OSMANLI DEVLETİ’NİN YETİMLER KONSERVATUVARI: DARÜLEYTAMLAR (1900-1922)
ORPHANS CONSERVATORY OF THE OTTOMAN STATE: DARÜLEYTAMS (1900-1922)

Summary/Abstract: In the Ottoman Empire, the secondary schools where orphaned and needy children were educated under the auspices of the state were called "darüleytam". These schools, which started to be opened with a decree issued during the reign of Sultan II. Abdülhamid and continued to exist until the years of the Independence War, were accepted as boarders, regardless of a certain age limit, from families who lost their parents or had financial difficulties. The most important feature that distinguishes Dârüleytam from other secondary schools is the intensity of the music lessons in their curriculum. Many darüleytam students who attended these lessons were a famous composer or performer in the future, and worked as music teachers and marching band officers in schools affiliated with the musika-i humayun and Maârif. The aims of the conservatories, the first examples of which we saw in the XVI and XVII centuries in Europe, were to bring homeless children to the society by directing them to art, just like in the Ottoman Empire. The students studying at the "conservatiore", which was first opened as a hospital in Naples and later converted into a music school, consisted of orphans and needy children. These children who graduated from their schools were assigned as organists in churches and chapels, thus avoiding crime and becoming beneficial individuals for the society. The difference that distinguishes the darüleytams from these conservatories is that they contain music branches within themselves rather than a music school.

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