An Exceptional Experience of a Territorial Administration Authority: A Literature Review on Case of Atçalı Kel Mehmed

Abstract

In the 19th century, revolts were recurrently impelled due to both the impact of the French Revolution and the deterioration in the administrative structure. These revolts revealed a crucial demand for several reforms. The deterioration in the land tenure regime and the administrative structure caused revolts through distressing the public, not only people among different ethnicities and religions, but also people among the entire public in the Ottoman Empire as a broad sense. The case of Atçalı Kel Mehmed refers to a revolt that arose as a reaction to the deterioration in the territorial administrative structure avowedly. In this study, the case of Atçalı Kel Mehmed has been evaluated within the framework of the territorial administrative authority. The subsequent problematics of how the deteriorations in the land tenure regime and administrative structure of the Ottoman Empire affected the provincial administration, why attitudes and actions of Atçalı Kel Mehmed as a chief authority in territorial administration during his short-term administration were considered as ‘different’, why the chief authorities in the territorial administration were not accepted genuinely by the public on that period of time, as a result of which behaviors of Atçalı Kel Mehmed he was accepted by the public affably, and also at which points Atçalı Kel Mehmed differed from the other chief authorities in territorial administration in that period of time have been meticulously examined as a result of the literature review in this study.