Ottoman Passports
Security and Geographic Mobility, 1876-1908

Ilkay Yilmaz (Author)

9780815638117

Paperback / softback, published 15 October 2023

352 pages, 3 black and white
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.272 kg

A very important book that fills a significant lacuna in our field. It is the product of meticulous labor in the archives and contains a great deal of previously unknown information." - Taner Akçam, Director of Armenian Genocide Research Program, UCLA

In Ottoman Passports, Ilkay Yilmaz reconsiders the history of two political issues, the Armenian and Macedonian questions, approaching both through the lens of mobility restrictions during the late Ottoman Empire. Yilmaz investigates how Ottoman security perceptions and travel regulations were directly linked to transnational security regimes battling against anarchism. The Hamidian government targeted "internal threats" to the regime with security policies that created new categories of suspects benefiting from the concepts of vagrant, conspirator, and anarchist. Yilmaz explores how mobility restrictions and the use of passports became critical to targeting groups including Armenians, Bulgarians, seasonal and foreign workers, and revolutionaries. Taking up these new policies on surveillance, mobility, and control offers a timely look at the origins of contemporary immigration debates and the historical development of terrorism and counterterrorism.

• Introduction
• 1. Theoretical Framework: The Modern State, Power, and Security
• 2. The Modern State, Power, and Security Policies in the Hamidian Era: A Historical Framework
• 3. Antianarchism, Interimperial Security Collaborations, and the Ottoman Empire
• 4. State Discourses of Threat from Ancient Concepts to New Narratives: Vagrant, Fesad, and Anarchist
• 5. Controlling Geographical Mobility: From Early-Modern Practices to Modern Regulations
• 6. Efforts to Control Internal Geographical Mobility under Abdü
  lhamid II: Internal Passports
• 7. Passport Regulations and Practices during the Hamidian Era
• Conclusion