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Ottoman BureaucracyPeople, places and careers in Ottoman public service

Job title

Mabeyni Humayun Telgraf Muduru

Group of job titles: Telegraph service

Stored spellings: Mabeyni Humayun Telgraf Muduru; mabeyni humayun telgraf muduru

1 official held the job title Mabeyni Humayun Telgraf Muduru. Its 27 annual entries run from 1882 to 1909 (AH 1300 to 1326). The median of the 27 recorded monthly salaries is 3,915 kuruş, against 500 kuruş for the whole collection in the same years. The entries name 1 place, Mabeyni humayun.

Officials
1
Years on recordAH 1300 to 1326, 27 years with an entry
1882 to 1909
Median monthly salaryfrom 27 recorded salaries
3,915 kuruş
Places with officials
1

Profile of the group: Telegraph service

No source read describes Mabeyni Humayun Telgraf Muduru 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
All years

Monthly salary each year

The median of the 27 recorded monthly salaries is 3,915 kuruş, the mean 4,053 kuruş.
02,0004,0006,0008,0001882/83AH 13001884/85AH 13021886/87AH 13041888/89AH 13061890/91AH 13081892/93AH 13101894/95AH 13121896/97AH 13141898/99AH 13161900/01AH 13181902/03AH 13201904/05AH 13221906/07AH 13241908/09AH 13266,400 kuruş in 1908/09Mabeyni Humayun Telgraf Muduru, fewer than 5 salaries in every year

The same numbers as a table
Monthly salary each year in kuruş, Mabeyni Humayun Telgraf Muduru
YearRecorded salariesMedianMeanLower quartileUpper quartileMedian of the whole collection
1882/8312,0002,0002,0002,000500
1883/8412,0002,0002,0002,000500
1884/8512,0002,0002,0002,000500
1885/8612,0002,0002,0002,000500
1886/8712,0002,0002,0002,000500
1887/8812,0002,0002,0002,000500
1888/8912,7502,7502,7502,750500
1889/9012,7502,7502,7502,750500
1890/9113,0003,0003,0003,000500
1891/9213,0003,0003,0003,000500
1892/9313,0003,0003,0003,000500
1893/9413,0003,0003,0003,000500
1894/9513,5003,5003,5003,500500
1895/9614,1504,1504,1504,150500
1896/9713,9153,9153,9153,915500
1897/9813,9153,9153,9153,915500
1898/9915,0005,0005,0005,000500
1899/190015,0005,0005,0005,000500
1900/0115,0005,0005,0005,000500
1901/0216,1506,1506,1506,150500
1902/0316,1506,1506,1506,150500
1903/0416,1506,1506,1506,150475
1904/0516,1506,1506,1506,150450
1905/0616,1506,1506,1506,150475
1906/0716,1506,1506,1506,150450
1907/0816,1506,1506,1506,150300
1908/0916,4006,4006,4006,400350

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

Places of Mabeyni Humayun Telgraf Muduru, the place with most officials first
PlaceProvinceOfficialsAnnual entriesYears
Mabeyni humayunIstanbul (Dersaadet) province1271882 to 1909

Ottoman officials recorded

Officials of Mabeyni Humayun Telgraf Muduru
OfficialYearsAnnual entriesKuruş a monthBirthplace
Mehmet Vehbi Efendi1882 to 1909272,000 to 6,400Istanbul (Dersaadet)

How to read these records: years and calendars, what first recorded means, gaps between annual entries, and salaries.

Subjects