prison and captivity. Save those who have fallen on times of trial. Fill the needs of those who lack in soul and in body. • Bring help to all those who are without recourse and who have no assistance, and visit them. Turn the unrepentant and the obstinate from their evil ways, and preserve them in peace, so that having been merciful to them all You may be glorified by them all at all times. • I ask You also, my Lord and my God, to give peace to the whole world, reconciliation to kings; love and submission to those under them; prosperity and security to cities, provinces, and villages; fertility to vineyards and fields, and a fullness and abundance of all good things. • In Your mercy, remove from every land and people, and especially from the land and people of Armenia, all wrath and other adversities, sickness and various kinds of suffering, famine, sword, pestilence, and all other distressing and injurious eventualities, which come upon us because of our sins, so that in everything and in all things Your name may be glorified forever and ever. Amen. Indo-Armenian Community and Armenian Nationalism 1. Demographics of the Armenian Community in India • The history may be divided into two eras • 1772-92 Madras, liberation. • • • • • 1797-1852 Calcutta period “moderate” nationalist ambitions secular education language and traditions co-opted under British rule. Indo-Armenian Community and Armenian Nationalism 1. Demographics of the Armenian Community in India • The history may be divided into two eras • 1772-92 Madras, liberation. • • • • • 1797-1852 Calcutta period “moderate” nationalist ambitions secular education language and traditions co-opted under British rule. • The community had a small base of operations, though educated and wealthy • —far from the actual homeland. • —economically, politically, and intellectually well-connected. • N.B. dynamically developing situation • 1) decline economically of the mother city of NJ led to demographic movement to other locations. • 2) British East India Co. gradually achieved a monopoly of trade. It enjoyed the protection of the British Army. Gradual transformation into a colony. The Company subsumed Armenian merchants into its structure. 2. Armeno-British Relations • culture • rule in that part of the world. • 1764 British took Bengal (East India Co.) • 1770s Armenians under British rule were economically weakened. The security of their capital was threatened. • They were subject to discrimination and restrictions and competition as not being British citizens. 18th c. monopolies of mercantilism. • They had to accept British laws and language. • These circumstances created conditions for greater Armenian community solidarity to establish an Armenian state free from sociopolitical domination. Positive factors in the British environment in India: • Enlightenment thought transmitted through the accessibility there of texts of John Locke’s political writings. • Political commentary and world news available through the English language press, e.g. James Hickey’s Bengal Gazette. • In particular, this included coverage of the American War of Independence. • It is significant that these developments were playing out in English. • Madras: Armenians at the right place at the right time. 3. Education in the Armenian community in India ? 4 secular schools in Calcutta (2 for girls) • one of these the Mardasirakan Chemaran (Philanthropic Academy) which is still functioning in the city (founded in 1790s). • Application of some of the directives of the Madras group of 1770s. ? Cultural Associations involved in Armenian Theater. • There the first modern Armenian comedy by Mkrtich Martirosian was performed entitled The Physiognomist of Duplicity (1821). Significantly, the educated characters speak in Classical Armenian, while the others in the New Julfa dialect. The main topic is corruption in the merchant middle class and hence the play contributes to the development of civil society. Modelled on contemporary English Comedy. ? There were also 10 journals (newspapers) regularly printed. • 16 printing presses, which produced c. 200 titles. • Among these the importance of translation from English, of which one was Daniel Defoe’s adventure novel Robinson Crusoe. • In the 1840s 2 novels were written in India by Mesrop Taghiadian in Classical Armenian. • Taghiadian also founded a girls’ school in the 1840s: • In a speech he gave in favor of women’s education among other factors he cited the importance for nationalism. 4. Joseph Emin • Born Hamadan, Iran in 1726. In 1744 he moved to India to join his merchant father in Calcutta. • He had great appreciation for English military discipline and Enlightenment. • An army should not fight by brute strength alone without an understanding of liberty (acting like a free man, not a slave) and knowledge. He argued that in warfare the psychological precedes the physical. • 1751 He moved to London • 1755 He befriended Edmund Burke, the Whig (liberal) intellectual and was introduced to circles of the nobility and intelligentsia • 1756 he enrolled in the military academy in Woolich. • 1757 he enlisted as a volunteer in the BritishPrussian War v. France • 1759 he travelled from London to Ejmiacin via Cilicia and the Western part of the Armenian Plateau. • He had an audience with the Armenian Catholicos and discussed moves towards Armenian liberation from Persian and Ottoman rule. Then he had talks with the Armenian meliks of Karabagh and King Erekle II of Kartli (Georgia). • He argued that the death of Nader Shah, ruler of Iran (1722-47), ushered in an era of devolution advantageous for liberating Eastern Armenia from Iran. • 1761 He went to Russia, where he met Count Vorontsov and carried letters to Erekle II, arriving in Tiflis in 1763. He organized volunteers for an army among Armenian settlements in the North Caucasus (Kizliar, Mozdok, and later Nor Nakhijevan near Rostov). • Emin wanted to train Georgian troops as part of a joint Armeno-Georgian strategy of secession from Iranian rule. • Emin presented the common past of the Armenian and Georgian peoples. • King Erekle was descended from the Bagratid dynasty, which had ruled both Armenia and Georgia. Hence it was appropriate that he also rule a liberated Armenia. • Emin also received clerical support from Hovhan, abbot of St. Karapet Monastery in Mush for his plans. However, the catholicos Simeon Erevanc‘i was adamantly opposed to these views and advised king Erekle to sever his ties with Emin (1763). • 1768 He returned to Tiflis, but was compelled to leave. • 1770 Emin returned to India where he sought Armenian merchants’ financial support to maintain troops in the Caucasus, in the course of which he again met with clerical opposition. He remained there till his death in 1809. Overview • adventurer and b) liberation fighter • Emin was an enlightened idealist and intellectual. • He argued for the free development of man, patriotism, and liberation of the Armenian homeland. • N.B. he compiled these ideas in his autobiography The Life and Adventures of Joseph Emin (London, 1792) for others to emulate his ideals and strivings. • He defined Armenians as “sheeplike and shepherdless” • In particular, Armenian wealth was being exploited by Ottoman and Persian officials. • Issue of the poll tax on non-Muslim population. • Armenian merchants were very superstitious (evil eye, dream manuals, etc.) according to his rational perspective. • Yet Armenians are industrious, brave and honest. • Need for education in the ideals of human freedom to educate people in the aspirations for liberty, a concept they did not yet comprehend. • N.B. Emin’s discussion with a village headman in central Anatolia: • Armenians have been subject to Mahometans from the creation of the world and it will remain so till the day of the Resurrection. This view was promulgated by the church. • Emin countered the local priest with passages from the history of Movses Xorenac‘i. • Genealogy of the Kings of Armenia • Scriptural interpretation • A rational being not to let him/herself become the slave of others. • All men were created free. They are to be ruled by good laws with the same justice for rich and poor (egalitarianism). • 5. Nor Tetrak Reinterpretation of Armenian history • It appeared from Shahamir Shahamirian’s press in Madras (1772) • A pamphlet of c. 240 pp. the manifesto of Shahamirian’s group. • To awaken youth from slumber (watchword of Modernism) • To note the conditions under Muslim yoke and prepare for the long struggle for liberation. • Emin highly valued individualism. He believed dedicated individuals could bring about great change. However, as yet the Armenian liberation movement still had not reached a mass audience. • Clearly there was a need to create institutions to advance the enterprise geographically and temporally. ?1st three chapters in verse to inculcate patriotism. • Education/ hard work/ courage/ unity/ to sacrifice their lives and die a hero’s death rather than live in misery: N.B. the case of Vardan Mamikonian is now interpreted in a secular fashion as a martyr to patriotism. • Geography of Armenia (mainly Movses Xorenac‘i) ?Armenia’s natural beauty and resources extolled to infuse national pride. ?History: Detailed analysis of the failure of the various Armenian dynasties from a rational approach. • Past failures were not primarily the result of external enemies but internal Armenian responsibility. • Misfortune was not the result of sin, but ignorance, disunity, and laziness, stubbornness, lack of discipline and education. • One of the main problems had been the very institution of kingship and the weakness of the incumbents of the office. • Hence there was a need for a firm constitution, good counselors, and a national parliament. • He does not call for immediate revolt or animosity toward the clergy and the rich. • He also refers to the need for an Armenian prince to lead the movement, obviously envisaging Erekle II of the Armeno-Georgian Bagratid family. • N.B. An abbreviated Russian translation of the work was prepared and 2,000 copies sent to St. Petersburg through his son Yeghiazar for propaganda purposes to influence public opinion. 6. Snare of Glory: draft Armenian constitution (c. 1787-89) (340 pp.) • The publication has a date of 1773 by Hakop Shahamirian (d. 1774), but likely published in second half of 1780s. Presumably the author is Shahamir Shahamirian, his father. • Law restrains absolute power and destroys the yoke of slavery to promote the natural freedom of man (Rousseau: Noble Savage) • The king is not a superior being, but a mortal, like their subjects. ?The American War of Independence as an example for other nations. • Armenians are to work hard and make sacrifices to achieve an independent democratic state. Nevertheless, the work indirectly points to Erekle as taking a leadership role in the state. • ?Supreme authority is vested in the people through their elected representatives. • There is to be civil, religious, and economic freedom and rights for all citizens. • Foreigners and followers of other faiths must learn Armenian (State lingua franca) ?National Assembly (parliament) Hayoc‘ Tun (lit. Armenian House). • Liberated state divided into 258 electoral districts, of which each to return two representatives for a three-year term. • The Catholicos of Ejmiacin has the right to appoint one representative. • ?Parliament will be bicameral. a) legislative (congress) b) executive (presidential cabinet) ?President is elected by the assembly for a three-year term • He is to abide by the constitution. • He is responsible for the conduct of war. • He has the right to pardon prisoners condemned to death. • The post may also be hereditary (reference to Erekle’s possible role) ?Military: Male citizens were to undergo military training from age 12. In addition, there was to be a professional standing army of 90,000 soldiers. • ?Egalitarianism: The poll tax (redolent of slavery and second class citizens) was to be abolished. I.e. not levied on citizens not members of the Armenian Apostolic Church. • ?No established religion. Division of church and state. • School network to be national, not under church. • In 1775 the printing press is taken over by his second son Yeghiazar with Baghramian. • It printed History of the Remnants of the Armenians and Georgians. • Christian princes of the West coming to liberate Christians of the East from the Muslim yoke. • 1778 Shahamirian commissioned a map of Armenia from the Venice Mkhitarists: • It includes the images of legendary Armenian heroes: Hayk and Aram: the kings Tigran II (creator of the empire) and Trdat III (introducer of Christianity) • As well as historical Armenian flags and arms symbolizing Armenia’s glorious past. • The map highlights a joint Armeno-Georgian kingdom under the auspices of the Russian empire. • In 1775 the printing press is taken over by his second son Yeghiazar with Baghramian. • It printed History of the Remnants of the Armenians and Georgians. • Christian princes of the West coming to liberate Christians of the East from the Muslim yoke. • 1778 Shahamirian commissioned a map of Armenia from the Venice Mkhitarists: • It includes the images of legendary Armenian heroes: Hayk and Aram: the kings Tigran II (creator of the empire) and Trdat III (introducer of Christianity) • As well as historical Armenian flags and arms symbolizing Armenia’s glorious past. • The map highlights a joint Armeno-Georgian kingdom under the auspices of the Russian empire. 1783 Nshawak (Target) • The bylaws for the Armenian community of Madras for internal government until the possibility of relocating to a liberated Armenia. ?The highest authority was to be the General Assembly. • It was to elect a three-member executive committee and secretary “from the well-to-do and respectable.” • It was to collect membership dues, as well as contributions, and wills. This sum was to profit from the interest of wise investments and to be expended for charitable, social, educational and cultural purposes. • Laymen were not to intervene in spiritual affairs of the church. Meanwhile, the clergy were not to intervene in secular matters (local division of church and state). • This structure was to function until the community relocated to Armenia. Otherwise they were to join Armenian communities in the North Caucasus under Russian Rule. • A draft agreement between the Armenians and Russians was proposed whereby the Armenians were to enjoy full religious and economic freedom with no mandatory military service and were to be free from slavery. • In a letter of 1787 Shahamirian urges the Georgian king to adopt a constitution, abolish slavery, and arrange that all serve the law. He suggested that his work Snare of Glory should serve as a model and asked him to have the latter translated into Georgian for the liberation of the Armenians and Georgians. 7. The Madras Group and the Church • Hovhan, bishop of St. Karapet Monastery in Mush was open to fight the Ottomans and Kurdish tribes in the context of a general revolt coordinated with king Erekle, and supported Shahamir Shahamirian. • Opposition from Catholicos Simeon Erevanc‘i. He sent Shahamirian a letter of reprimand ordering all copies of his work Nor Tetrak to be burned, his printing press closed, and the intellectual Movses Baghramian to be exiled from India. • It was important that India was situated outside the civil jurisdiction of Ejmiacin. • Simeon Erevanc‘i’s writings presented a more traditionalist understanding. Armenian Christians gathered over the world were to be consituted an ecclesiastical congregation with its center in Ejmiacin under the Catholicos of All the Armenians. • 8. Azdarar journal • In 1789 the Armenian church in Madras established a printing press under the priest Harutiun Shmavonian. His printing career spanned 1789-94 and encompassed 12 publications. • Note the work The Armenians’ Lament of 1791 of the co-priest T‘adeos Soginian. Youth are to see the people’s terrible situation and by hard work and education to overcome passivity and the mentality of slavery. ?1794 Azdarar monthly, first Armenian periodical. • Editorial praises the British as having inaugurated a monthly in the city one month previously with reports on events, business affairs, articles of general interest, details of ships docking and leaving port. • Azdarar printed works in Armenian as well as translations, news from Armenia and Iran, all for the benefit of merchants. • Editorial board of young volunteers with the collaboration of Baghramian and Shahamirian. • Editorial Policy: public debate of issues, with conservative and liberal ideas presented together, enhancing civil society. • N.B. Emin’s authobiography of 1792 was both advertised and criticized. • It handled the French Revolution of 1789 with some sympathy • It published reports from Archbishop Hovsep Arghutiants, prelate of the Armenians of Russia, who was deeply involved in negotiations with the Russian court to liberate Armenia and Georgia. • One of these related to the special rights vouchsafed the newly established Armenian community of Nor Nakhijevan (1780) by the Russian government. • The language of Azdarar was largely Classical Armenian, yet many letters and advertisements were in the New Julfa dialect combined with borrowings from Indian and English. Originally, there were 40 subscribers. 9. Conclusion • Madras community was small and close-knit in one quarter of the city near the British quarters. Armenians there were wealthy and relatively well-organized. • They had important contacts with the British East India Company. • In the 1760s the British treated them as second-class citizens. This in part movitated strong national solidarity. • The situation in Iran after Nader Shah’s death promoted the plan of Georgian liberation from Persian rule and provided an impetus for Armenian liberation. • Emin argued against relying on Western help alone. • Meanwhile Shahamirian was the leader of the Madras Armenian community and the financial basis for the enterprise with his gifts to the church, Erekle, etc. • The Madras group introduced the national agenda for Armenian liberation. N.B. their insistence on education for both men and women. Group Strengths and Weaknesses ? Novel and innovative • Awareness of future trends politically and culturally ? Agency: Beyond the concept of Crusade (religious congruity) and outside assistance (pope and the crowned heads of Europe). • Armenians to determine their own identity and future and not to rely on others. • Principle of self-determination. • New sense of identity. Desire for improvement of fellow Armenians: patriotism and activism. • Realistic in terms of war: military preparations and discipline. ? Gradual pragmatic recognition of the potential of involving Russia. • Pied-a-terre in S. Russia in Nor Nakhijevan and Kizliar to assist in invasion of Iran. • In the Russo-Persian war of 1825-26 Armenian battalions from Russian Georgia participated in contrast to the local population of Erevan still under Persian rule. • ? Creation of a republican nation state after WWI (1918-20). • Negatives: • Far from the Armenian homeland and small number of people involved. • Problems logistically and in relations with Erekle and the Georgians (anti-Armenian views). • The bulk of the people were in the diaspora. Few people in the historical homeland were prepared for the task. Hence it was premature. Need for education, enlightenment and motivation to participate. • New sense of identity and polity. Armenian Community in the Ottoman Empire Arm 153 Political and cultural situation of the Armenian Community in the Ottoman Empire • Armenians all over the Ottoman Empire from the Balkans to Egypt. • Most on the Armenian Plateau in Eastern Anatolia. • 1850s: 40 towns and cities with Armenian majority or sizeable minority there. • The Armenian urban population at that time composed c.27% of whole Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. • Urban Armenian population controlled commerce and handicrafts in those locations. Rural population: • Over 70% of whole Armenian demography in agriculture as peasants owning land and landless. The landless worked as sharecroppers for landowners. • N.B. issue of incidents of forced conversion of young people • Early 19th c. forcible conversion of c.100 Armenian villages in Hamshen (valley near the Black Sea). The rest left the area for Russian Empire. Armenians in Constantinople • Armenian presence there from Byzantine times. • End of 18th c. c.150,000 • 1880s: 250,000-300,000 • They were located in various quarters: Kumkapi, Galata, Uskudar, etc. • and surrounding villages. • Division between “Insiders” whose families had lived there several generations • And “Outsiders” newcomers from the provinces. Upper class: Amiras • Less than 200 individuals. many from Anatolia who moved in 18th c. • Status from wealth and high office • money lenders (saraf) for viziers and governors • holders of hereditary state office • e.g. Imperial Mint (Duzian) • Imperial architect (Balian) • Gunpowder Mills and industrial factories (Dadian) Distinguished by attire. Perceived as descended from princely families • Image of being benefactors and philanthropists • Supported the higher education of the reformers! • Their power a) from influence with Ottoman administration • supporting the patriarchate • They controlled the Armenian millet till the mid1840s Armenian merchants • Ottoman commerce largely in the hands of Greeks, Armenians, Jews and Bulgarians. • By the mid-19th c. many were agents and intermediaries for European firms • Middle Class Artisans: • They were clustered in guilds (esnaf) • End of 18th c. Armenians of Constantinople had 65 guilds: mid-19th 98. Poor, unskilled workers • • • • These were mainly migrant workers (pandukht) from the provinces Who sent back savings to their family at home. Porters, water carriers, street sweepers, domestiv servants. They lived in khans or inns. Armenians’ legal status in Ottoman jurisprudence • Non-Muslims organized in millets (religio-confessional communities) • Paid polltax for their protection (not permitted to serve in the army) • Greek: ethnic Greeks, Slavs, Romanians, Albanians, Arabs, etc. • Armenian: ethnic Armenians and West Syrian church (since 1783) • Jewish: • • • • Internal autonomy Maintained internal customs and laws Arranged marriage, divorce, inheritance. Freedom of worship (no bells, etc.) They were accorded subordinate status: • • • • -show deference to Muslims not to bear arms not to ride a horse their testimony often not admitted in trials against Muslims • Armenian millet • Secular and spiritual head is Armenian patriarch of Constantinople • Status equivalent to a pasha. • By mid-18th c. established jurisdiction over all the Armenian millet in the empire apart from small jurisdictions of the catholicoi of Sis and Aghtamar. Patriarch administered the millet (religious, charitable, and educational institutions) • and arranged tax collection. • his own court and prison • tried civil cases (not cases on public security or criminal) • censorship of Armenian publications. • Armenian Catholic Millet (1834) • Counter Reformation reaction to Protestant Reformation • Society for the Propagation of the Faith with printing press • New orders: Jesuit and Capuchin involved in mission in Near East • Ottomans refused proselytization among Muslims. • Backing of France to propel economic, diplomatic and political objectives in the region. • Mkhitarist monastic Congregation in Venice (1717) • Armenian Catholic Patriarchate in Lebanon (1742) • Yet Armenian Catholics still part of the Armenian millet in Ottoman jurisprudence. Armenian Catholics divided: • Abbotians (supporters of Mkhitarists: pro-union with the Armenian millet) • Collegians (supporters of the Propaganda: desired separate representation) • In 1820s the European powers had assisted the sultan in a struggle with his vassal Muhammad Ali of Egypt. As a result in the Treaty of Adrianople (1829) under French insistence he accepted they should have their own church and separate administration. This was finally confirmed in April 17, 1834. Protestant Millet (1847) • Eschatology • American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 1810. • Bible printed in a) Classical Armenian b) Modern Western Armenian c) Armeno-Turkish (1811) • (1830-31) Eli Smith and other missionaries sent to Constantinople • They opened schools and taught liberty, equality, and nationalism. • The Patriarch constrained to open more Armenian schools • 1839 Jemaran (Academy) • Ambassadors of Protestant powers (Prussia, USA, Great Britain) exerted influence on Sublime Porte. • Separate millet granted by edict of November 1847. • Krikor Zohrab’s “Armenissa” 1. What in your opinion is the significance of the name given to the protagonist by the islanders where she spends the summer? 2. Why does it appear that the narrator would have an advantage in attracting her attention? 3. How did the protagonist interpret her “conversion” to Catholicism? 4. How did she react to discovering that the narrator actually belonged to the Apostolic Church? 5. What was the impact of their reconciliation on the author? Constantinople Mkrtich Peshiktashlian (1828-68) Romanticism • Reaction against excesses of neoclassicism • Rejection of precepts: Order, Calm, Harmony, Balance, Rationalism. - Classicist subordination of part within whole. - Political implication: subject subordinate in state. Quietist maintenance of status quo. French Formal Garden: Versailles Romantic Foci • Color • Spirit • Subjective, Irrational, Imaginative, Personal, Spontaneous, Emotional, Visionary. • Nature perceived as organic whole. • Humanity to be in harmony with nature. Whig Garden: Leonardslee Lakes • Classicism highlighted the comprehensive, the universal • Romanticism emphasized the personal, individual, distinctive, and hence the national: national and ethnic cultural origins. • Folk culture • Medieval era: emergence of modern languages and European States. Mkrtich Peshiktashlian (1828-68) Poet, Teacher, Playwright • Born into Armenian Catholic family in Pera. • Studied at Mkhitarist schools in Pera and Padua. • Worked with Ghevond Alishan in Mkhitarist monastery in Venice. • Private tutor in Constantinople. • Plays • Poetry We Are Brothers Of all the sounds, in all the songs That ring in festive nature, No young girl’s harp, no orchestra Is as sweet as the word brother. Give me your hand, and take my hand. Why should we pull apart? We have been separated long By unkind fates and storms. When our motherland, Armenia, learns Her children stand together, Her happy tears will heal her wounds, As we call each other brother. We mourned the past once, heart to heart. We shall work now hand in hand. There is no phrase in this universe So sweet as ‘We are brothers.’ Zeytun Revolt (1860-63) • Issue of traditional Armenian local autonomy Armenian Offensive (1720s-30s) • Contacts with Peter the Great • Swedish War • Armenian Defensive Strategies against the Persian and Ottoman Armies. • Davit Bek • Mkhitar Sparapet • Armenian Agency in War of Liberation • Lack of Nationalist Narrative Ottoman Tanzimat Reform Movement (1839-1878) • Modernization and Westernization • Pressed by Western powers especially Great Britain to shore up Ottoman state to avert pretext for Russian intervention perceived as a threat to British interests in India. • A further result of European assistance of empire against Egypt was. • • • • • • Noble Rescript (1839) Edict guaranteeing security of life, honor, and fortune for all subjects abolition of tax farming and abuses orderly recruitment for army equality before the law for all subjects Yet no mechanism for implementation of the provisions. Imperial Rescript (1856) • Under further pressure form France, Austria, Great Britain, new edict. • reconfirmed Noble Rescript • abolition of 1855 polltax • conscription of non-Muslims into army • non-Muslim millets to reform their organizational structure. • Laymen to receive greater representation and voice. Developments in Armenian millet • Amiras controlled the millet • Guilds merely ratified their decisions. • • The amiras divided over the issue of the Jemaran in Uskudar (1838) • At first the money-lending amiras had pledged their support, but then withheld funds. • The patriarch, then the Ottoman government appointed two interim committees to resolve the situation, but unsuccessfully. May 7, 1841 Grand Vizier ordered the patriarch to arrange the election of two independent councils • • • • • Supreme Civil Council (amiras and guilds) Spiritual Council (14 elected clergy) These continued till the constitution of 1860. 1855 only two amiras in the Supreme Civil Council together with 14 guild members. • • Movement of Young intellectuals • Returning from education in Europe 1840-50 • Liberal and progressive ideologies and democratic system of government • Demand for written regulations to define elections, jurisdiction, etc. • 1855 draft presented opposed by Garabed Amira Balian. • 1856 Imperial Rescript calling for this kind of reform • 1857 draft rejected by Sublime Porte on impact of the Amiras. • Then new draft presented May 24, 1860 which was ratified by the Sublime Porte in March 17, 1863. • • • • Preamble and 150 regulations Patriarch to remain symbol of millet with curtailed powers Laity represented 6/7ths of the National Assembly Predominance of representation of the Armenian community of the capital • Lack of provincial participation. • Greater application of liberal and democratic principles. • Promulgation of Ottoman Constitution in 1876, but set in abeyance in 1877 until new Ottoman Constitution passed in 1908. Constitution for the Armenian Millet in the Ottoman Empire (1863) 1. Millet General Assembly of 140 deputies • 20 ecclesiastics elected by the Armenian clergy of Constantinople • 40 are lay deputies from the provinces • 80 are lay deputies elected by the Armenians living in different quarters of Constantinople Quorum is 71 persons. The body meets once every two years • Function:1)elect patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem • 2)participation in election of Catholicos of Ejmiadzin 3)elect members of the Religious and Political Assemblies 4)oversee administration of the millet councils lay deputies: • a) who pay millet tax of at least 75 piasters annually • b)personal merits • physicians with diplomas, authors of useful books, school teachers, persons who have rendered some valuable service to the millet. • 30 years of age and an Ottoman subject N.B. at least 7 of the 80 deputies from Constantinople should be persons holding a certain rank. 2. Religious Assembly Church affairs. 14 worthy ecclesiastics at least 30 years old, elected by the General Assembly for 2 years. They cannot be re-elected immediately. To preserve the creed and tradition of the Armenian church, to provide for ecclesiastics, to supervise religious education in schools. 3. Political Assembly • Secular affairs. 20 laymen elected by secret ballot of the majority of the General Assembly for a two year term, cannot be immediately re-elected. • Under it are 3 Councils with officers elected for 2 years a. Educational • 7 well-educated laymen to inspect the national schools and help the Societies to promote the education of both sexes and raise well-qualified teachers and encourage the preparation of good textbooks. b. Economic • 7 well-qualified laymen elected by the Political Assembly by a plurality of votes for the financial administration of all national institutions in Constantinople. No buying or selling of property to take place without its knowledge. To oversee construction and repair of properties and to govern the Holy Savior Millet Hospital. c. Monasteries • 7 persons from the political assembly. • Each monastery to have a seminary, library, printing office, hospital, and other similar useful establishments. Under it are also 2 committees a. Committee on Finance 7 persons versed in financial affairs elected by the Political Assembly to administer the Millet Central Treasury. Funding comes from general millet taxes, incomes from the bureau of the Patriarchate and the donations or wills of the millet. b. Trustees of the Hospital • 9 persons elected by the Political Assembly by a plurality of votes, 2 to be physicians with diplomas. • To manage the Millet Hospital, its estates and revenues, and to administer it. • This establishment should contain 4 departments, one for the care of the sick who are poor, the second for helpless old men, the third for the insane, the fourth for the education of orphans. 4. Mixed Assembly • Combination of the Ecclesiastical and Political Assemblies • To promote the good order and progress of the nation. Judicial Council • 8 persons versed in law and married, at least 40 years old. Half ecclesiastical, half lay, elected by the mixed assembly to settle family disputes; these may be referred to the political or mixed assemblies Committee on Wills • 7 persons 3 ecclesiastic and 4 laymen elected by the Mixed Assembly by a plurality of votes for the management of wills in favor of the millet. 5. Councils of Quarters • 5-12 members according to locality to hold office for 4 years. They are open to immediate re-election. Management of the affairs of the quarter, care of the church and schools, care for the poor, investigation and settlement of disputes that may arise among their people.