1. See Zürcher (1993) for an assessment of official history as it took shape during the one-party period of the Turkish Republic. [BACK]

2. See Zürcher (1993) for an assessment of the massive losses among the civilian population, both Armenian (pp. 119–21) and Muslim (pp. 170-72). [BACK]

3. Yiğit 1950, 88. [BACK]

4. Yiğit (1950, 96) estimates the number of troops at five thousand regular soldiers, three thousand Oflu irregular soldiers, and another three thousand regular infantry who arrived on the tenth day of the battle. [BACK]

5. The Russian army occupied the eastern segment of the province, including the town of Trabzon, for about two years. Failing to control the Zigana Pass, which connects the port of the provincial capital with the highlands, the Russians undertook to build a road from Of to Bayburt. Many Oflus eventually worked on the road, but the money given them as wages soon became worthless. [BACK]

6. Umur 1949, 46. [BACK]

7. Yiğit 1950, 91:

Lâzistan Havalisi Kumandanlıığıı / Bismillahirrahmanirrahim; / Müftü kazayıı Of Hüseyin Sabri efendiye / Mektup velâi selâhiyetimdir. / Bu kerre kazayıı Of'da [mukim] ve misafir harp ve darbe veya nakliyat veya inşaatıı ceriyyeye kudreti vafir [bilumum] firarî, bekaya ve tebdilhava efradıınıın nezdi fazilânelerine yollanan ve emir ve kararıımııza terfik olunan Hacıı Haşıım ağanıın sây ve gayreti ve sizin din ve devlet uğrundaki fedakârane faaliyetiniz ile cem ve tarafııma sevk olunmalııdıır. [Müfrezede] ve kapıısıı önünde çalıışmaktan ve emrinize itaatten [i stinkâf] edecek kimseler üzerine dünyanıın eşeddi ceza ve mesaibini yağdıırmağa sana selâhiyeti tamme verdim. Bu gibi kimselerin hanelerini ihrak ve tahrip ve evlât ve ahfat ve [akraba] ve [tallükatıınıı] nefy ve tazip hususundaki icraatıınıızıı görmek isterim. / Veminellahitevfik. / 28—Şubat—1331 / Lâzist an Havalisi kumandanıı / Mirliva Ahmet Avni.

8. The provincial government subjected the district population to such measures on at least four occasions. Troops surrounded and deported seven villages in 1710/1121 (Umur 1956, Nos. 45, 46). Canııklıı Ali sent about ten thousand troops into Of sometime around 1775 (Goloğlu 1975, 44–45). Süleyman Pasha sent twenty-five thousand troops into the district of Of and Sürmene in 1817 (Aktepe 1950–52, 33; MAE CCCT L. 2, Nos. 43, 47, 49, 50, Dupré). Osman Pasha sent twenty-five thousand troops into the districts of Of and Sürmene in 1832 (PRO FO 524/2 p. 19, May 1832; PRO FO 524/1 p. 23, Aug. 1832, Brant). Houses are burned and men are hanged (PRO FO 195/101, July 17, 1839). A large force is dispatched to punish the Lazes (PRO FO 195/101, Sept. 9, 1839). [BACK]

9. Umur (1949, 47) and Yiğit (1950, 104) relate other anecdotes that suggest that Avni Pasha was not among the most progressive Ottoman military commanders. They describe how he dispatched his soldiers to the front promising to reward them with a silver coin for each enemy hat and a gold coin for every enemy rifle, a practice reminiscent of payment for each head of an enemy soldier, still an official policy during the eighteenth century. Umur also recounts how Avni Pasha flew into a rage when he received the report of one of his cavalryman, striking him on the head with his horsewhip and threatening him with execution. After intercession on the part of another military officer, the cavalryman was allowed to explain that he had failed to remove telephone lines before the arrival of the enemy out of fear for his life. [BACK]

10. He would be even better informed several years later, after completing a program of archival research (Umur 1951, 1956). [BACK]

11. Umur 1949, 29–30. [BACK]

12. Cf. Barkan 1942a, 1942b. [BACK]

13. Yiğit explains that an organization (teşkilat) was set up to assemble volunteers for the battle (1950, 91–92). The individuals who participated in this organization are then listed for each of the principal areas of Of (pp. 93–96). Here we find the names of the old aghas from the principal agha-families of the old Five and Twenty-five parties, including the Selimoğlu, Muradoğlu, Nuhoğlu, Tellioğlu, Bektaşoğlu, Cansıızoğlu, and so on. [BACK]

14. There are also one pasha, two beys, and one efendi among the names. [BACK]

15. As we shall see in chap. 10, it was not always a question of their descendants. There were also a few examples of the old aghas of the later imperial period (Reşat Agha, Harun Agha) who re-emerged as leading individuals during the later Turkish Republic. [BACK]

16. The other two are individuals from well-known family groupings, but they are given the title "educated gentlemen" (efendi). [BACK]

17. Some of the family names include the titles hacıı and molla, but these were of historical rather than current significance. [BACK]

18. For example, the two other photographs of individuals are of "Boduroğlu Hasan Efendi" and "Hacııbektaşoğlu Ömer Efendi," both of whom are wearing a Kemalist tie but also sporting the beard of a hacıı. Hasan Efendi, who is shown bareheaded, is none other than Hasan Umur, who studied under a distinguished religious professor as well as in secular institutions. Ömer Efendi, who is shown wearing a fez, probably also had such a mixed religious and secular education. [BACK]

19. The dedication of the book and its place of sale provide indications of these connections. [BACK]

20. In his account of the Battle for Of, I have discovered only three instances of personal names with the title. They all occur in the same sentence, where they refer to one, and only one, agha taking part: "According to Genç Agha Nuhoğlu, as many as sixty people took part in the battle [on a certain hill near a certain village], among whom were found Ali Agha Nuhoğlu, the son of Esat Agha, and ıızzet De-mircioğlu" (Umur 1949, 55). [BACK]

22. It is true that he gives a favorable report on Memiş Agha Tuzcuoğlu, but only as an instance of the cruelty and corruption of imperial state officials, such as Osman Paşa Hazinedaroğlu. It is perhaps significant that Memiş Agha was also a merchant and financier, like Hasan Umur himself during his later years. [BACK]

23. Later, of course, he would publish the results of his archival research (Umur 1951, 1956), which would cast the aghas and agha-families in a highly unfavorable light. [BACK]

24. Umur 1949, 45–46. Although Umur does not explain the hodja's grudge, the central government had favored diminishing the authority of the learned class at this time and was about to undertake further secular reforms of the educational and judicial system (Zürcher 1993, 125-26). [BACK]

25. For an account of the concepts of sovereignty and citizenship in what I have termed the old republic, see Meeker 1996. [BACK]

26. Ferhat Agha explained his decision in a letter dated June 6, 1916, which was sent to the müftü of Of, then in hiding (Yiğit 1950, 124–25). It would have been difficult for the Russian army to govern the eastern coastal districts without them. It is therefore quite likely that their absence would have only compounded the suffering and hardship of the general population. Their "collaboration" can therefore be plausibly justified, even by the criteria of nationalist patriotism. [BACK]

27. Early on, the nationalists had set up the independence courts to deal with their opponents (Shaw and Kural 1977, 352–53; Zürcher 1993, 159). [BACK]

28. Zürcher 1993, 376-80. [BACK]

29. Shankland (1999) notes that an armed uprising against the Dress Law that occurred in Rize on November 25, 1925, first began in the district of Of. If this is true, my interlocutors discreetly avoided mentioning it to me. [BACK]

30. Lewis 1961, 269; Zürcher 1993, 181-83. [BACK]

31. A short biography appeared in the Halk Gazetesi (Apr. 28, 1949). [BACK]

32. Each of these sets were built around a core agnatic lineage of the family line, as in the instance of the sons and grandsons of Ferhat Agha (see fig. 2). I use "set" in the place of "lineage," there being a local term for the former but not the latter. [BACK]

33. Lewis 1961, 283. [BACK]

34. Each patronymic has a learned, written form in Ottoman, where the Persian suffix "zade" replaces the Turkic "oğlu." So one also encounters the older Ottoman variants, Selimzade and Muradzade. This would be a pretentious usage during the Turkish Republic, but I have encountered it a few times. [BACK]

35. It is possible that elision of the suffix was common in informal usage even before the Name Law. Today one often hears the usage "the Murads" (Muradlar), "the Selim" (Selimler), "the Şişiks" (Şişikler), "the Abdiks" (Abdikler), and others. [BACK]

36. The office of headman (muhtar) for the municipality had been abolished at this time. [BACK]

37. The records of the cooperative show that a total of about 4,000 Turkish lira was made available in loans during the fiscal year 1933. The amount of loans outstanding and the number of members at the close of the fiscal year were not given. In 1937, the records show that a total of about 5,000 Turkish lira had been loaned to forty members by the end of the fiscal year. [BACK]

38. I shall have some rather bleak things to say about the way in which cooperatives were run, but I do not mean to judge them as complete failures. They were organized to serve villagers, and eventually they did. Still, they could not escape the circumstances of the political transformation of which they were a part. I shall use them as examples to indicate the character and problems of that transformation, not to cast doubt on government assistance programs. [BACK]

39. The cooperative movement had its beginnings in the late Ottoman period, primarily after the revolution of 1908 (Lewis 1961, 453). [BACK]

40. The titles "bay" and "bayan" can be compared to the French "citoyen" and "citoyenne." The former, like the latter, were introduced when titles of the old regime, such as "bey" and "hanıım," were suppressed. Eventually, they lost currency and were replaced by more generalized usages of "bey" and "hanıım." [BACK]

41. In all likelihood, the speech against aghas as given by the district officer of Of in April 1939 was also a commemoration of Atatürk. [BACK]

42. The article was titled "Impressions of a Trip from Trabzon to Of" (Trabzondan Ofa Gidiş Gelişin Intibalarıı) and appeared in Yeni Yol, Apr. 22, 1939. [BACK]