Immigration has been one of the most significant forces shaping civilization throughout history, particularly in Istanbul, which was founded in the fourth century and has witnessed Roman, Ottoman, and Turkish history. Cities have played a crucial role in history, serving both as symbols of established order and as focal points of change driven by migration flows. Newly arrived communities have been integrated into the city’s existing social structure, occasionally leading to conflicts while also paving the way for urban growth and the emergence of new societies.

The city presents a dense spatial structure where social interactions, economic activities, and political power are intricately intertwined. It also serves as a space where an established network can be maintained and regulated. At the same time, cities have undergone demographic, economic, and cultural transformations, particularly due to migratory waves triggered by life-threatening events such as natural disasters, wars, or financial hardships. While thousands of people were displaced in search of better living conditions, these waves of migration established new networks of relationships in Constantinople. As immigrants adapted to the city’s multi-layered structure, they also integrated their own traditions into the city’s ongoing transformation.

Security concerns arose as a result of the influx of diverse populations into city life. Governmental authorities, aiming to curb this wave of transformation, sought to regulate migration movements, particularly those of the masses who had abandoned agricultural production and lost their livelihoods. However, initiatives such as requiring official permission, known as Mürur, to enter the Ottoman capital and imposing fines proved ineffective in deterring people from migrating to Istanbul.

Although the Ottoman territories were vast, by the 19th century, the state had fallen behind in military technology, suffering consecutive defeats that led to territorial losses and a deteriorating economy. The Ottoman government, struggling with military setbacks, resorted to excessive borrowing to finance wars and attempted to ensure its political survival through diplomatic maneuvers and the integration of its economy into the capitalist system. This process was accompanied by the introduction of constitutional guarantees for citizens, as well as economic and social reforms.

Since agrarian taxes accounted for the majority of the state’s revenue at the time, tax farming (iltizam in Turkish) was employed as a means to meet the state’s financial demands. Tax farming involved leasing the right to collect taxes from agricultural land to private individuals. One of the primary administrative challenges of the 19th century was the series of territorial losses, the deterioration of the Ottoman economy, and the exploitation of agricultural output for private gain through tax farming. This shift in the political economy was also a major driver of domestic migration, as farmers fled to the Ottoman capital due to the harsh working conditions in agriculture under the iltizam system.

The Ottoman capital’s multi-layered social structure underwent a process of modernization in the 19th century, coinciding with shifting power dynamics, diplomatic maneuvers, and integration into the global economic system. The Reform Edict (1856) granted non-Muslim citizens property rights and fundamental constitutional guarantees, while the Gülhane Hatt-ı Hümayunu (1839) introduced the concept of constitutional citizenship to Ottoman politics. By the end of the 19th century, the experience of constitutional monarchy had been added to these reforms, which were shaped by the state’s dependent economic structure and diplomatic struggles with Europe. This transformation process ultimately paved the way for the establishment of the Turkish Republic.

With the integration of the Ottoman economy into the capitalist system following the Tanzimat Edict (1839), industrial agriculture began to take root, and the production of profit-oriented agricultural goods became dominant. Consequently, port cities like Istanbul and Izmir emerged as key export hubs, while communities in landlocked regions that had traditionally relied on subsistence agriculture abandoned their lands. In this context, rural populations and agricultural output declined, leading to a significant increase in migration to urban centers.

As the rural population migrated to Istanbul, the central government was preoccupied with the decline of Ottoman bureaucracy, the administration’s lack of merit, and the increasing pursuit of private property ownership, which some grassroots statesmen publicly condemned. In reports authored by Defterdar Sarı Mehmed Pasha and Nahîfî Süleyman Efendi, it was explicitly recommended that state officials refrain from acquiring property. It was also emphasized that such misconduct would harm the agrarian land system, ultimately leading to farmers abandoning agricultural lands.

Statesmen such as Süleyman Penah and Dürii Mehmed Efendi argued that taxes like the jizya—collected annually from free non-Muslim men—and the avarız, which was levied on both Muslims and non-Muslims in extraordinary cases, should not be leased to private individuals. Within this political and economic context, the tithe (öşür in Turkish), which had accounted for a significant portion of Ottoman state revenue, created a substantial power gap, particularly in the provinces. Over time, farming transformed into a form of de facto feudalism, weakening central authority.

In the city, the declining agrarian system forced local authorities to manage the large influx of people arriving in the capital in search of employment. Single immigrants, who were deemed suitable for temporary labor in seasonal jobs, were allowed to work in the city but were prohibited from settling in neighborhoods populated by families. Authorities feared that unmarried migrants would disrupt social harmony and local order. As a result of these shifting dynamics, new districts emerged outside the Suriçi and Bilad-ı Selase areas—which together constituted the core of 19th-century Istanbul—expanding with every new wave of immigrants and offering insights into the nation’s broader socioeconomic transformations.

Istanbul in the 19th century provides a valuable opportunity to analyze this complex process. While migration fosters creativity and diversity, it also poses challenges to the central government and compels the social order to adapt to changing circumstances. As the heart of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul functioned not only as a hub for its own citizens but also as a crossroads for communities and individuals from across the empire.

The purpose of this article series is to present five distinct migration stories that intertwined and unfolded within the boundaries of Constantinople in the 19th century.

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