The Change and The Transformation of The Process and The Transaction on The Ottoman Bureaucratic Document: Transition from The “Single Document” System of The Classical Period to The “Attached Document” System of The Tanzimât Period

In the Ottoman historiography, archival documents, which the state produced for its bureaucratic procedures and which are kept in various archives, come to mind as the most referred source due to thier value of source and their precedence over the other sources as to their reliability. However, the most basic problem that we face is properly making use of these documents and producing knowledge. In this regard, having a good knowledge of the diplomatics as much as having a good command of the language of the documents will undoubtedly facilitate the knowledge acquision and production. Especially, considering that the functions and the procedures of the Ottoman institutions changed in time and that new institutions were established, we must know that the diplomatics of the documents produced in the classical period and Tanzimat period are not identical. This is because Tanzimat was a period in which the language, form and function of the bureaucratic document were new as much as it was a period of breaking point with which the institutions and their functions assumed a new form. In our study, the change and the transformation of process and transaction among the departments of the documents – the products of the process of state bureaucracy- called “hazine-i evrâk” and which descended to our time will be examined in terms of diplomatics. In the study, the data were analyzed by using “example case study method”. In this context, sample documents belonging to the Traditional and Tanzimat eras were determined and both the original versions and the translations of these documents are presented in the appendix. Thus, the differences between the transaction and the treatment on the documents of both periods was tried to be revealed.