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Millet (stress on the ''e'') is an Ottoman Turkish term for a Confessional Community in the Ottoman Empire . In the 19th century, with the Tanzimat reforms, the term started to refer to legally protected religious Minority Group s, other than the ruling Sunni . ''Millet'' comes from the Arabic word '' Millah '' (ملة). CONCEPT The millet concept has a similarity to Autonomous Territories that has long been the European norm for dealing with minority groups. The millet system has a long history in the Middle East, and is closely linked to Islamic rules on the treatment of non−Muslim minorities ( Dhimmi ). The Ottoman term specifically refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to personal law under which minorities were allowed to rule themselves (in cases not involving any Muslim) with fairly little interference from the Ottoman Government . People were bound to their millets by their religious affiliations (or their , reported directly to the Ottoman Sultan . The millets had a great deal of power — they set their own laws and collected and distributed their own taxes. All that was insisted was loyalty to the Empire. When a member of one millet committed a crime against a member of another, the law of the injured party applied, but the ruling Islamic majority being paramount, any dispute involving a Muslim fell under their Sharia −based law. Later, the perception of the ''millet'' concept was altered in the 19th century by the rise of nationalism within the Ottoman Empire. MILLETS (UNTIL REFORMATION ERA) See Also: Tanzimat Until the 19th century (Reformation Era) beside the Muslim millet, the main millets were the , Karaites and Samaritan s were also represented. Muslims See Also: Ottoman Caliphate Muslim communities prospered under the Ottoman Empire, as the Sultan was also the Caliph . Ottoman law did not recognize such notions as Ethnicity or Citizenship , thus, a Muslim of any ethnic background enjoyed precisely the same rights and privileges. It was claimed that under such conditions, Muslim Arabs came to view the empire as a revived Islamic Empire . However, even if Caliphate played a significant role, the real existence of these feelings is questionable long before the Arab Revolt and the subsequent Dissolution Of The Empire in 20th century. By the 17th century, the Maghreb regencies were only nominally under the Ottoman control and Egypt was almost independent by the beginning of the 19th century. Creeds which were seen as deviant forms of the Caliphal dynasty's Sunni Islam, such as Shi'as , Alawi s, Alevi s and Yezidis , had no official status and were considered to be part of the Muslim millet—only the Syncretic Druze of the Djebel Druze and Mount Lebanon enjoyed feudal−type autonomy. These groups were spread across the empire with significant minorities in most of the major cities. Autonomy for these groups was thus impossible to base on a territorial region. Christians Phanariot Orthodox Greeks From an early date, Greek citizens of Constantinople were able to achieve high positions in the fields of commerce, politics, religion, and the military. The Patriarch Of Constantinople , for example, developed a great degree of power, both religious and political, but was still very tightly controlled by the state. Phanariot Orthodox Greeks worked as the sultan's statesmen in Western Europe and as local rulers in the Balkans; Aegean Greeks were granted wide commercial rights and developed a fleet that quickly became the Empire's maritime weapon. In fact, some Greek citizens prospered to such a degree that they eventually opposed the Greek War Of Independence of 1821–31, afraid to lose their privileged position in the imperial capital. Armenians Under the Ottoman rule, Armenians formed three ''millet''s. These were Armenian Orthodox Gregorians , Armenian Catholics , and Armenian Protestants (which was formed in the 19th century). Orthodox populations, like the Bulgars and Serbs, were placed under the authority of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinopole, but the Armenian Apostolic Church (which is also called the "Armenian Church") maintained its independence. Assyrians The Assyrians started out under the Armenian patriarchate but petitioned the Sublime Porte for separate status, mainly as western contacts allowed them a voice of their own. Thus the Assyrian Apostolic Church of Antioch and all the East ( Jacobite , later changed to Syrian) received recognition as a separate community "millet" as did the Chaldean Catholic Church , the Syrian Catholic and the Church Of The East . The last was the most remote of the Churches in distance from the Porte (in Istanbul ). Jews The Ottoman Jews enjoyed similar privileges to those of the Phanariot Greeks, and came to enjoy some of the most extensive freedoms in Jewish history. The city of Thessaloniki , for instance, received a great influx of Jews in the 15th century and soon flourished economically to such an extent that, during the 18th century, it was the largest and possibly the most prosperous Jewish city in the world. By the early 20th century, Ottoman Jews —together with Armenian and Greeks— dominated commerce within the Empire. HISTORY Establishment 19th Century (Reformation Era) New millets were created in the 19th century for several Uniate and Protestant Christian communities, then for the separate Eastern Orthodox Bulgarian Church , recognized as a millet by an Ottoman '' Firman '' in 1870 and excommunicated two years later by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate as adherents of Phyletism (national or ethnic principle in church organization). In the period before World War I there were seventeen millets within the Empire. Reformulation into Ottomanism Before the turn of the 19th century, the millets had a great deal of power — they set their own laws and collected and distributed their own taxes. 1863 over the Millet organization, which granted extensive privileges and autonomy concerning self−governance. The Armenian Nation, "Millet−i Ermeniyân", which is considered here, is the Armenian Orthodox Gregorian nation (''millet'') of that time. In a very short time, Ottoman Empire passed another regulation over "Nizâmnâme−i Millet−i Ermeniyân" developed by the Patriarchate Assemblies of Armenians, which was named as the Islahat Fermâni (Firman of the Reforms). "Firman of the Reforms" gave immense privileges to the Armenians, which formed a "governance in governance" to eliminate the Aristocratic Dominance of the Armenian Nobles by development of the political strata in the society Ilber Ortayli, Tanzimattan Cumhuriyete Yerel Yönetim Gelenegi, Istanbul 1985, pp. 73. These two reforms, which were theoretically perfect examples of social change by law, brought serious stress over Ottoman political and administrative structure. Effect of Protectorate of missions See Also: Protectorate of missions Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire The Ottoman System lost the mechanisms of its existence from the assignment of protection of citizen rights of their subjects to other states. People were not citizens of the Ottoman Empire anymore but of other states, due to the Capitulations Of The Ottoman Empire to European powers, protecting the rights of their citizens within the Empire. The Russians became Formal Protectors of Eastern Orthodox groups, the French of Roman Catholics and the British of Jews and other groups. Russia and England competed for the Armenians; the Eastern Orthodox perceived American Protestants, who had over 100 Missionaries established in Anatolia by World War I , as weakening their own teaching. These religious activities, subsidized by the governments of western nations, were not devoid of political goals, such in the case of ). Effect of nationalism See Also: French revolution Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire Under the original design, the multi faced structure of the millet system was unified under the House Of Osman . The rise of nationalism in the Europe under the influence of French Revolution had extended to Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. Each millet became increasingly independent with the establishment of their own schools, churches, hospitals and other facilities. These activities effectively moved the Christian population outside the framework of the Ottoman political system. The Ottoman millet system (citizenship) began to degrade with the continuous identification of the religious creed with ethnic nationality. The interaction of ideas of French revolution with the Ottoman Millet system created a breed of thought (a new form of personal identification) which turned the concept of nationalism synonymous with religion under the Ottoman flag. It was impossible to hold the system or prevent Clash Of Civilizations ) when the Armenian National Liberation Movement expressed itself within the Armenian church. Patriarch Nerses Varjabedyan expresses his position on Ottoman Armenians to British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lord Salisbury on April 13 1878 F.O. 424/70, No. 134/I zikr., Bilal N. ªimsir, British Documents on Ottoman Armenians 1856–1880), Vol. I, Ankara 19R2, p. 173. Document No. 69.. Modern Use Today the millet system is still used at varying degrees in some post−Ottoman countries like Jordan , Lebanon , Israel , the Palestinian Authority and Egypt . It is also in use in states like Iran , Pakistan and Bangladesh which observe the principle of separate personal courts and/or laws for every recognized religious community and reserved seats in the parliament. In Egypt for instance the application of . Christian families are subject to Canon Law , and Jewish families are subject to Jewish Law . In cases of family law disputes involving a marriage between a Christian woman and a Muslim man, the courts apply the Personal Status Law (see: Egypt — International Religious Freedom Report Released by the U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2001 ). Current meaning of the word Apart from its past uses in religious and ethnic classification, "millet" term today is used in modern Turkish as a slang to classify people belonging to a particular group, such as "dolmuşçu milleti," which means "those who belong to the commercial minivan drivers group". SEE ALSO REFERENCES SOURCES (incomplete)
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