Story
How the Ottoman Post and Telegraph service hired and paid its officials, 1870 to 1905
The paper follows 4,274 officials of the Ottoman Post and Telegraph ministry between 1870 and 1905 through personnel biographies that record schooling, the mülazemet, job titles and monthly salaries: 56,395 observations, one for each official in each year. Most officials began with a mülazemet, a period of work in an office without a salary. A man who did it was a mülazım.
Seven findings follow, each with a chart and the officials behind it. Every name is a link to the official's page, where the whole record can be read.
Part 1 of 7. From the paper: Section I and Figure 1.
In the Hijri year 1309, which ran from August 1891 to July 1892, three young men born in Istanbul drew their first salaries from the ministry.
Open marks on the zero line are years in an office without a salary, counted from the recorded first work. The chart ends in AH 1323, the last year of the paper; each personal page shows the later entries.
Hasan Tahsin Efendi had worked for three years without a salary and was then made a telegraph clerk on 50 kuruş a month, about a quarter of what a labourer earned. Fourteen years later this official was still a telegraph clerk and earned 275 kuruş.
In the records: Born in Istanbul in 1875/76. Father recorded as Posta Memuru (postal official). Schooling: Rüşdiye Mektebi, 7 years. First work recorded at about 14. 3 years without a salary, then a first salary of 50 kuruş.
Ali Rıza Bey had worked for one year without a salary, and the first salary was 200 kuruş. It reached 1,200 kuruş in the year in which the father died and did not rise after that.
In the records: Born in Istanbul in 1875/76. Father recorded as Posta ve Telgraf Naziri. Schooling: Rüşdiye Mektebi, 7 years. First work recorded at about 16. 1 year without a salary, then a first salary of 200 kuruş.
Hasan Şevki Efendi came from Darüşşafaka, a charity boarding school for Muslim orphans, had not worked without a salary at all, and started on 400 kuruş, the usual salary of a telegraph clerk. The salary later reached 1,000 kuruş.
In the records: Born in Istanbul in 1873/74. Schooling: Darüşşafaka, 12 years. First work recorded at about 19. No year without a salary; first salary 400 kuruş.
| Recorded | Hasan Tahsin Efendi | Ali Rıza Bey | Hasan Şevki Efendi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 1875/76, Istanbul (Dersaadet) | 1875/76, Istanbul (Dersaadet) | 1873/74, Istanbul (Dersaadet) |
| Community | Muslim | Muslim | Muslim |
| Languages | Turkish | Turkish | Arabic, French, Persian, Turkish |
| School | Rüşdiye Mektebi | Rüşdiye Mektebi | Darüşşafaka |
| Years of schooling | 7 | 7 | 12 |
| Father's occupation | Posta Memuru (postal official) | Posta ve Telgraf Naziri | not recorded |
| First work recorded | 1888/89, at about 14 | 1890/91, at about 16 | 1891/92, at about 19 |
| Years without a salary (mülazemet) | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| First salary (first-salary field) | 50 kuruş in 1891/92 | 200 kuruş in 1891/92 | 400 kuruş in 1891/92 |
| Highest salary on record | 290 kuruş in 1906/07 | 1,220 kuruş in 1908/09 | 1,000 kuruş in 1902/03 |
| Annual entries | 16, 1891 to 1907 | 19, 1891 to 1910 | 14, 1891 to 1905 |
| Job titles held | Muhabere Memuru | Muhabere Memuru, Mektubi Kalemi, Müfettiş Muavini, 1. Müdür | Posta Memuru, Emanet Kitabeti |
Hasan Tahsin Efendi and Hasan Şevki Efendi were chosen by a rule: each is the official whose salaries lie nearest the median salaries of a group. The first group is the 64 officials with lower schooling who were first paid in Istanbul in AH 1307 to 1309 on 100 kuruş or less after a mülazemet. The second is the 39 officials from Darüşşafaka who were first paid in AH 1307 to 1312 without a mülazemet.
The paper names Ali Rıza Bey as the youngest son of the minister Hasan Ali Efendi, after Akyıldız (2024). The records give the father's occupation of Ali Rıza Bey as Posta ve Telgraf Naziri. The collection holds a record of Hasan Ali Efendi with the title PT Naziri from 1887/88 (AH 1305). That this record is the father of Ali Rıza Bey is the reading of the paper; the records do not join the two.
Part 2 of 7. From the paper: Section V, Figure 6 and Table 7.
Of the 3,078 officials with lower schooling, 77 per cent record a mülazemet, and on average their first salary came 3.4 years after the recorded start of service. In Istanbul their median first salary was 200 kuruş for those first paid in 1881 to 1889 and 62 kuruş for those first paid in 1890 to 1894. In the provinces it was 300 kuruş in both periods.
Groups by schooling and by the period and place of the first salary, as in the paper; the number of officials is in brackets. Officials who leave the registers before 400 kuruş are counted until their last year (Kaplan-Meier estimates of the paper).
Among the officials with lower schooling first paid in Istanbul in 1890 to 1894, 155 of 214 started on 100 kuruş or less, and 73 started on exactly 50 kuruş. Nine in ten of them had been born in Istanbul, where a family could support a son who earned very little. Half of them had reached 400 kuruş thirteen years after entering an office. In the provinces half had reached it after seven years, three to four of them without a salary. Over the first ten years in an office the median official of the Istanbul group received 13,800 kuruş, an average of 115 kuruş a month, and the median official in the provinces 28,800 kuruş. Officials who were hired with a salary received 61 per cent more pay over their first ten years in an office. One year of paid service went with a salary 7 per cent higher, and one year of mülazemet with a salary 2 per cent higher.
Lower schooling, first paid in Istanbul in AH 1307 to 1309 on 100 kuruş or less after a mülazemet: first salary and year of the first salary, as in the paper.
Part 3 of 7. From the paper: Section VI, Figure 8 and Table A26.
The registers hold 150 officials with the label Darüşşafaka, an orphan school in which the ministry's engineers taught telegraphy. All of them were Muslim. French is recorded for 122 of them, and 131 served no mülazemet. The first eight officials from Darüşşafaka entered the ministry in 1881 and 1882 and started on 300 or 400 kuruş. Across the 1880s the 32 officials from the school started on amounts between 50 and 640 kuruş, with a median of 225 kuruş. From the Hijri year 1307, which ran from August 1889 to August 1890, the officials who came straight from the school all started on one amount, 400 kuruş. All six who entered in that year did, and so did 38 of the 39 who entered without a mülazemet in 1890 to 1894.
Each grey point is one of 992 other officials first paid in Istanbul; each red point one of the 150 officials from Darüşşafaka, wherever first paid, and a link to the official. The scale is logarithmic; the eight first salaries above 1,000 kuruş are drawn at 1,000.
Choose a year above, or press Play, to list every official first paid in it.
In the same years the first salaries of other officials in Istanbul fell. Their median fell from 200 to 60 kuruş in two years. A first salary of 100 kuruş or less went to 4 of 32 officials first paid in AH 1305, to 23 of 53 in AH 1306 and to 43 of 52 in AH 1307. The fixed first salary went to those who came straight from the school with its certificate, and not in every year. Twelve former pupils who had left without the certificate and served a mülazemet started on a median of 150 kuruş. None of the fourteen officials first paid in AH 1313, 1315 and 1316 started on 400 kuruş, and of the 22 first paid in AH 1322 and 1323, 20 started on 300 kuruş. The registers show when the fixed first salary began, not why.
Part 4 of 7. From the paper: Section VI, Figures 7 and 10, Table 3.
In kuruş, the officials of the later period were paid earlier and were not paid more. Their median salary was 400 kuruş at the first salary, against 225 kuruş for the earlier period. It was 500 kuruş against 710 kuruş in salaried year 6, and 690 kuruş against 612 kuruş in salaried year 10. Over the first ten years the median official first paid in 1881 to 1889 received 60,600 kuruş and the median official first paid in 1890 to 1894 received 63,450 kuruş. Officials with lower schooling first paid in Istanbul received 23,880 kuruş over their first ten years in the earlier period and 13,800 kuruş in the later one. The ratio between the two ten-year totals rose from 2.5 to 4.6.
Officials from Darüşşafaka wherever first paid; officials with lower schooling first paid in Istanbul. A dotted line is the earlier period, 1881 to 1889. The number of officials in salaried year 0 is in brackets.
Against officials with lower schooling first paid in the same years, the officials from Darüşşafaka first paid in 1881 to 1889 started level, at −2.3 per cent, and earned 82.7 per cent more in salaried years 6 to 10. Those first paid in 1890 to 1895 started 131.2 per cent above and earned 87.1 per cent more in salaried years 6 to 10. The higher pay at entry did not stay.
From Darüşşafaka, first paid in AH 1307 to 1312 without a mülazemet: first salary and its year, as in the paper.
Part 5 of 7. From the paper: Section VII, Figure 11 and Table 4.
Of the 39 officials from Darüşşafaka who were first paid in 1890 to 1894 without a mülazemet, 36 drew their first salary in Istanbul, and 35 of the 36 started on 400 kuruş. Of the 291 other officials first paid in Istanbul in those years, 10 started on 400 kuruş or more and 212 started on 100 kuruş or less. Five of the ten had drawn a salary in another ministry before.
Each point is one official and a link to the official's page; an open point was recorded with French. The bar is the median of the group. Lines at 100 kuruş (dotted) and 400 kuruş. The scale is logarithmic, and the one first salary above 1,000 kuruş is drawn at 1,000.
| Group | Officials | Median first salary | On 100 kuruş or less | On 400 kuruş or more | Recorded with French |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darüşşafaka, no mülazemet | 36 | 400 kuruş | 0 | 35 | 31 |
| Darüşşafaka, after a mülazemet | 3 | 150 kuruş | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Other advanced schools | 17 | 100 kuruş | 10 | 0 | 11 |
| Completed rüşdiye | 60 | 58 kuruş | 47 | 0 | 13 |
| Lower schooling, no mülazemet | 47 | 150 kuruş | 18 | 7 | 8 |
| Lower schooling, after a mülazemet | 167 | 50 kuruş | 137 | 3 | 31 |
None of the seventeen officials from other advanced schools started on 400 kuruş, six of them from the Mekteb-i Sultani and seven from the Mülkiye, the school of civil administration. None of the 60 officials with a completed rüşdiye did, none of the 63 officials who knew French, and three of the 147 sons of officials. In the provinces a third of the 508 officials first paid there started on 400 kuruş or more. Even the sons of the minister served a mülazemet. Their father's position brought them well-paid posts afterwards, and only while the father lived.
Part 6 of 7. From the paper: Section VIII, Figures 14 to 16 and Table 5.
Over all recorded years, officials with advanced schooling earned 39.4 per cent more than officials with lower schooling. The number joins two groups: officials from Darüşşafaka earned 83.2 per cent more, and officials from other advanced schools 22.2 per cent more. At the same age, officials from Darüşşafaka earned 69.8 per cent more than officials with lower schooling, and officials from the Mekteb-i Sultani 33.8 per cent more, with an interval from −5.4 to 89.4. The officials from the Mekteb-i Sultani number only 36. What only Darüşşafaka had was the first salary of 400 kuruş.
Points are differences in per cent and bars their 95 per cent intervals, from the paper's Table 5, panel B. The number of officials of the paper is in brackets. A school with a page on this site is a link in the table, where its officials are listed.
| School | Officials in the paper | At the same age, per cent | Same service and kind of work, per cent | Officials on the school page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Darüşşafaka | 150 | 69.8 (56 to 84.8) | 83.6 (70.8 to 97.3) | 203 |
| Mekteb-i Sultani | 36 | 33.8 (-5.4 to 89.4) | 42.3 (5.4 to 92.3) | 53 |
| Other higher schools | 44 | 18.6 (-0.9 to 41.8) | 22.8 (6.7 to 41.4) | |
| Completed rüşdiye | 903 | 13.4 (8.3 to 18.8) | 9.1 (4.8 to 13.5) | 3,206 |
| Mülkiye | 18 | 13.1 (-13.2 to 47.3) | 26.3 (-4.3 to 66.7) | 26 |
| Telegraph school of the ministry | 272 | 11.5 (5.4 to 18) | 9.8 (4.6 to 15.3) | |
| İdadi | 34 | -13.4 (-31.1 to 8.9) | -18.4 (-48.6 to 29.5) | 136 |
The page of Rüşdiye Mektebi holds every official recorded with that school, whether or not the certificate was completed. The telegraph school of the ministry and the other higher schools have no page of their own.
The difference for advanced schooling rose from 16.7 per cent in the 1870s to 50.7 per cent in 1900 to 1905. Without the 150 officials from Darüşşafaka it was 17.1 per cent in the 1870s and 16.8 per cent in the 1890s. The rise took place in Istanbul: 0.28 log points there and 0.02 log points in the provinces. The registers do not show why officials from Darüşşafaka were paid more. The telegraph course alone does not explain it: officials who had attended the ministry's own telegraph school earned 11.5 per cent more.
Part 7 of 7. From the paper: Section VIII, Figure 17 and Table 6.
Before languages are taken into account, Muslim officials earned 15.9 per cent less than non-Muslim officials. French is recorded for four in five non-Muslim officials and for one in seven Muslim officials. With French and other languages held constant the difference is −0.3 per cent. French brought about the same higher pay in both groups, 24.6 per cent among Muslims and 18.6 per cent among non-Muslims.
New officials are officials whose first salary falls in the period. The share of Muslims with French is a share of the Muslim new officials.
| First salary in | New officials | Non-Muslim, per cent | Muslims with French, per cent of Muslims | With French: non-Muslims | Muslims from Darüşşafaka | Other Muslims |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1870 to 1874 | 310 | 14.8 | 1.9 | 37 | 0 | 5 |
| 1875 to 1879 | 398 | 19.1 | 4.7 | 54 | 0 | 15 |
| 1880 to 1884 | 356 | 19.4 | 10.1 | 55 | 15 | 14 |
| 1885 to 1889 | 392 | 16.3 | 12.5 | 49 | 6 | 35 |
| 1890 to 1894 | 844 | 10.0 | 17.4 | 65 | 35 | 97 |
| 1895 to 1899 | 601 | 6.5 | 20.3 | 37 | 24 | 90 |
| 1900 to 1905 | 851 | 7.6 | 26.7 | 59 | 42 | 168 |
Non-Muslims were 15 to 19 per cent of the officials first paid in each five-year period to 1889 and 6 to 10 per cent of those first paid later. Muslim officials recorded with French were 2 per cent of the Muslim officials first paid in 1870 to 1874, 17 per cent in 1890 to 1894 and 27 per cent in 1900 to 1905. Darüşşafaka supplied a fifth to a third of them. The fixed first salary was not paid to Muslims in general or for French. None of the 63 officials who knew French and were first paid in Istanbul outside Darüşşafaka in 1890 to 1894 started on 400 kuruş. Of them, 37 were Muslims and 26 non-Muslims.
The results describe one ministry and not the whole Ottoman bureaucracy. These are not causal estimates. Officials reached schools, offices and posts through ability, family and connections that the registers do not record. The decree on the employment of the school's graduates has not been read.
Akyıldız (2024) found the biographies of this ministry's officials in the registers, in a doctoral thesis on the Post and Telegraph officials.
The thesis: Modernleşme döneminde Osmanlı memurları: Posta ve telgraf çalışanları üzerine ampirik bir analiz. Hacı Ömer Akyıldız, doctoral thesis, Marmara University, 2024.
The paper uses 4,274 of the 5,211 officials of this collection. A first salary in parts 3 to 5 is the paper's: the salary of the first year in which the paper's sample gives the official a salary. For 76 of the 1,142 officials of part 3 the annual entries of the personal page begin in another year, so a personal page can show another first amount. The percentages are differences in salary from the paper's regressions, with their 95 per cent intervals. Salaries are nominal monthly amounts in kuruş, as assigned.
How to read the records: the rules of this site. The numbers of this page come from the saved results of the paper, copied into the site's reference tables, and are checked against the paper's text at every test run.