Ottoman death registers (Vefeyat Defterleri) and recording deaths in Istanbul, 1838-1839

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the first recognisably modern-style death registers in the Ottoman Empire. These were produced, in 1838-9, as a result of the state's reaction to the cholera pandemic of 1831. This article shows how these registers were designed and structured, how they differed to those that preceded and came after them and so occupied a key point in the transition to the medicalisation of death and the import of Western-style statistical analysis. The article demonstrates how these registers offer details that can be used to build a picture of the social, economic and demographic profile of death in Istanbul in these years.