'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎136] (145/568)

V
I
CHAPTER IX
ADMINISTRATION
Before 1914
Turkish administrative system—Turkish administrative divisions — Local
government — Provincial departments — Imperial departments — Da'irat
es-Saniyeh—Arabistan—Behbehan.
Turkish Administrative System
Previous to the beginning of the sixteenth century the Turkish
Government was an Oriental despotism, based on force. The Sultan
was a feudal War Lord, receiving obedience from a number of feudal
sub-chiefs.
In 1517 Sultan Selim, the Grim, usurped the Caliphate, or Papacy
of Islam, from the Arabs and united the spiritual and temporal
power in the person of the Sultan-Caliph of Constantinople. The
Ottoman Government thus became a theocracy, deriving its inspira
tion from the Koran. At the time of the capture of Constantinople
in 1453 the Turkish State already rested on an Islamic basis, and
Mohammed the Conqueror decided that the religious and purely
internal affairs of the Orthodox Christian communities which had
survived the Turkish conquests should be delegated to their respec
tive religious heads, the chief of whom was the Orthodox Patriarch
of Constantinople. The Jewish community was similarly dealt
with. The Turkish conqueror was too contemptuous of the infidels
and their ways to condescend to deal with the affairs of their com
munities, which were called millet, really meaning a 4 nation'. The
root of this policy was perhaps the incompatibility of Koranic law
with Christian jurisprudence, as a Moslem court could not admit
the testimony of a Christian witness against a Moslem. The
Christians, called rayah, had no real rights and were treated as
helots. Until 1839 there were four such non-Moslem millets:
the Greek, Armenian, Koman Catholic, and Jewish communities.
Subsequently the Bulgarians, Maronites, Nestorians, and Protestants
were also recognized. The fact that the Patriarchs and other