This article presents a detailed analysis of the legal status of Armenians in Bilād al-Shām (Northern Country or Land, Greater Syria) as a dhimmī and a constituent part of the Armenian millet, as well as their socio-economic status as a ra‘iyah in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries of Ottoman rule.
The evolution of territorial and social governance systems was a direct result of the necessity to administer the conquered regions and populations.
The state classified the population according to religious affiliation, rather than ethno-linguistic identity. Consequently, the non-Muslim population of the empire, which constituted approximately 40 percent of the population in the mid-sixteenth century, was divided into three religious communities or millets: Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and Jewish․