The Decree on the Organisation of Vilayets of 1867.

Abstract

The present paper contains The Decree on the Organisation of Vilayets in the Ottoman Empire, which was defmitely passed in 1867.

The first version of the decree was passed in 1865 and, translated into Serbothroatian, appeared in Bosanski Vjestnik, Nos. 4-10, 28 April - 11 June 1866. The first version of the decree retained nearly all the titles of administrative officials which had been valid before the organisation of the vilayet system in the Empire. The Decree on the Organisation of Vilayets from 1867. brought radical changes with regard to the titles, competences and institutions of the authorities, and it was valid for the whole Empire.

The decree is of great importance for the study of administrative organisation in the provinces, because such organisation was retained in Bosnia and Herzegovina up to the end of the Ottoman Rule, with insignificant changes with regard to some institutions.

The decree is adapted to our contemporary language and administrative terminology, and this is its first official publishing in Serbo-Croatian. The decree itself is devided according to territorial and administrative organs of authority, so that it begins with the vila yet and concludes with the village. Since by this decree an obligatory electorial system for all organs of authority was introduced, the election procedure is defmed for each organ seperately, from vilayet and supreme authority to village headmen and village councils. By this decree the organisation of authority has definitively got modern phisionomy and cleared away all traditional institutions of Ottoman feudalism. The outlines of such organisation are today still visible in the organisation of authority in the Republic of Turkey.