İsmail Hayr Bey İsyanı Işığında Osmanlı-Nusayri İlişkileri

This article examines the relationship between the Nusayris and the Ottoman central administrationin the 1850s in the light of Ismail Khayr Bey Revolt. The Ottoman-Nusayri relations had changedover centuries according to general and regional political developments, Nusayris fit to the Ottomanorganizational mode and Ottoman pragmatism. Therefore, while the Nusayris were recognized as apart of the Muslim community, sometimes they were considered heretics. In this context, the statusof the Ottoman-Nusayri relations prior to the revolt, the process of Ismail Hayr Bey’s nomination tothe position of mudir of Safita, the beginning of the revolt and the reaction of the Nusayri and Sunnicommunities to the revolt, the Ottoman strategies of dealing with that revolt, and the similarities anddifferences between the Ismail Khayr Bey Revolt and the other revolts took place in other parts of theempire around the same time period will be discussed. In the light of the use of the Ottoman and Britisharchival sources along with traveler’s and missionaries’ accounts and secondary sources writtenin English, Turkish and French, this article seeks to fill the gap on Ottoman and Nusayri relations inthe 1850s and to contribute to the understanding of the Ismail Khayr Bey Revolt.