2originally located in its first capital, Bursa. However, at the very beginning of the XV century. they were completely destroyed by the invasion of Timur, who sacked and burned the city theArchives of the Ottoman State. Unfortunately, only a few documents related to this period have been preserved. After that, in the first half of the 15th century, the archives were moved to the new capital of the Ottomans - Adrianople. In the new capital, the archives were placed and stored directly in the Sultan's palace.

In 1453, after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the archives were moved there, and the premises of the "Seven - Tower Castle" - Yedikule-were used for storing documents. The archives were declared the property of the Sultan's treasury and were kept in the inner palace chambers packed in boxes and leather bags. The number of documents of state significance has increased significantly since this period, which was explained both by the expansion of the empire's territory and the need for a register description of vilayets, and by the activities of the developing bureaucratic apparatus. At the same time, the experience of clerical work of the previous rulers of the Muslim East was used to a certain extent. However, no special regulations concerning the Ottoman archival process and regulating it were officially developed during this period.

Keywords: Ottoman Empire, archives, documents, Turkish history.

The first firman on the need to document all decisions of central and local authorities and on their preservation was published in 1536 by Sultan Suleiman Kanuni. According to this firman, the Beylerbei, who ruled various provinces of the Ottoman Empire, and the Kadii3 were required to enter their decisions in special defters (notebooks, registers) and keep them in order in special chests [Kapippate...]. And when making any decisions in the future, local administrators had to base their decisions on the precedents recorded in the Constitution. defterah [Kapippate...].

Soon the archives were moved from the Seven-Tower Castle to the Topkapi Palace. There they were placed together with the Sultan's treasury in the outer chambers of the palace (Second Courtyard of Enderun). Since the divan (the council of high officials of the Ottoman Empire under the Sultan) often had to turn to archival materials, a special room was allocated for storing defters - the Defterkhane (House of Registers). This room was adjacent to the Divan - Kubbealti meeting hall (Under the domes). The archive was being opened

1 According to some estimates, the number of storage units currently held in the Ottoman Archive exceeds 150 million.

2 In 1402, Timur defeated the Ottoman army and captured Sultan Bayezid Yildirim at the Battle of Ankara. After that, Ottoman history was marked by a period of power struggles between Bayezid's sons.

3 Judges who tried civil and criminal cases in various localities and city blocks.

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during the sittings of the Divan, the Chief Treasurer and Grand Vizier had access to it. The Chief Treasurer was required to open and close the archive room in the presence of the Grand Vizier, who, after closing, had to seal the archive doors with his personal seal. The Ottoman bureaucracy attached great importance to preventing damage, preserving and classifying important documents. The welfare of the Ottoman Empire and the normal functioning of its administrative system were closely linked to the documents that were kept in Defterhan under the palace guard. In terms of its status, the archive (Defterkhane) was practically equated with the Sultan's treasury. Documents placed in storage were forbidden to be corrected or destroyed, and they were allowed to be removed from storage only by personal order of the Grand Vizier. After completing the procedures with these documents, they should have been returned to their place under pain of execution (Uzunçarşilt, 1984, p. 77). Thus, in 1590, several secretaries and clerks of the Divan were severely punished (their right hands were cut off) for stealing documents and making unauthorized changes to them [Çetin., 1984, p. 55].

Defterhan kept notebooks with detailed registration records, notebooks with brief excerpts from registration records prepared for the time of military campaigns, and accounting notebooks containing a register of all existing timars. The register of beneficiaries was necessary to record all changes in transactions with land plots and allotments.

During long campaigns, the Grand vizier collected a Sofa right on the campaign. Such a Divan was called a marching divan, and all the most important defters needed to solve current financial, administrative, land, and military issues were usually sent along with the army (Emecen, 1999, p. 442-443). The scribes and secretaries of the Divan and Defterhane responsible for compiling and storing defters were required to participate in campaigns in order to record any changes in the system of future distribution of timars [Uzunçarşilt, 1984, s. 101, 161].

Beginning in the 17th century, the Ottoman rulers decided to abandon the practice of transporting archives with the army during campaigns, and all notebooks were stored in Istanbul. One of the reasons for this change was the poor conditions for preserving documents in field conditions, as well as cases of capture of important documents by the enemy [Çetin, 1987, s. 6-8]. Now the necessary defters, if necessary, were delivered with a trusted person to the vizier in the active army, or the vizier's messenger delivered information about the information to be recorded to the scribes in the capital. According to Turkish sources, this practice continued until the reign of Mahmud II (Emecen, 1999, p. 249-250).

Beginning in the mid-18th century, the structure of the Ottoman bureaucracy underwent major changes due to the shift of the center of political power from the palace and the Divan meeting hall to the residence of the Grand Viziers. All the Ottoman higher administrative bodies, such as the Chambers of External and Internal Affairs, the Diwan and its secretaries with service staff, were moved to the Bab-i Ali residence. In 1785, due to the fact that the residence of the viziers was located quite far from the Topkapi Palace, it was decided to allocate a special brick building in the garden of the Grand Vizier's Palace for the needs of the archive. Reis-ul-qutab4, who was the head of the Ottoman clerical bureaucracy, was now responsible for the security of documents. He was obliged to issue documents in the morning, and in the evening, even if the work with these documents was not finished, to put them back in the vault. Outsiders were forbidden to enter the archive room. Rules for using materials from these repositories

4 Reis-ul-qutab was originally the head of the scribes and secretaries in the Topkapi Palace. One of his duties was to prepare papers for submission to the Sultan for approval. Subsequently, the scope of his duties was significantly expanded. Thus, in the eighteenth century, he also concentrated on the issues of relations with European powers and the organization of the embassy protocol.

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they were as strict as they had been in Defterhan. If there was a need to refer to old documents for reference, it was necessary to obtain special permission to access the archives [Uzunçarşilt, 1984, s. 76-77].

In 1794, it was decided to establish a special archive of maps and plans, especially relating to fortresses in the border regions of the empire. This archive was established in the Ottoman Engineering Department-Muhendiskhan [BOA, MAD, 7917, s. 461].

Subsequently, the archive materials were transferred to the premises of the residence of the Grand viziers, and even later - to a special storage facility in the Sultanahmet district, called Saray-i Atik. The financial documents were separated from all others and also moved to Sultanahmet-to the old military barracks of Chadir Mehterleri. In addition, many particularly important documents were kept at the residence of the Grand viziers in various state offices.

The use of separate rooms of the Topkapi Palace for storing archival documents continued until a special building for their storage was built in the Grand Vizier's palace, where the Divan met.5 Another firman prescribing the need to preserve archival documents was issued during the reign of Mustafa II (1757-1774) [BOA, Mühimme Defteri, nr. 168, hkm. 306].

In the second half of the 18th century, during the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the state archives gradually began to fall into disrepair. Many documents disappeared in the flames of the fires. Others suffered greatly due to poor storage conditions: documents were kept in leather bags and chests in the basements of buildings, where they began to rot due to high humidity. A certain number of documents were deliberately destroyed or altered for self-serving purposes due to the spread of corruption in the official environment [Çetin, 1984, p. 56]. To ensure better preservation of documents, a special room was built in 1785 in the Grand Vizier's palace, but it was not enough [Türkay, Belgelerle Türk Tarihi Dergisi, Mart 1985, sy. 1, s. 67].

The Tanzimat reforms were a turning point in the history of the Ottoman Empire. In the course of the reforms, many State institutions were reorganized. The number of documents has increased dramatically - this was due to the fact that the modernization of the Ottoman state administration system affected such areas of activity as education, justice, the statistical service, and methods of provincial administration. The total number of officials has increased, the scope of their activities has expanded, and as a result, the volume of office work has increased. The flow of documents between the provinces and the imperial center has accelerated, and there is an urgent need to organize and streamline the archival process both in Istanbul and in the field. There was a need to review all the departmental archives that already existed at that time, which, as it turned out, were in a terrible state [Findley, 1985, p. 261].

This time, it was not only about preserving thematic collections of documents in separate repositories, but also about creating a special department in which all preserved and important archival materials for the state would be placed [BOA, Müsail-i Mühimme,658]. Safveti Pasha, the Minister of Finance under Sultan Abdulmejid, was responsible for the reconstruction of the archives. In 1837, shortly before the official announcement of the Tanzimat reforms, the Enderun Treasury was renamed the Ministry of Finance. In the archives of the new ministry were large arrays of financial documents on taxation, income and expenditure in the provinces from the treasury vaults inherited from the office of " Bab-i Defteri "(which was engaged in maintaining financial documents) of the pre-reform period. However, their safety left much to be desired, and they were in complete disarray. In 1845, Safveti Pasha, in a memorandum (tezkir) addressed to the Grand Vizier Mehmed Rauf Pasha, proposed to divide these documents by topic, make an inventory of them and

5 A decree on such construction was issued by Sultan Abdulhamid I (1774-1789).

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transfer all the archives of the Ministry of Finance to a separate room specially adapted for storing archives. In the same note, he suggested that all documents related to the Janissary corps should be destroyed in the furnaces of the Topkapi Palace "as unnecessary and harmful" [BOA, Dahiliye, 5152].6
On November 9, 1846, a decree was issued on the need to transform the archives. In accordance with it, all the documents stored in the cellars of Topkapi and Defterhane were decided to move to a new building located outside the palace complexes and built on the European model "like a library". This initiative was strongly supported by the well-known politician and diplomat of the Ottoman Empire, the ideologist of the Tanzimat reforms, Grand Vizier Mustafa Reshid Pasha, who was well acquainted with the state of archival affairs in Europe (Elker, 1952, p. 183). For the storage of archival materials, a new institution was created, which was called Khazine - i Evrak-a repository of documents. A new position was also introduced - the caretaker of Archives (with the powers of a minister) [BOA, Müsail-i Mühimme, 658] .7
Special attention was paid to the protection of documents from moisture and fire. It was assumed that the archives would be stored in different rooms depending on the subject of documents: materials related to internal issues, with issues of external relations, minutes of meetings of the Sofa were supposed to be placed in three different halls. In addition, separate rooms were allocated for the library at the archive storage facility and for storing various atlases and maps. The sketch and design of the building were commissioned by the Italian master Fosatti, who completed the construction in 1848 [BOA, Müsail-i Mühimme, 699]. The original plan was to build a one-story building, but then, for better protection from moisture, it was decided to make the building two-story [BOA, Müsail-i Mühimme, 659]. However, this did not help, and after the construction was completed, additional funds were spent to buy leather bags and chests to protect documents from moisture [BOA, Müsail-i Mühimme, 704]. It was also planned to purchase cabinets, but this purchase had to be abandoned due to lack of funds [BOA, A. DVN. MKL..., 63-A / 10]. In addition, significant sums were allocated to protect the building from fire [BOA, Meclis-i Vala, 3772]. Officially, the archive building was opened only in 1853, since it took about five years to retrofit the archive and dry out the vaults.

For the first time in Ottoman history, departmental archives were housed in a special building. A former official of the Ministry of Finance was appointed to the position of director of the archive storage facility, who was elevated to the rank of minister by a separate decree of Grand Vizier Rashid Pasha, and the name of the institution was also changed to Hazine-i Evrak Nezareti (Ministry of Document Storage) [BOA, I. Dahiliye, 7066].

First Minister of Archives Muhsin Efendi drew up a special instruction on the description of archives. This instruction was approved by the Sultan on 11 Rebi-ul-Ahir 1263 AH (March 29, 1847).8. In accordance with it, the Minister was assigned a Deputy and together with him several experienced secretaries from the offices of various departments, whose duties included the division and classification of archival materials to be transferred to the new storage building. After the creation of the archive, a staff of seven people worked in it: the director, four officials who were engaged in the analysis, classification and placement of documents, two gatekeepers, whose duties included maintaining cleanliness in the internal premises and security

6 A significant part of the documents of the so-called Janissary hearth was destroyed.

7 The document mentions water damage, disorderliness, and the inability to find the necessary documents as the reasons for transferring archives.

8 This note also contains correspondence on this subject [BOA, Meclis-i Vala, 1869, 12019; A. DVN. MKL., 63-A / 10].

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buildings during the night hours [BOA, I. Dahiliye, 18061; A. MKT. NZD., 107/72; A. DVN., 94/66.]. In addition to these employees, a certain number of government officials were periodically assigned to work in the archive by referral from the Mejlis [BOA, A. MKT. NZD., 107/72]. They were considered temporarily seconded to the Office of the Minister of Archives and had to deal primarily with cases from the archives of their departments two days a week. They worked with documents necessary for government decision-making and assisted in processing materials sent for storage. They processed documents both during office hours and during off-duty hours. Employees initially received an additional fee for working out of hours, which was later abolished [BOA, BEO, 319914].

While work on the construction of the building continued, it was planned to start work on the description of those documents that were subject to mandatory preservation. Despite the fact that it was decided to transfer the most important cases to Khazine - i Evrak, it became clear that it would be impossible to keep all the documents from the Defterhane archives and the vizier's offices there. Therefore, it was decided to separate them and give at least a general description of the cases that will be transferred to the new building.

In 1849, a decree was issued that defined the procedure for organizing the archive and selecting documents for storage [BOA, Meclis-i Vala, 4093]. All documents of state significance were transferred to Khazine-i Evrak, while documents related to everyday affairs were kept in local archives. The new decree also introduced a new procedure for periodization, cataloging and description of documents. According to it, all documents were divided into three groups depending on the date of creation.

The first group consisted of all documents created in the period from 1200 X / 1785 to 1255 x / 1839 [BOA, A. DVN., 42/12]. The choice of the starting date was due to the fact that at the time of the adoption of the parliament's decision, documents of High value from the end of the XVIII century were still used. It was decided to analyze and classify documents created earlier than this date later. However, in 1854, by a special resolution of the Mejlis, it was decided to abandon 1785 as a starting point and assign to the first group all documents starting from the moment of the creation of the state [BOA, Meclis-i Vala, 9956]. It was decided to include in the second group all documents that covered the period from the accession of Sultan Abdulmejid to the throne from July 1839 to 1848. From the documents that appeared after November 28, 1848, it was decided to create a third group of documents.

The first and second groups included documents from the capital's archives. The third group included documents of national importance from provincial archives and various departmental offices of the Grand Vizier's office. The documents were sorted by topic in chronological order [BOA, Meclis-i Vala, 4093; A. DVN, 42/12]. However, the organization of Khazine-i Evrak did not intend to cancel the departmental archives, which continued to receive and accumulate current documentation.

In the same period, in the late 30s of the XIX century.there is a need to transform the methods of office management. It was decided to divide all defters, indexes and other papers into four main groups: military affairs, affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, everyday Affairs and affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [BOA, Cevdet Dahiliye, 1050].

Departmental documents were divided into two large groups: important ones - those that had to be transported to Khazine-and Evrak, and those that did not have any special significance, which were handed over to the old storage facilities. The documents selected for preservation were put in bags, sealed, and then handed over to the director of Khazina-i Evrak. He, in turn, made an inventory of these documents, compiling a directory-guide to-

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the documents that he had set foot on, and distributed them to chests for further storage. Each chest was supposed to indicate the departmental affiliation of the documents, the inventory number, the dates that the documents cover, and the source of receipt of the documents. The chests were locked with locks, the keys of which had to be kept with the director at all times. According to the instructions, Ottoman archivists were also required to record the date and summary of the document [BOA, A. DVN. MKL., 63-A/1].

The documents themselves were divided into large groups according to the agencies that created them, their content, or the problems they presented. Within these groups, documents were distributed by date and numbered. Some of the documents - mainly August messages (Hatt-i Humayun) and decrees (Irade) - were recorded in special defters in accordance with topics 9.

The large number of documents in Khazin - i Evrak forced the Ottoman authorities to simplify and speed up the search for the necessary documents as much as possible. In 1850, the Mejlis issued a resolution on the compilation of a special index (Tasnif) of archival cases of primary importance, as well as a special description of secondary documents and conditions for their storage [BOA, Meclis-i Vala, 5150]. For this purpose, it was decided to place additional copies of the archive catalogues that were compiled in Khazin-i Evrak in those government offices that needed to access the archives more often than others. Initially, such catalogues were sent to the Diwan Office and the Amedi10 of that office. The signposts were to be kept by the secretaries of the Divan and the Chamber of External Relations. If a particular document was needed, officials could use the index to find and write out the date and number of the case and send this information in a special casket with a messenger to Khazin-i Evrak, so that the employees of the archive repository could find the necessary document for them. However, due to the fact that employees usually forgot to return documents, it was decided to issue them for a period of no more than 15 days and under the personal receipt of the official who ordered them. If the document was not finished, this time limit could be extended. If the document was not returned, the Director of Khazine - i Evrak was entitled to officially request its search [BOA, Meclis-i Vala, 12019].

In 1861, the system of state records management in the territory of the Ottoman Empire underwent further changes. In order to simplify bureaucratic procedures, discipline officials, speed up document flow, and facilitate the ability to manage correspondence and document flow between various ministries, provincial authorities, and other government services, the High - Level Document Chamber-Bab-e Ali Evrak Odasi-was established [BOA, Meclis-i Tanzimat Defteri, nr. 2, s. 1 - 2]. Soon, the scope of the new agency's activities was significantly expanded. Thus, the Chamber took over all correspondence related to areas of the empire that had a special status (Bulgaria, Egypt, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina), as well as various issues of special state importance (for example, on the work of the Muhajirstvo Commission, the construction of the Hejaz Railway, etc.).

It should be noted that frequent fires and natural disasters in Istanbul caused great damage to the archive building from time to time. After the earthquake of 1878, the building was declared an emergency [BOA, A. DVN.MKL., 63-A/20], and in 1880, the building was closed. The Department of Internal Affairs of the State Council of the Ottoman Empire ordered a major renovation of the building [BOA, Şura-ue Devlet, 3697].

9 At present, these materials form one of the collections of the Ottoman Archive, which is called "Description of the Highest Orders" (Hatt-i Hümayün Tasnifi) and has 31 volumes.

10 This was the Fourth Office of the Diwan, founded in the 18th century. The office was responsible for preparing memos addressed to the Sultan, as well as correspondence with other countries. Embassy reports were immediately registered. This office was important and lasted until the fall of the empire.

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Simultaneously with the concentration of documents in Khazin-i Evrak, private individuals also began collecting documents. It is known that the order on the preservation of official documents, which was sent to various officials of the empire, stated the need to preserve all reports, orders, memoranda and other documents related to state affairs and problems [BOA, Y. A. Res., 108/22]. It was ordered to carefully preserve the instructions of the supreme authorities to embassies, governors and officials, and it was forbidden to transmit them to third parties. They had to be kept in the form of special cases and lists in departmental archives. It was emphasized that orders related to material benefits, as well as various instructions, the receipt of which may entail the execution of particularly important cases, should be retained by the recipients of a particular order, written reminder or telegram. During the same period, it was decided to issue certified copies of documents to applicants against receipt rather than original documents [BOA, Sadaret, 1331 Z/2].

One of the ways to preserve documents used in the Ottoman archives was to replace the ink used in writing official documents. The aniline ink that Turkish chancelleries adopted in the second half of the 19th century was rapidly fading. This was first noticed by officials of the Ottoman military department, and a special decree was issued that ordered the use of only local Turkish ink. In addition, special chemical inks were developed that were more durable than aniline inks [BOA, BEO, 303394].

Despite these measures, the content of documents in the Ottoman archives, according to reports of Ottoman officials on the state of archives in the Topkapi and Bab-i Ali basements, remained unsatisfactory and caused complaints [BOA, Y.EE. 30/124/51/78].

In the course of the Tanzimat reforms, the Ottoman bureaucracy begins to adopt the methods of processing and preparing business and financial papers adopted in Europe. The language of internal communication of the bureaucratic apparatus becomes French. In this regard, at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. in the Ottoman Empire, there are practically no civil servants who could read documents of the XV-XVIII centuries, for example, economic and financial papers drawn up in the siyakat letter, or diplomatic papers drawn up in the Diwani handwriting. This was due to the paleographic features of the documents, and in the case of siyakat, also to their content (since siyakat was often an abbreviated or encrypted record and assumed that the addressee knew in general terms what was said in the document). Despite the fact that in 1900 a special order was sent to the Ministry of Finance, Real Estate, state Registers, as well as to the Office of the Supreme Divan [BOA, BEO, 117732] regarding the training of personnel who had the skills to work with such documents, the situation did not improve [BOA, BEO, 292457]. It should be noted that in many ways it remains so to this day. According to the author's personal observations, many Turkish researchers and archive staff can easily read documents from the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, but cannot decipher the texts of earlier documents.

In 1892, important changes took place in the administrative system of the Ottoman Empire, partly related to archival affairs. It was decided to switch to a new system of office management - dosya, rather than defters [BOA, 37 - 2/11 - 4]. Preparing for the changes was a secret. However, the transition to it was delayed until 1916.

During the second constitutional period from 1908 to 1914, very important changes took place in the archives of the Ottoman Empire. Now the archives were allowed to be used not only by the state, but also by individuals for various legal procedures and scientific research. The importance of the archives increased after the establishment of the Tarih-i Osmani Encümeni Commission and the activities of the Publishing House

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Ottoman History (Tarih-i Osmani Mecmuasi). During this period, the head of the Commission, Abdur-Rahman Sheref bey, was allowed to conduct research in the archive vaults in Topkapi and in the Sultanahmet Square area. A ten-person commission was formed to describe the ancient acts [Şeref, 1328 AD, s. 265]. In addition, he was assigned to compile catalogs and descriptions of documents from these repositories. It was thanks to his efforts that work was started on classifying documents that were not translated in Khazine - i Evrak and remained in underground vaults on the territory of the Topkapi Palace and beyond. In total, 518 carts with documents were taken from the old cellars to the library of the Grand Vizier's Palace by the efforts of the commission. Another 200 carts were taken to the Yildiz Palace and stored there in the palace mosque. These documents were bound and arranged in volumes partly in chronological order, and partly in subject matter (for example, individual volumes contained documents related to the agreements on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem) [Barthold, 1973, p. 360].

A special role in the development of Ottoman archival affairs belonged to Imre Karachon, a corresponding member of the Commission on Ottoman History, a Catholic priest, Hungarian by birth, who was officially sent by the Hungarian government to Istanbul to study the history of Hungary during the Ottoman rule. He introduced Turkish historians to the state of archival affairs in the Vienna Archives Department: he presented schemes and plans, the procedure for internal organization and work with documents, and said that there is even a photo studio in Vienna for re-shooting documents [Binark, 1980, s. 23-38.].

The work of the commission continued until 1914 and was interrupted due to disagreements between Abdurrahman Sheref bey and the leadership of Khazine-i Evrak. A. Sheref was dismissed "because of excessive employment", and by government decree a new commission was created from representatives of Khazine-i Evrak, the Chamber of Documents (Bab-i Ali Evrak Odasi) and Amedi's office to continue the work [BOA, BEO, 320696].

Some of the results of the work of the Abdurrahman Sheref Bey commission were published in the journal "Revue historique", which was published by the Society of Ottoman History, in the article "Evrak-i Atika ve Vesaik-i Tarihiyyemiz". V. V. Barthold in his work "Storage of documents in the countries of the Muslim East" evaluates this article, saying that, Although the articles on archival affairs from this journal indicate an awakening of interest in their past among the educated "Ottomans", they at the same time prove their inability to cope with the corresponding scientific tasks without the help of European scientific forces [Barthold, 1973, p.361].

During the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II (1876-1909), a huge archive was formed in his residence - the Yildiz Palace. In the early 10-ies of XX century. it was transferred to the Central Command (Ottoman General Staff) (Merkez Kumandanhği), where it was studied by the military. They were primarily interested in the denunciations of police informants and secret reports of officers. Everything related to state affairs was transferred to the Office of the Grand Vizier under the supervision of a special commission (under the leadership of Mahmud Kemal Inal), which distributed these documents to the archives of the relevant departments and departments [Öz, 1952, s. 453].

Some of the documents collected during the reign of Abdulhamid II starting from the last quarter of the 19th century were extracted from the archives for description and classification and temporarily stored in the Hagia Sophia, first in mahfily11, and then in the premises adjacent to the gallery of the temple [Türkay, Belgelerle Türk Tarih Dergisi, p. II, sy. 7, 1968, s. 45-46]. Most of the documents found were devoted to waqfs. In 1916, a special commission was created from among the officials of the Ministry of Education and Science.

11 Mahfil - a place in the mosque reserved for the ruler or senior officials, where Muslim judges and scribes could usually sit.

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Evkaf-e Hümayun Nezareti, which began cataloging and describing these archives. Since important documents related to the problems of the Ministry of War (Askeriye) , the Ministry of Finance (Maliye), the Ministry of the Sea (Bahriye) and the Ministry of State Property (Mulkiye) were found among these documents, it was decided to send a special official from each of them to make an inventory of these documents and determine a reliable solution for them. storage location [BOA, DH. KMS, 42/25].

At the end of 1913, the audit of the archives of the Ministries of Internal and Foreign Affairs, the Grand Vizier's Office (Bab-e Ali), as well as the documents of the State Council (Şura-i Devlet) began. Since the documents were badly damaged and kept in disarray, it was decided to temporarily store some of them in separate chests in order to burn them as unnecessary in the future. It was decided to organize the rest and distribute them into cardboard folders in accordance with their departmental affiliation. For this purpose, it was decided to create a special commission, which would include one official from each of these ministries, as well as a special group from among the archivists of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [BOA, BEO., 318983; 319159; DH 185 - 1/38].

In 1915, there were further changes in the status of Khazine - i Evrak. It was decided to unite the archivist officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Grand Vizier under the auspices of the General Directorate of the Repository of High-Quality Documents (Bab-i Ali Hazine-i Evrak Mudiriyet-i Umumiyesi), forming two divisions: the Grand Vizier and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the Bab-i Ali Hazine-i Evrak Mudiriyet-i Umumiyesi Nizamnamesi layihasi, a special" Hazine-i Evrak commission "was formed from the secretaries of the Department of the Grand Vizier and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to guide the actions of the Khazine-i Evrak and coordinate actions with all departments.- I Evrak Encumeni) under the supervision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The project was approved by the Ottoman State Council [BOA, Şura-yi Devlet., 2835/31]. However, in 1916, the planned changes in the system of office management began, and therefore it was decided to combine the archives of the Grand Vizier, the Ministries of Foreign and Internal Affairs, and the State Council under one leadership. From the officials of these institutions, the Hazine-i Evrak Commission was formed, which prepared a new project " Organization of High-quality document storage (Bab-i Ali Hazine-i Evrak Teşkilati)". Unlike the previous project, the leadership of Khazine-i Evrak was now transferred to the Grand Vizier's office. On the question of which documents should be preserved, which should be transferred to the Khazine-and Evrak repositories for public access, and which should be kept in closed mode in departmental archives and how to do this, the commission members were unable to develop a common opinion, so they prepared separate memos on this topic [BOA, 37-2/11 - 4]. At the end of 1917, a new regulation on the status of Khazine-i Evrak was issued, according to which two more separate departments were created in the General Directorate of the High-Value Document Repository: Management Documents (Evrak-i and Historical documents (Evrak-i Tarihiyye) [BOA, A. DVN. MKL., 63-A/24]. But due to the deterioration of the situation on the fronts of the First World War, these works were interrupted and not completed.

In 1915, the Ottoman government considered it necessary, due to the threat of an attack on Istanbul, to remove the most important documents from Khazine - i Evrak. 208 boxes of documents were loaded onto a special train provided by the Ministry of Defense and sent to Konya. The Governor of Konya was given special instructions for the storage of archives. But a year later, the archives were returned back to Istanbul by the same specially equipped train [BOA, BEO. Siyasi, 34/42: Meclis-i Vükela Mazbatalari, 197/107, 201/45].

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At the beginning of 1916, in order to better preserve and organize the papers that were kept in various state institutions, a new Instruction on Office Management (Talimatname) was published [BOA, 37 - 2/11 - 5]. In accordance with it, all decrees and documents that were to be saved and entered in files with cases, it was necessary first of all to register correctly. It was necessary to remove all unnecessary papers from the offices, with the exception of those that, in accordance with the requirements of the Grand Vizier's office, had to be preserved. They also talked about the need to leave copies and originals of all documents in folders and increase the number of officials involved in correspondence, copying and registration of documents. In addition, it was decided to build a separate room for storing documents, due to the fact that there is physically no space left for storing them in Khazina-i Evrak. In addition, the building itself was severely damaged by several fires in the late XIX-early XX centuries.

In 1917, the issue of destroying some of the documents became very urgent for the Ottoman bureaucracy. This was due, firstly, to the excessive number of documents that accumulated in the Ottoman archives, and secondly, to the situation on the fronts and the threat of military defeat. However, no special instructions were issued in this regard, so a mixed commission was organized from representatives of various ministries and departments, which was supposed to separate significant documents from unimportant ones and decide on their destruction. However, due to the difficult situation in the country, the commission was not able to start its work [BOA, BEO, 335986].

Despite the war, the Ottoman Empire continued to work on the description and classification of documents collected by Abdurahman Sheref and stored in the Library of the Brilliant Porte (Bab-i Ali Kutüphanesi). In December 1920, a Commission for the Classification of Historical Documents (Vesaik-i Tarihiyye Tasnif Encumeni) was established in Istanbul, located in the library of the Grand Vizier's Palace [BOA, BEO, 349985]. Ali Emiri Efendi was appointed head of the commission. During the work of the commission, documents were identified that needed to be transported to Khazine - i Evrak. All the documents found were divided into three parts. The first part contained documents of national importance, which were sent to Khazine - i Evrak. The second part, which contained documents related to the activities of the Topkapi Palace, the life of the sultans and their entourage, was sent to its vaults. The final decision on the fate of these documents was made in Topkapi. The third group included documents that did not belong to either the first or second group.

Documents were processed as follows: first, the necessary documents were selected in the vaults, which officials rolled up in scrolls in accordance with the periods of the sultans ' rule. Then these documents were put in chests, which were sent to the commission for consideration. The members of the commission analyzed these documents and divided them into large thematic sections. Ottoman archivists arranged documents in chronological order within the thematic blocks, according to the period of the Sultan's rule and the date of their creation. Each document was numbered, stamped, and then decided to file it in the file. Each case was assigned an ordinal number, and a brief description of the papers that are inside it was compiled. After these procedures, the cases were sent to the department in which they were once created or to which they were related. It was decided to restore the documents that were damaged [BOA, BEO, 349985, 350226]. The Commission encountered unexpected problems: the room in which the work was carried out was too small, and therefore it was decided to allocate another, more spacious room [BOA, BEO, 350292].

The commission continued its work until 1924. However, due to a conflict between archivists regarding cataloging and description methods, Ali Emiri Efendi resigned, and the commission was forced to stop its work [Çetin, 1985, sayi 34, s. 6]. In total, during the work of the commission, it was described and catalogued-

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but there are more than 180,000 documents that covered the period from the era of the beyliks (XIII century) to the reign of Sultan Abdulmejid (1839-1861). The catalog of these documents, called the Ali Emiri Tasnifi Inventory, which contains 53 volumes with descriptions of documents, is currently located in the BOA (Ottoman Archive under the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey) and is available to researchers. This catalog contains descriptions of documents covering the policy of the Ottoman Empire, its wars, diplomatic relations with other states, issues of land distribution, as well as materials of Divan meetings on the most important issues of the country's life [Genç, 1992, s. 393-394].

Following the resignation of Ali Emiri Efendi, a new commission was formed under the leadership of Mahmoud Kemal Inal. The work on the description and classification of archival materials continued from May 1924 to May 1926. A special feature of the catalogues and descriptions compiled under his leadership was that the documents were now arranged not in accordance with the years of the reign of the sultans, but in thematic groups: justice, military documents, documents on the history of the fleet; documents of internal affairs; documents related to coinage; ancient acts.

A total of 47,000 documents were processed (the inventory consists of 29 volumes), covering the period from 1425 to 1873. At the same time, the general chronology of documents was preserved within each thematic section.

As you can see, in the Ottoman Empire there were no uniform forms and methods of working with documents and archival materials. Turkish archivists didn't even know the word "archive". Nevertheless, Turkey was the only Muslim state in which an attempt was made to reorganize archival affairs according to European standards [Barthold, 1973, pp. 359-361]. During the period under review, attempts were made by the Turkish bureaucracy to "streamline" the archival process and document storage. "Streamlining" in this case meant reorganizing the archive business, which primarily provided for simplifying bureaucratic procedures and reducing the sharply increased volume of document flow, which became increasingly difficult to control using the old methods. Such initiatives were mainly initiated "from above" and initially did not provide for the possibility of using archival materials for scientific purposes. A special feature of the Ottoman archival business in the period under review was the lack of a uniform approach to the organization of inventories and cataloging of archival documents. This indicates that up to the mid-20s. In the last century, Ottoman archivists lacked a clear understanding of the role and tasks of archival institutions in the country. There were also no standards for describing the documents themselves. Interestingly, this approach continues to this day.

Reforms in the field of archival affairs were not completed. Meanwhile, there was an avalanche-like growth in the number of documents and an increase in the number of archival officials in the office management system. It is noteworthy that the main way to organize work on the description of documents was a collegial principle - to solve any problems related to archives and documents, a commission was created. At the same time, the commissions in the Turkish conditions showed their inefficiency. Many of the catalogues that were prepared in the Ottoman Empire, preserved almost in their original (sometimes in handwritten) form, with minor changes, are available for researchers. These are inventories of Sultan's decrees and august messages (Hatt-i Hümayun), as well as catalogs of defters and deeds, High Porte papers (Bab-i Ali Evrak Odasi) , documents of the Office of the Supreme Divan (Divan-i Hümayun Odasi), protocols of decisions of the State Council (Şura-yi Devlet) [Genç, 1993, s. 311-312].

After the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, the new authorities did not immediately realize the importance of archival affairs. After the liquidation of the Sultanate on November 1, 1922, all cases were resolved.-

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medical procedures in the institutions were stopped. Trustworthy officials of the former Sultan's administration were instructed to keep only those documents that were already available in the chancelleries until further notice. On March 1, 1923, the Turkish government approved a new department for archives-it was called the Office of the Repository of Documents (Mahzen-i Evrak Mümeyizliği), whose task was to preserve the archives of the Ottoman Empire.

Former director of Khazineh-i Evrak-Mahmud Nedim Bey was appointed the first republican keeper of archives. The new chancellery was subordinated to the Special Chancellery of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. After a series of structural changes, on February 27, 1982, by Law No. 8/4334 on the reorganization of ministries, the Archive Service was incorporated into the Office of the Prime Minister under the name "Osmanh Arşivi Daire Başkanhği", and the archive itself became known as" Ottoman Archive under the Cabinet of the Prime Minister " (Başbakanhk Osmanh Arşivi). [Binark, 1985, s. 221]. Its collections contain almost all the documents of state institutions of the Ottoman Empire that have survived to this day since its foundation at the end of the XIII century and up to the formation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923.

The archive is currently open to foreign researchers. The archive provides very comfortable working conditions. Some of the documents were transferred to an electronic catalog in the archive database (in particular, acts of the XV-XVII centuries), which makes it convenient to work with them. However, some Turkish researchers estimate that only about 20% of the Ottoman documents have been discovered and described so far. The remaining 80% are still in the vaults of the Ottoman Archive attached to the Prime Minister's Office and remain virtually undescribed and inaccessible to researchers. Thus, Turkish archives have only just started opening their collections and publishing inventories of previously unknown documents.

list of literature

Barthold V. V. Storage of documents in the states of the Muslim East. Essays, Vol. VIII, Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1973.

Aktaş Necati. Osmanh Döneminde Arşivciliğimiz ve Tasnif Çahşmalan. Belgelerle Turk Tarihi Dergisi. Mart 1985, sy. 1.

Binark Arşivlerimizin Değeri ve Son Vak'anüvis Abdurrahman Şeref Bey 'in "Evrak-i Atika ve Vesa ik-i Tarihiyyemiz" Adb Yazэsэ. Türk Kütüphaneciler Derneği Bülteni, XXIX, 1, (1980).

Binark Arşivlerle ilgili Mevzuat, Çahşmalar ve Öneriler. Osmanh Arşivleri ve Osmanh Araştirmalan Sempozyumu. , 1985.

Çetin Atilla II. Meşrutiyet Döneminde Arşivlerimize Ait Belgeler, Türk Dünyasi Araştirmalan. Şubat 1985, sayi 34.

Çetin Atilla. Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Hükümeti 'nin, Osmanh Devlet Arşivi ve Mülga Sadaret Evrahnin Muhafazasi Hakkinda Aldiği Kararlara Ait Bazi Belgeler. Tarih Enstitiüsü Dergisi, sayi XII, (1981 - 1982).

Çetin Atilla. Keferede Kalan Osmanh Defterleri. Türk Dinyasi Tarih Dergisi. Mart 1987. Sy. 3.

Çetin Atilla. Osmanh Arşivciliğine Toplu Bir Bakiş. Türk Kütüphaneciler Derneği Bülteni, XXXIII, 2 (1984).

Elker Salahaddin. Mustafa Reşid Paşa ve Türk Arşivciliği. IV. Türk Tarih Kongresi. Ankara, 1952.

Emecen Feridun. Sefere Götürülen Defterlerin Defteri. Prof. Dr. Bekir Kütükoğlu'na Armağan. istanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Tarih Araştirma Merkezi. , 1999.

Findley Carter V. 19. Yüzyilda Osmanh Imparatorlugu'nda Bürokratik Gelişme. Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Türkiye Ansiklopedisi. C. 1, , 1985.

Genç Yusuf ihsan. Başbakanhk Osmanh Arşivi Rehberi. Ankara, 1992.

Genç Yusuf ihsan. Başbakanhk Osmanh Arşivi Tasnif Faaliyetlerine Genel Bakiş ve Analitik Tasnif Çahşmalan. Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü Osmanh Arşivi Daire Başkanhği Personeli Hüzmetçi Eğitimi Ders Notlan. istanbul, 5 Ekim 1992 - 3 Arahk 1992. , 1993.

'l-Emin Mahmud Kemal. Osmanh Devrinde Son Sadrazamlar, c. 1. , 1954.

Kanunname. Atif Efendi Kütp, nr 1734, vr. 12a.

Musa Kazim. Vesaik-i Tarihimiz. TOEM, , 1328 H.

Osmanh Arşivi Bülteni. , 1990.

Öz Tahsin. "Yildiz Maruzat Arşivi Dairesi". IV. Türk Tarih Kongresi, 1948. Ankara, 1952.

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Şeref Abdurrahman. Evrak-i Atika ve Vesik-i Tarihiyyemiz. TOEM, 1. cttz, 1 Kanun-i Evvel 1326. , 1328.

Türkay Cevdet. Osmanh Arşiv. Belgelerle Turk Tarih Dergisi, с II, sy. 7, 1968.

Uzunçarşili Hakki. Kapikulu ocaklan, cil 1. Ankara, 1943.

Uzunçarşili Hakki. Osmanh Devletinin Merkez ve Bahriye Teşkilati. Ankara, 1984.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ARCHIVE COLLECTIONS USED

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MAD.

Maliye'den Müdevver Defterler

Notebooks with extracts of information from the defters of the Ministry of Finance on the financial and economic status of the taxable estate

Meclis-i Tanzimat Dcfteri

A notebook of Advice on Tanzimat.

Meclis-i Vukela

Documents of the Ottoman Council of Ministers

Meclis-i Vukela Mazbatalan

Decisions of the Council of Ministers

Mühimme Defteri

Notebooks of important tasks

TOEM

Târîh-i Osmani Encümeni Mecmuasi

Journal of the Ottoman History Commission

Y. MTV.

Yildiz Mütenevvi Mâruzât

Correspondence (from a lower official to a higher one) on various issues from the office of the Iyldiz Palace

Y. A. RES.

Yildiz Sadâret Resmî Mâruzât

Documents of official correspondence between the Grand Vizier's office and the Chancellery of the Iyldiz Palace

Y.EE.

Yildiz Esas Evraki

The main collection of documents of the Iyldyz Palace

sources

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