Job title
Babiali Telgraf Merkezi Memuriyeti
Group of job titles: Telegraph service
1 official held the job title Babiali Telgraf Merkezi Memuriyeti. Its 36 annual entries run from 1870 to 1905 (AH 1287 to 1322). The median of the 36 recorded monthly salaries is 1,700 kuruş, against 500 kuruş for the whole collection in the same years. The entries name 1 place, Istanbul.
- Officials
- 1
- Years on recordAH 1287 to 1322, 36 years with an entry
- 1870 to 1905
- Median monthly salaryfrom 36 recorded salaries
- 1,700 kuruş
- Places with officials
- 1
Profile of the group: Telegraph service
No source read describes Babiali Telgraf Merkezi Memuriyeti by itself, so this is the profile of its group of job titles.
The telegraph service of the Ottoman state, a government monopoly from the start. Its offices grew from 52 in 1863 to 320 in 1869, and the postal guide of 1892 lists 679.
Duties
- take in, send, receive and deliver telegrams for the state and the public, state telegrams first
- keep the lines and the apparatus working
Tools and technology
- Morse apparatus in most offices and Hughes printing telegraphs in some
- batteries
- lines on poles and submarine cables
- apparatus made from 1869 in the ministry's own factory
Hard skills
- the science of the telegraph, accounts, and correspondence in Turkish and French, the subjects in which the ministry found its trainees weak in 1871
Requirements for entry
- entry as an unpaid trainee (mülazım) in an office, with examinations before appointment
- from 1881 also from Darüşşafaka
- from 1911 by competitive examination to the ministry's new school
History
The first lines were built in 1855 during the Crimean War, and the Telegraph Directorate was founded the same year. Telegrams in Turkish were sent from 1856 with a Turkish Morse code. In 1869 the service had 3,607 employees by one count. The telegraph was joined with the post in 1871.
Sources
- Bektaş, Yakup (2000). The Sultan's messenger: cultural constructions of Ottoman telegraphy, 1847-1880. Technology and Culture 41 (4), 669-696.Pages or part: 688-689. Used for: tools and technology.
- Davison, Roderic H. (1990). The advent of the electric telegraph in the Ottoman Empire. In Essays in Ottoman and Turkish History, 1774-1923, 133-165. Austin: University of Texas Press. Read in the Turkish translation by Durdu Mehmet Burak, OTAM 14 (2003), 347-386; pages are those of the translation.Pages or part: 361-362, 365, 368, 375. Used for: summary, duties, tools and technology, history.
- Güneş, Mahir Melih (2026). Anadolu'da Telgrafın Toplumsal Tarihi (1856-1908). Doctoral thesis, Hacettepe University. Online copy (read 11 October 2026).Pages or part: 108, 113-122. Used for: duties, tools and technology, requirements for entry.
- Okan, Ayşegül (2003). The Ottoman postal and telegraph services in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. MA thesis, Boğaziçi University, Atatürk Institute for Modern Turkish History.Pages or part: 26-28, 30, 99, 102-103. Used for: summary, tools and technology, history.
- The school and the office: training, entry and pay in the Ottoman Post and Telegraph service, 1870-1905. Working paper, 2026 (the paper behind this collection; its Section II reports Akyıldız 2024, Ata 2022 and Ayhan and Maviş 1994).Pages or part: Section II. Used for: hard skills, requirements for entry, history.
Monthly salary each year
The same numbers as a table
| Year | Recorded salaries | Median | Mean | Lower quartile | Upper quartile | Median of the whole collection |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1870/71 | 1 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 500 | 600 |
| 1871/72 | 1 | 450 | 450 | 450 | 450 | 550 |
| 1872/73 | 1 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 600 | 550 |
| 1873/74 | 1 | 550 | 550 | 550 | 550 | 500 |
| 1874/75 | 1 | 675 | 675 | 675 | 675 | 535 |
| 1875/76 | 1 | 675 | 675 | 675 | 675 | 530 |
| 1876/77 | 1 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 575 |
| 1877/78 | 1 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 560 |
| 1878 | 1 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 600 |
| 1878/79 | 1 | 1,100 | 1,100 | 1,100 | 1,100 | 600 |
| 1879/80 | 1 | 1,045 | 1,045 | 1,045 | 1,045 | 500 |
| 1880/81 | 1 | 1,200 | 1,200 | 1,200 | 1,200 | 500 |
| 1881/82 | 1 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 500 |
| 1882/83 | 1 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 500 |
| 1883/84 | 1 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 500 |
| 1884/85 | 1 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 500 |
| 1885/86 | 1 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 500 |
| 1886/87 | 1 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 500 |
| 1887/88 | 1 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 1,700 | 500 |
| 1888/89 | 1 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 500 |
| 1889/90 | 1 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 500 |
| 1890/91 | 1 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 500 |
| 1891/92 | 1 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 1,850 | 500 |
| 1892/93 | 1 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 500 |
| 1893/94 | 1 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 500 |
| 1894/95 | 1 | 2,150 | 2,150 | 2,150 | 2,150 | 500 |
| 1895/96 | 1 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 | 500 |
| 1896/97 | 1 | 2,275 | 2,275 | 2,275 | 2,275 | 500 |
| 1897/98 | 1 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 500 |
| 1898/99 | 1 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 500 |
| 1899/1900 | 1 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 500 |
| 1900/01 | 1 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 500 |
| 1901/02 | 1 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 500 |
| 1902/03 | 1 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 500 |
| 1903/04 | 1 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 475 |
| 1904/05 | 1 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 450 |
Salaries are nominal monthly amounts in kuruş, as assigned. The thick line is the median of each year and the thin line the mean. A year with fewer than 5 recorded salaries is drawn as an open mark and is not joined to the line.
Places
| Place | Province | Officials | Annual entries | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Istanbul (Dersaadet) | Istanbul (Dersaadet) province | 1 | 36 | 1870 to 1905 |
Ottoman officials recorded
| Official | Years | Annual entries | Kuruş a month | Birthplace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mustafa Fahrettin Bey | 1870 to 1905 | 36 | 450 to 3,000 | Istanbul (Dersaadet) |
How to read these records: years and calendars, what first recorded means, gaps between annual entries, and salaries.
Subjects
- Babiali Telgraf Merkezi Memuriyeti
- Ottoman job titles (Osmanlı memuriyet unvanları)
- Labour history (emek tarihi)
- Salaries of officials (memur maaşları)
- Ottoman history (Osmanlı tarihi)
- Ottoman bureaucracy (Osmanlı bürokrasisi)
- Ottoman officials (Osmanlı'da memurlar)
- Ottoman personnel registers (Sicill-i Ahvâl defterleri)
- Ottoman registers (Osmanlı defterleri)