Millet(852 words)
The term millet (from the Arabic milla, “religious community”) in the Ottoman Empire denoted non-Muslim religious groups [1. 69]. The first attestation is from 17th-century Aleppo, where it denoted communities of Christians and Jews who, while not Ottoman subjects, were living temporarily in the Ottoman Empire, most of them as merchants. In this sense, the term resembled the concept of nationes as it was usually known in early modern western Europe (cf. Trading settlement).
Jews and Christians had lived within the Ottoman polity since the dawn of the early moder…
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Lucassen, Jan and
Lucassen, Leo,
“Millet”, in:
Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012.
Consulted online on 29 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_024112>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20200128
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