re europe vs muslim bosnians in article schoinas cs wisc edu schoinas fox cs wisc edu yannis schoinas writes nationality is a recent invention of the western europe in the days of the ottoman empire the religion was the main point of difference between social classes the ottomans didn t recognize turks arabs greeks serbs just christians muslims jews pardon me your ignorance cramps my conversation although the administrative mechanism was a strictly centralized one the ottoman empire was a classical example of a pluralist social order the millet system was the mechanism which shaped the social order of the multi national ottoman empire and stood behind its continuity as a matter of fact because islamic principles were in force in the ottoman empire it was natural to use religious criteria to differentiate among the various communities which constituted the empire the millet system began to be based on ethnicity in the th century under the influence of nationalism sousa writes of the existence of thirteen communities in the ottoman empire in addition to the muslim millet in these were greeks attached to the orthodox patriarchate in istanbul catholics or latins who were remnants of genoese and venetian merchants gregorian armenians attached to a patriarchate in istanbul catholic armenians syrian catholics attached to a patriarchate in mardin chaldean catholics attached to a patriarchate in mosul syrian jacobites attached to a patriarchate in mardin protestants melchites attached to a patriarchate in damascus hebrews of two rites bulgarian catholics attached to the bulgarian exarch maronites and nestorians scholars who studied the pluralistic social structure outlined briefly above concluded that the social order of the ottoman empire fit the framework of the mosaics theory n sousa the capitulatory regime of turkey its history origin and nature baltimore c s coon caravan the story of the middle east new york p and h a r gibb h bowen islamic society and the west a study of the impact of western civilization on moslem culture in the near east oxford serdar argic we closed the roads and mountain passes that might serve as ways of escape for the turks and then proceeded in the work of extermination ohanus appressian in soviet armenia today there no longer exists a single turkish soul sahak melkonian
