Osmanlı Klasik Döneminde Çocuklar

Abstract

The purpose of this study, which is based on court minutes, memoirs of travel writers visiting Ottoman lands, and works of moral thinkers are to cover all aspects of children’s lives as much as possible during the Ottoman classic period. Based on these works, it was attempted to understand the view of the Ottoman family, society, and state to the child. In the first years of the child's birth, his/her family, the physical conditions of the house where he/she lived, his/her games and toys, his/her nutrition and clothing, and his/her health were examined. When the child grew up a little, naturally relations with people other than the family began, and in the neighborhood, school, business life, and ceremonies, the child was tried to be discussed in this research. This period was when the child became socialized, and at the same time, boys and girls had a different childhood. Despite the girls' lives at home, the boys also had games, school education, and then work lives outside the house. Some boys were involved in Ottoman society through the devshirme system. These children, who were collected as taxes from the Christian people under Ottoman rule, were raised to be soldiers or rulers of the state. It continued for nearly two and a half centuries, and the intelligent and talented of the devshirme who grew up in this system had served in the upper echelons of the state's governance and military structure. Children are important in every era. There were, of course, quite different childhood in Ottoman geography. During the Ottoman classical period, families tried to raise their children according to their religious beliefs, habits, and traditions, while society assumed the duty of protecting, observing, and supervising the child. The state protected the rights of children it saw as collateral for the future by law.