From ‘brothers in religion’ to ‘bandits’: Chechens in Mardin in the late Ottoman period

Abstract

This article analyses the mass migration of Chechens to the Ottoman Empire between the mid-1860s and the 1900s. The Russian expansion to the North Caucasus transformed the entire region surrounding the Black Sea, including its demography, governance and politics. This expansion took place in several phases. The first resulted in a major mass migration by several North Caucasian groups, who abandoned the region in response to the increasing presence of Russian military personnel. During the second stage, the exodus of these groups accelerated because of massacres committed by the Russian military in an attempt to take complete control. Many North Caucasians were exiled to Ottoman lands, arriving en masse, either on foot, or by sailing across the Black Sea. This article argues that the Ottoman state lacked a well-functioning settlement policy regarding the incoming North Caucasians. The Ottomans aimed to accommodate the refugees by deploying the frame of viewing them as ‘brothers in religion‘, but this resulted in a number of issues, in particular due to existing problems concerning the ‘state's Tanzimat‘ order, along with the collection of taxes and conflict with Bedouin tribes in the Mardin region. This article examines this phenomenon by means of a study of the ‘Chechens' journey‘ to the Ottoman Empire, focusing specifically on a subgroup of Chechens, who were settled in the Mardin region. Through the use of a considerable array of archival resources, the article seeks to firstly, trace the route taken by the Chechen group to Mardin and secondly, to clarify their transformation from being considered ‘brothers in religion’ by the Ottomans to regional bandits.