“And Every Language that Has Been Voiced Became a Millet”: A Genealogy of the late Ottoman Millet

Abstract

Abstract This article outlines the history of the polysemous word millet from early Ottoman times up to the reign of Mahmud ii (r. 1808–39), challenging the view that the Ottoman term millet had an exclusively religious meaning before the nineteenth century. In the early Ottoman era, millet had at least three different meanings: in theological discourse, it was used as an abstract concept related to dīn and sharīʿa; when pertaining to religious groups, it meant “a people shaped through belief”; and, in a more vernacular register, it was used in the sense of “a people”. The article examines how these meanings shifted over the longue durée of Ottoman history. In the process, it addresses major social, political, and cultural changes that affected the sociolinguistics of Ottoman Turkish: the development of an elaborate imperial language grounded on shariatic ethics from the mid-sixteenth century; the Ottoman Porte’s growing acquaintance with Westphalian diplomacy from the early eighteenth century; and the development of an Ottoman confessional policy from the mid-eighteenth century, notably under Mahmud ii. I conclude that the meaning of millet in two registers has shifted in modern times to the modern concepts of “nation” and “confession”, thereby combining two arguably antithetical aspects of Ottoman secularisation in one polysemous word.