Ottoman Armenian Document #49
![To the High Presence of His Excellency, the Most Noble Governor, It is the humble representation of your lowly servant that: Your humble servant [the petitioner] is the wife of Serop Karaoğlanian, residing in the Şifa neighborhood. Although I previously accepted the honor of Islam together with my two or three children, we have not yet succeeded in obtaining our identity certificates (nüfus tezkeresi). I humbly request that your Excellency be pleased to command the naming of our [new] names in the Sharia Court and the subsequent issuance and delivery of the necessary identity certificates. In this matter, the command and decree belong to those who hold authority. Dated: 7 September [Rumi] 1332 (20 September 1916) The humble servant [Name?], a convert (mühtedi), wife of Serop Karaoğlanian of Şifa Neighborhood.](https://d8e7jbdw4fu0e.cloudfront.net/15232/7ef03030-f3d1-11f0-a7e1-e1000b8ee6f4-v9Kvfpx.lg@2x.jpg)
Name/Title
Ottoman Armenian Document #49Scope and Content
Serop Karaoghlanian and his wife Markrid (born 1874), the daughter of Kevork and Maryam, were residents of the Şifa district in Malatya, living on Sülük Street at house No. 15/4. Following the likely death of Serop during the Armenian Genocide, Markrid and her children—Anna (born 1904–5), Hripsime, and Harutyun—faced a desperate struggle for survival that culminated in their conversion to Islam, a transition formalized in this official administrative document dated 7 September 1332 (20 September 1916). This registration served as the legal instrument through which their identities were fundamentally altered: Markrid was renamed Munise, while her daughter Anna became Zahide, Hripsime was renamed Nazife, and her minor son Harutyun was given the name Hacı Mehmed. This document reflects one of countless cases during the Armenian Genocide (1915–1916) in which Armenian women and children were forcibly converted to Islam as a means of survival. Under the guise of assimilation, the Ottoman state and local actors subjected Armenians to systemic deportations, mass violence, and the destruction of communal structures. Those who converted—whether voluntarily, semi-voluntarily, or under threat—were sometimes absorbed into Muslim households, orphanages, or institutions. Obtaining a Tezkire-i Osmaniye was not only a legal necessity but also a symbolic and practical validation of their new, state-approved identity. While many of these conversions were compelled by circumstance and fear, and were later reversed when possible, they left lasting scars on individuals and communities. Petitions like these remain as testimonies of survival, loss, and the painful bureaucratic reality of cultural erasure during one of the 20th century’s first genocides.Category
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