Philanthropists and aid recipients of the Topkapı Philanthropic Society in the Unionist social context (1908–1918)

This article examines the Topkapı branch of the Ottoman Philanthropic Society, founded in 1908 within a local Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) club and reorganized as an independent organization in 1913. Based on previously unexamined archival materials, it adopts an actor-centred approach to analyse the social composition of administrators, donors, and aid recipients between 1908 and 1918. It explores how their distribution across millet, gender and socio-economic status reflects the organization of philanthropy, the social base of the CUP, and the transformation of its modes of social intervention in late Ottoman Istanbul. Despite an initially inclusive framework, the Society was governed by a predominantly Muslim and exclusively male board. Donors were more diverse, though non-Muslim and women’s participation remained limited. Educational and employment aid primarily targeted Muslim individuals, whereas healthcare services reached a broader population, particularly before 1913, after which non-Muslims no longer appear in the Society’s records.