THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE RELIC CONCEPT IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Mankind has always been interested in movable or immovable works that have been left of the communities before me for various reasons in every period of history. This interest and relevance has sometimes been related to the love of art and culture, and sometimes to religious beliefs, ancestral cult or respect for the past. The Ottoman Empire, which was founded on the Anatolian territory, which was rich in cultural aspects and hosted many civilizations, tried to protect the antiquities from the societies that lived before it according to the principles of Islamic Fiqh. In the beginning, the conservation efforts that started in accordance with the principles of Islamic Fiqh were tried to be regulated with the regulations prepared considering the developments in Europe since the beginning of the 19th century. In this context the Ottoman Empire in 1869, 1874 in 1884 and later legal regulations for the protection of antiquities in a long time with the regulation prepared in 1906, which will be used by the Republic of Turkey has made. Archeological excavations have been carried out in various parts of the Ottoman geography in order to protect the antiquities on their lands and to prevent them from being smuggled abroad. In this study, general evaluations will be made by considering how and in what way the understanding of the Ottoman Empire was born, the development of the antiquities policies and the processes that they have gone through, the studies conducted in line with these policies and the results of these studies