The Institutional Structure of Encumen-i Danis

From the second quarter of nineteenth century, the ottoman empire initiated an extensive modernization. in this framework, the empire made a number of alterations to its existing foundations, and established new ones. encümen-i danis, which was established in 1851 to operate like the scientific institutions in europe, was the first of its kind in both the ottoman history and the islamic world. its organizational structure was significantly different from other institutions of the empire. some of these differences stemmed from its being a scientific institution, while some from the inexperience and confusion of state administrators. despite encümen-i danis operated for a short period of time, like 12 years, studying encümen-i danis will give us some clues about how modern foundations in the ottoman empire were attempted to be established as well as the mentality of the government of the era. this study will primarily focus on the institutional structure of this special institution in the context of the founding charter.