Governance in the periphery through schooling: educational policies and Nusayri/‘Alawi children in late Ottoman Syria
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Ali Çapar [1]
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[1] Çankırı Karatekin University, Çankırı, Turkey
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- Localización: Paedagogica Historica: International journal of the history of education, ISSN 0030-9230, Vol. 60, Nº. 2, 2024 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Reordering educational legacies in modern times), págs. 248-267
- Idioma: inglés
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Resumen
This article examines the campaign of schooling and education reforms for non-Sunni or “heterodox” groups, particularly the Nusayri community, during the reign of Abdulhamid II (1876–1908) in the late Ottoman Empire in Syria and Southern Turkey. Through a detailed examination of Ottoman archival documents, missionary reports, and accounts, this article sheds light on Ottoman strategies to correct the beliefs of Nusayri children through education to develop a decent and loyal Sunni generation and to prevent missionary activities among community members. The article links the educational policies of the Hamidian regime to its governance and hegemony strategies in the periphery, where Ottoman authority was relatively weak and challenged. In this regard, this article argues that the Ottoman State attempted to normalise and eradicate cultural, religious, and social distinctions by converting the Nusayris to Sunni Islam and educating them to create a homogenous social structure on the periphery, thereby transforming them into loyal subjects and preventing them from attending missionary schools. The campaign of schooling, which was instrumentalised in attaining ideological, political, and religious objectives, was a significant pillar of these policies. However, the late Ottoman administration did not apply uniform schooling and education policies towards the Nusayris at schools in Antakya and Latakia, as the central administration took into consideration regional geographic, demographic, political, and socioeconomic conditions, priorities, and risks. The ultimate goal of Hamidian educational initiatives was the preservation of the empire by the adoption of diverse approaches to accomplish its own goals, but the outcomes of the educational policies reflected the weaknesses of an empire that had been in turmoil for over a century.
