Kanunname of 1889

Last updated

The Kanunname of 1889 was a kanunname (Code of law) issued by Sultan Abdul Hamid II on 30 December 1889. It prohibited the importation and sale of African slaves from foreign lands to the Ottoman Empire. It was introduced due to British diplomatic pressure in anticipation of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90. The law included the previous anti-slavery decrees in to one code of law. It was the first anti-slavery law that was actually enforced in the Ottoman Empire, and resulted in a reduction of the slave trade.

Contents

Background

The British had a long-standing campaign issuing pressure on the Ottoman Empire to restrict the slave trade and slavery in the Ottoman Empire. The Firman of 1854 and the Firman of 1857 had nominally banned the Circassian slave trade and the African slave trade respectively; the Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention had banned the import of African slaves via Ottoman Egypt; and the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880 had given the British the right to search every suspected slave ship in Ottoman waters.

However, the Ottoman anti-slave trade decrees were largely nominal, introduced for the benefit of international diplomacy due to Western pressure, and the provincial Ottoman authorities normally did not enforce the legislation. Due to the nominal nature of the previous non-enforced anti-slavery legislation, the British anti-slavery campaign of diplomatic pressure continued. In 1882, the British introduced a memorandum of a proposed anti slavery legislation for the Porte, and in 1883, they put forward a second draft law. [1] The campaign was however long unsuccessful.

The law code of 1889

In anticipation of the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90, which was due to take place in November 1889, the British diplomatic campaign on the Porte finally had a breakthrough. The British Foreign Office pointed out to the Porte that the Ottoman Empire was due to be met with criticism for their bad enforcement of the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880 at the upcoming Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference unless they acted took action before then, but that serious anti-slavery action would win the Ottoman Empire the European opinion. [2]

The British diplomatic pressure finally gave results when Sultan Abdul Hamid II introduced the Kanunname of 1889 on 30 December 1889. [3]

The law code was composed of ten articles that largely summarized all the earlier decrees against slavery and slave trade in one law code. [4] In contrast to the previous legislation, the Kanunname of 1889 was not a decree but a law code. It also importantly introduced a legal procedure to search and investigate the crime, as well as an actual punishment, with a fine of five Ottoman lira for slave trade. [5]

The law code did meet most of the demands put forward by the British and was largely a copy of the 1883 draft law. It banned all import of African slaves from foreign lands across the borders to the Ottoman Empire; however it did not introduce any punishment for the sale of slaves within the borders of the Empire, which did attract some British criticism for being weak. [6] Furthermore, the law addressed the slave trade from Africa, not the trade in non-African slaves, and thus did not prohibit the Circassian slave trade of non-African slaves.

Aftermath

The Kanunname of 1889 was introduced in order for the Ottoman Empire to be able to attend the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference without being subjected to criticism for their bad enforcement of the previous Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880, and this goal was achieved. The Ottoman Empire was one of the signature states of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890. This act obliged the Ottoman Empire to free all slaves that had been illegally imported to the Empire, and to allow all foreign embassies to retrieve their citizens who had been enslaved in the Empire from 1889 onward, and this act was enforced in 1892. [7]

The Kanunname of 1889 was the first Ottoman law against slavery to be enforced by the Ottoman authorities. While slavery as such continued to be tolerated, the African slave trade was reduced from the 1890s onward. [8] The slave trade did, however, continue in a smaller scale until the end of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, where slaves where still openly sold in public as late as 1908. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Slavery International</span> Human rights organisation

Anti-Slavery International, founded as the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, is an international non-governmental organisation, registered charity and advocacy group, based in the United Kingdom. It is the world's oldest international human rights organisation, and works exclusively against slavery and related abuses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brussels Conference Act of 1890</span> International anti-slavery agreement

The Brussels Conference Act of 1890 was a collection of anti-slavery measures signed in Brussels on 2 July 1890 to, as the act itself puts it, "put an end to Negro Slave Trade by land as well as by sea, and to improve the moral and material conditions of existence of the native races".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in the Ottoman Empire</span> Human enslavement in the Ottoman economy and society

Slavery was a major institution and a significant part of the Ottoman Empire's economy and traditional society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Seychelles</span>

Slavery in Seychelles existed until its final abolition in 1835. Slaves were brought to the Seychelles when the island was first populated by French planters and their slaves from Mauritius. The British banned the slave trade on the island when it became British territory in 1815, and slavery itself was abolished twenty years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference 1889–90</span>

The Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference of 1889–1890 was held from 18 November 1889 to 2 July 1890 in Brussels and concluded with the adoption of the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 on the prohibition of slave trade and slavery in Africa. The convention favoured colonial policies, justified by the anti-slavery argument. The event and its origins were shaped primarily by a narrow national interest. Governments paid lip-service to humanitarian goals in order to legitimize their imperial aims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Yemen</span>

Slavery in Yemen was formally abolished in the 1960s. However, it has been reported that enslavement still occurred in the 21st-century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Turkey</span>

Slavery in Turkey is illegal, though like many other countries, it suffers from issues relating to human trafficking. Historically, slavery in Turkey was significant during the Ottoman Empire period. It is estimated there are 1.32 million modern slaves in Turkey today. According to Walk Free, Turkey ranks 5th in the world and first in Europe and Central Asia in number of modern slaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Saudi Arabia</span>

Legal Chattel slavery existed in Saudi Arabia until the 1960s.

The Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention, also known as Anglo-Egyptian Convention for the Suppression of the Slave Trade or Anglo-Egyptian Convention for the Abolition of Slavery was a treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Khedivate of Egypt from 1877. The first version of 1877 was followed by an addition in 1884 and a second addition in 1895. It formally banned the slave trade to Egypt. While slavery itself was not abolished, existing slaves were granted the right to apply for manumission, which managed to phase out slavery by the early 20th-century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Malaysia</span>

Chattel slavery existed in the area which was later to become Malaysia until it was abolished by the British in what was then the British Malaya and British Borneo in 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Syria</span>

Slavery existed in the territory of the modern state of Syria until the 1920s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Palestine</span> Slavery in the Middle East

Open chattel slavery existed in the region of Palestine until the 20th-century. The slave trade to Ottoman Palestine officially stopped in the 1870s, when the last slave ship is registered to have arrived, after which slavery appeared to have gradually diminished to a marginal phenomena in the census of 1905. However, the former slaves and their children still continued to work for their former enslavers, and were reported to still live in a state of de facto servitude in the 1930s. Many members of the Black Palestinians minority are descendants of the former slaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Lebanon</span>

Slavery existed in the territory of modern Lebanon until the 20th century. It was formally abolished by the French in 1931. Many members of the Afro-Arabian minority are descendants of the former slaves. Slavery of people from Africa and East Asia was succeeded by the modern Kafala system of poor workers from the same region where slaves had previously been imported.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temporary Slavery Commission</span>

The Temporary Slavery Commission (TSC) was a committee of the League of Nations, inaugurated in 1924.

The Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1880 also known as Anglo-Ottoman Convention for the suppression of the African traffic and Anglo–Ottoman Convention for the Suppression of the Slave Trade, was a treaty between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Ottoman Empire from 1880. The Convention addressed the slave trade of the Ottoman Empire, specifically the Red Sea slave trade of Africans across the Red Sea toward the Ottoman province of Hejaz.

The Firman of 1854, sometimes called the Prohibition of the Circassian and Georgian Slave Trade, refers to the Imperial Firman or Ferman (Decree) issued by Sultan Abdülmecid I in October 1854, prohibiting the slave trade in Circassian and Georgian slaves to the Ottoman Empire. It was specifically directed toward the Circassian slave trade in slave girls from the Caucasus, for sexual slavery as concubines in Ottoman harems. It did not ban slavery as such, only the trade in slaves. The decree was only enforced for four years, and retracted in 1858.

The Firman of 1857, also referred to as the Prohibition of the Black Slave Trade, refers to the Imperial Firman or Ferman (Decree) issued by Sultan Abdülmecid I in 1857.

The Suppression of the slave trade in the Persian Gulf, refers to the Imperial Firman or Ferman (Decree) issued by Sultan Abdülmecid I in 1847. It formally prohibited the import of African slaves to Ottoman territory via the Indian Ocean slave trade of the Persian Gulf. The decree did not address the other slave trade routes trafficking slaves to the Empire.

The Disestablishment of the Istanbul Slave Market, refers to the Imperial Firman or Ferman (Decree) issued by Sultan Abdülmecid I in 1847. The edict closed the public slave market in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul. The reform was a cosmetic one and removed the visible slave trade in the capital by removing it from the street to indoors, thereby making it less visible to foreign criticism during the Tanzimat modernization era.

Hizmetçi İdaresi, was a state organization for servants in the Ottoman Empire, founded in 1908. It worked as an asylum to formerly enslaved women and children, and an employment agency for female domestic servants.

References

  1. ↑ Erdem, Y. (1996). Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and Its Demise 1800–1909. Storbritannien: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
  2. ↑ Erdem, Y. (1996). Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and Its Demise 1800–1909. Storbritannien: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 143
  3. ↑ Erdem, Y. (1996). Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and Its Demise 1800–1909. Storbritannien: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 144
  4. ↑ Erdem, Y. (1996). Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and Its Demise 1800–1909. Storbritannien: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 144
  5. ↑ Toledano, E. R. (2014). The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression: 1840–1890. USA: Princeton University Press. p245
  6. ↑ Erdem, Y. (1996). Slavery in the Ottoman Empire and Its Demise 1800–1909. Storbritannien: Palgrave Macmillan UK. 144
  7. ↑ Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. 94
  8. ↑ Junne, G. H. (2016). The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire: Networks of Power in the Court of the Sultan. Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing.p107
  9. ↑ Somel, S. A. (2003). Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. USA: Scarecrow Press. p.272
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.