An Abstract of the Thesis of Hasan Sen for the degree of Master of Arts from the Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History to be taken August 2005

The Transformaton of the Politics of Punishment and the Birth of Prison in the Ottoman Empire

This work examines the governing mentality of the Ottoman Empire by looking specifically to its punishment politics in the nineteenth century. It was aimed to examine how new kinds of punishment politics were introduced in the Ottoman agenda. This thesis is an attempt to define the transformation of the State mentality in which the traditional perception of justice replaced with modern penal codes. Moreover, these changes discussed on the basis of how the state was able to replace corporal punishment with a new system of imprisonment. It attempts to find the reason of what makes prison as unavoidable outcome of modernization process of the Empire in this thesis. Then it includes an evaluation how those people who were defined as criminals were subjected to some political practices by the central authority. The political practices that mostly underlined here are health care of the confined and improving the living standards of prisoners.

Atatürk Ilkeleri ve Inkilap Tarihi Enstitüsü’nde Yüksek Lisans derecesi için Hasan Sen tarafindan Agustos 2004’te teslim edilen tezin kisa özeti

Bu çalisma on dokuzuncu yüzyil Osmanli yönetim mantiginin modernlesme paradigmasiyla beraber nasil degisip dönüstügüne dair bir inceleme olmakla birlikte, Osmanli ceza sisteminin ne gibi devinimler sonucunda pragmatik cezalandirmadan hapishaneye dönüstügüne dair bir kisa degerlendirmeyi içermektedir. Temelde Osmanli ceza sisteminin suçlularin cezalandirilmasi noktasinda hangi anlamda içerik olarak bedene yönelik eziyetten daha az kati ve daha rasyonel bir zemine çekildigini, bu anlamiyla bu dönüsümün Osmanli zihniyetinde hangi siyasi ve sosyal olaylar sonucunda gerçeklestigi incelenmistir. Ayrica bu degisim sürecinin hangi siyaset mekanizmalarina imkan verdigine dair bir arastirma olup, modern anlamda hapishanenin Osmanli gündemine nasil ve ne sekilde girdigi ve bu gibi kurumsal mekanlarin ne gibi sosyal ve politik anlamlar tasidigina bakilmistir. Özetle bu mekanlara konulan ve “suçlu” diye nitelenen gruplarin ne gibi siyaset pratiklerine maruz kaldiklarinin bir degerlendirmesinden ibarettir.