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Ottoman BureaucracyPeople, places and careers in Ottoman public service

Job title

Mülazım

Candidate official (the word also means lieutenant)

Group of job titles: General office staff

Stored spellings: mulazim; Mulazim

22 officials held the job title Mülazım. Its 55 annual entries run from 1877 to 1911 (AH 1294 to 1329). The median of the 55 recorded monthly salaries is 200 kuruş, against 500 kuruş for the whole collection in the same years. The median entry paid 40 per cent of the collection median of its year. On average an official was paid more than 11 per cent of the other officials with a salary in the same year. Half of the officials have an entry in it in no more than 2 different years, and a quarter in 3 or more. It was the first title on record for 95 per cent of the officials and the last for 45 per cent. No other title is recorded for 45 per cent of them. The entries name 20 places. The place with the largest number of officials is Istanbul, with 5.

Officials
22
Years on recordAH 1294 to 1329, 20 years with an entry
1877 to 1911
Median monthly salary0.4× the collection median of the same years (500 kuruş)
200 kuruş
Places with officials
20
First job title on recordfor 21 of the 22 officials
95%

Profile of the group: General office staff

No source read describes Mülazım by itself, so this is the profile of its group of job titles.

General titles of officials that name no particular office. In the offices of the nineteenth century a mülazım was a supernumerary or apprentice; in the Post and Telegraph service most officials began so and worked for years without a salary.

History

From 1879 a commission of the Ministry of the Interior (Sicill-i Ahval Komisyonu) recorded the careers of civil and judicial officials; it gathered about 92,000 records of service in 200 registers.

Sources

  1. Findley, Carter V. (1980). Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 1789-1922. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Pages or part: 81-82. Used for: summary.
  2. 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: Sections I and II. Used for: summary.
  3. İpşirli, Mehmet (1993). Dahiliye Nezâreti. TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 8, 414-416. Online copy (read 14 October 2026).Pages or part: 415. Used for: history.
All years

Monthly salary each year

The median of the 55 recorded monthly salaries is 200 kuruş, the mean 232 kuruş.
01002003004005001877/78AH 12941878/79AH 12961880/81AH 12981882/83AH 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 13261910/11AH 1328Median 250 kuruş in 1911Mülazım, median of years with 5 or more salariesMean of the same yearsWhole collectionFewer than 5 salaries, not joined to the line

The same numbers as a table
Monthly salary each year in kuruş, Mülazım
YearRecorded salariesMedianMeanLower quartileUpper quartileMedian of the whole collection
1877/781180180180180560
1891/921300300300300500
1892/931300300300300500
1893/941300300300300500
1894/951300300300300500
1895/961300300300300500
1896/971300300300300500
1897/981300300300300500
1898/991300300300300500
1901/021200200200200500
1902/031200200200200500
1903/041200200200200475
1904/052350350275425450
1905/061500500500500475
1906/071500500500500450
1907/081500500500500300
1908/091500500500500350
1909/1017150167.65150150462.5
1910/1114150171.5150187.75500
19116250275200300500

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.

Pay against the whole collection

Officials by their median monthly salary in this job
Officials of this jobWhole collection
64%18%14%5%01002003004005007501,0001,5002,500

22 officials with a salary, each counted once in the band of the median of the official's salaries in this job. A bar runs from its number to the next; the last is 2,500 kuruş and more. Most officials (64%) are in the band 100 to 200 kuruş.

The same numbers as a table
Officials of Mülazım by median monthly salary
Median monthly salary, kuruşOfficialsShareWhole collection
0 to 10000%3%
100 to 2001464%10%
200 to 300418%17%
300 to 400314%18%
400 to 50000%17%
500 to 75015%23%
750 to 1,00000%5%
1,000 to 1,50000%4%
1,500 to 2,50000%2%
2,500 and more00%1%

The median of the 55 recorded monthly salaries of this job is 200 kuruş. In the same years the whole collection paid a median of 500 kuruş. The median entry paid 0.4× the collection median of its year, and the middle half of the entries between 0.32× and 0.6×. On average an official of this job was paid more than 11% of the other paid officials of the same year.

Times the collection median0.4×0.25×0.5×1×2×4×Share of paid officials earning less11%0%25%50%75%100%

The dot is the median, the box the middle half of the entries. Dashed lines: the collection median of the same years (1×) and the middle of the paid officials (50%).

Where the job was held

All years
20 places with officials on record, 20 of them with a position on the map. A larger dot means more officials.
Seat of a province (vilayet) Seat of a sancak District (kaza) Other place
Istanbul (Dersaadet)Aleppo (Halep)ErzurumGeyveKonyaAdapazarıAğvaBartın5 officials1 official

The 10 places with most officials, of 20, all years
PlaceOfficialsRemark
Istanbul (Dersaadet)5
Aleppo (Halep)2
Erzurum2
Geyve2
Konya2
Adapazarı1
Ağva1
Babi mesihat1
Bartın1
Damascus (Şam)1

Career paths: the titles just before and after

The number is the officials who made the move. Under it, the median change of the monthly salary: the first salary of the later title less the last salary of the earlier one, where at least 5 moves have both.

Held just before

The title of the entries just before a run of Mülazım. Pay: the change on moving from that title to Mülazım.

  1. Cephane Cavusu1

Held just after

The title of the entries just after a run of Mülazım. Pay: the change on moving from Mülazım to that title. The 6 titles with most officials, of 11 moves in all.

  1. Muayene Memuru4
  2. Muhabere Memurucommunications official (telegraph operator)3
  3. Başmüdür Kitabeticlerkship of the chief director's office1
  4. Muhaberat-ı Ecnebiye Memuriyetipost of official for foreign communications1
  5. Seyyar Memurtravelling postal official1
  6. Tetkik Memuru1

Of the 12 moves shown, 2 cross at least one year without an annual entry; nothing is known about those years. Two posts held in the same years are not counted as a move.

Time in the job

Years with an entry in the job
2 yearsmedian over 22 officials
A quarter of the officials
3 years or moreupper quartile
Most years of one official
8 years
  1. First job title on recordthe first year with an entry with a job title has it95%21 officials
  2. Last job title on recordthe last such year has it45%10 officials
  3. No other job titlein the whole record45%10 officials
  4. One place in the jobof 22 officials with a place recorded77%17 officials

Years are years with an annual entry in the job, each counted once for an official. They need not follow one another, and nothing is known about a year without an entry. With two posts in the first or last year, both count.

Who held the job

Officials of this jobWhole collection

Community

22 officials with it recorded.

  1. Muslim (Müslüman)100%22

Age at the first annual entry in the job

22 officials with it recorded.

  1. under 150%0
  2. 15 to 1932%7
  3. 20 to 2432%7
  4. 25 to 2923%5
  5. 30 to 349%2
  6. 35 to 395%1
  7. 40 and over0%0

Province of birth

21 officials with it recorded. 4 other values not shown.

  1. Istanbul (Dersaadet) province24%5
  2. Aleppo (Halep) province14%3
  3. Erzurum province14%3
  4. İzmit province10%2
  5. Baghdad (Bağdat) province5%1
  6. Danube (Tuna) province5%1
  7. Diyarbakır province5%1
  8. Hüdavendigâr province5%1

Schooling

21 officials with it recorded. An official can have several, so the shares add up to more than 100%. The groups of the schools recorded for each official.

  1. Rüşdiye62%13
  2. İdadi29%6
  3. Higher or professional5%1
  4. Other named school5%1

Languages

22 officials with it recorded. An official can have several, so the shares add up to more than 100%.

  1. Turkish100%22
  2. Arabic14%3
  3. French5%1

Qualification

22 officials with it recorded. A diploma, certificate, training or decoration (nişan) recorded in the schooling or the work.

  1. Yes64%14
  2. No36%8

Officials on record each year

The fullest year is 1909/10 (AH 1327) with 17 officials. Years with an annual entry: 20.
051015201877/78AH 12941878/79AH 12961880/81AH 12981882/83AH 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 13261910/11AH 132817 in 1909/10Recorded in an earlier year tooFirst recorded in this year

The same numbers as a table
Officials on record each year, Mülazım
YearOfficials on recordFirst recordedAnnual entries
1877/78 (AH 1294)111
1891/92 (AH 1309)111
1892/93 (AH 1310)101
1893/94 (AH 1311)101
1894/95 (AH 1312)101
1895/96 (AH 1313)101
1896/97 (AH 1314)101
1897/98 (AH 1315)101
1898/99 (AH 1316)101
1901/02 (AH 1319)111
1902/03 (AH 1320)101
1903/04 (AH 1321)101
1904/05 (AH 1322)212
1905/06 (AH 1323)101
1906/07 (AH 1324)101
1907/08 (AH 1325)101
1908/09 (AH 1326)101
1909/10 (AH 1327)171717
1910/11 (AH 1328)14114
1911 (AH 1329)606

An official is counted once in a year. First recorded is the first year in which the collection has an annual entry of the official on this page. It is not a hiring date.

Ottoman officials recorded

22 officials, the one with most annual entries first.

Years run from the first to the last annual entry. An official without a recorded name is listed after the named officials.

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

Subjects