The Vilayet of the Danube or Danubian Vilayet (Ottoman Turkish: ولايت طونه, romanized: Vilâyet-i Tuna; Bulgarian: Дунавска област, Dunavska(ta) oblast, more commonly Дунавски вилает, Danube Vilayet) was a first-level administrative division (vilayet) of the Ottoman Empire from 1864 to 1878. In the late 19th century it reportedly had an area of 34,120 square miles (88,400 km2).
The vilayet was created by merging the Eyalets of Niš, Vidin and Silistra (in its post-1826 borders, after losing all kazas south of the Balkan mountains that were spun off into the Edirne Vilayet). The Danube Vilayet was meant to become a model province, showcasing all the progress achieved by the Porte through the modernising Tanzimat reforms. Other vilayets modelled on the vilayet of the Danube were ultimately established throughout the empire by 1876, with the exception of the Arabian Peninsula and the by then semi-independent Egypt. Rusçuk, today Ruse in Bulgaria, was chosen as the capital of the vilayet due to its position as a key Ottoman port on the Danube.
The province disappeared after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, when its north-eastern part (Northern Dobruja) was incorporated into Romania, some of its western territories into Serbia, while the central and southern regions made up most of the autonomous Principality of Bulgaria and a part of Eastern Rumelia.
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Borders and administrative divisions
Upon its establishment in 1864, the Danube Vilayet included the following sanjaks:
Sanjak of Tulcea
Sanjak of Varna
Sanjak of Ruse
Sanjak of Tărnovo
Sanjak of Vidin
Sanjak of Sofia
Sanjak of Niš
In 1868, the Sanjak of Niš was detached and made part of the Prizren Vilayet.
In 1876, the Sanjak of Niš and the Sanjak of Sofia were spun off into the short-lived Sofia Vilayet but were subsequently annexed to the Vilayets of Adrianople and Kosovo Vilayets only a year later, in 1877.
Government
Midhat Pasha was the first governor of the vilayet (1864–1868). During his time as a governor, steamship lines were established on the Danube River; the Ruse-Varna railroad was completed; agricultural credit cooperatives providing farmers with low-interest loans were introduced; tax incentives were also offered to encourage new industrial enterprises.
The first official vilayet newspaper in the Ottoman Empire, Tuna/Dunav, was published in both Ottoman Turkish and Bulgarian and had both Ottoman and Bulgarian editors. Its editors in chief included Ismail Kemal and Ahmed Midhat Efendi.
The vilayet had an Administrative Assembly that included state officials appointed by the Ottoman government as well as six representatives (three Muslims and three non-Muslims) elected from among the inhabitants of the province. Non-Muslims also participated in the provincial criminal and commercial courts that were based on a secular code of law and justice. Mixed Muslim-Christian schools were also introduced, but this reform was abolished after it was met by strong opposition by the populace.
Governors
Governors of the Vilayet:
Hafiz Ahmed Midhat Shefik Pasha (October 1864 – March 1868)
Mehmed Sabri Pasha (March 1868 – December 1868)
Arnavud Mehmed Akif Pasha (February 1869 – October 1870)
Kücük ömer Fevzi Pasha (October 1870 – October 1871)
Ahmed Rasim Pasha (October 1871 – June 1872)
Ahmed Hamdi Pasha (June 1872 – April 1873)
Abdurrahman Nureddin Pasha (April 1873 – April 1874)
Mehmed Asim Pasha (April 1874 – September 1876)
Halil Rifat Pasha (October 1876 – February 1877)
Oman Mazhar Ahmed (1876–1877)
Demographics
According to the 1831 Ottoman census, the male population of the kazas to subsequently form the Danube Vilayet stood at 477,862 souls, including 306,534 Orthodox Christians or Rayah (64.15%), 159,308 Muslims (33.33%), 11,603 Romani (2.43%) and 417 Jews (0.09%). The census only covered healthy taxable men between 15 and 60 years of age, who were free from disability.
Reliable data about the population of the Niš, Vidin and Silistra Eyalets, which were to form the Danube Vilayet in 1864, appeared only in the late 1850s, in the form of an Ottoman summary population register and a 1858 report by the British consul in Varna, Edward S. J. Neale (also based on the registers). According to Neale, the combined, male and female population of the three eyalets was 1,390,855, including 430,485 Muslims (30.95%), 910,735 Orthodox Bulgarians (65.48%), 10,100 Greeks (0.73%), 25,000 Vlachs (1.80%), 5,000 Jews (0.36%), and 9,535 "others" (0.68%). He noted that the Muslim population was in a steady demographic decline, while the Bulgarian one had increased considerably due to the Tanzimat reforms.
Nevertheless, compared with subsequent Ottoman statistics, Neale's figures appear to be an undercount, especially of Muslims, even though his opinion of population trends is shared by a number of Turkish historians, e.g., Kemal Karpat, who has cited an annual growth rate of 0% for Muslims and 2% for Non-Muslims for much of the 1800s.
According to the first modern Ottoman population register of 1859–1860, the Niš Eyalet, Vidin Eyalet and Silistra Eyalet had a male population of 821,682, whereof 284,934 Muslims (34.68%), including 19,599 Muslim Romani (2.39%), and 536,748 Non-Muslims (65.32%), including 3,258 Non-Muslim Romani (0.4%). Total population, including women, was therefore 1,643,364, of whom 569,969 Muslims and 1,073,496 Non-Muslims. The register, however, did not cover the population of the Sanjaks of Mecidiye (Medgidia) and Sünne (Sulina) in Northern Dobruja, nor any Muhacir population. Compared with the—albeit incomplete and poorly executed 1831 census—the figures indicate a whooping population growth of 71.95%, which is difficult to explain by natural growth alone.
At the same time, the proportions of the Muslim, Non-Muslim and Roma populations remained, by and large, similar. The number of Muslims grew by 66.55%, the number of Non-Muslims by 71.95%, while the Christian and Muslim Romani population practically doubled, posting an increase of 97.03%. However, despite steady growth rates, especially among Non-Muslims, the more likely reason for the drastic increase can be sought in the poor quality of the 1831 census, including missing data about a number of heavily populated kazas. In addition, as the census covered healthy taxable men over 15 only, it is unclear how much of the male population was actually counted, with, e.g., Arkadiev suggesting a multiplication factor of 2.02 to just calculate all males.