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The madrasahs of the Ottoman period are continuations of their predecessors in Seljuks in terms of both the sciences and books taught and employment opportunities. Students, who have completed their madrasah education by getting ijazatnāma/id̲j̲āza, were employed as professors and judges or pursued religious careers as muftis, preachers, and imams. Therefore, madrasahs met the juridical, administrative, civilian, and educational staff needs of the state for a long time. In addition, new educational institutions opened especially after the Period of Tanzimat (18391878) met the staff need of the state in the mentioned areas and even narrowed employment areas of madrasahs in later times. However, issues such as the conditions of madrasahs, the lives of mudarrisun, the examination and employment of students were mostly studied with the samples of bilād-ı salāsa (Istanbul, Bursa, and Edirne), and there were not enough studies about the case in rural areas. Therefore, this study discusses the employment of a mudarris in the countryside through his education life and exam papers, in the sample of İlyas Efendi (18731956), the mudarris of Hatay/Dörtyol, and his registry file. In the study, a qualitative research method based on data collection and content analysis of documents was used. In this context, the Ottoman Archive of Prime Ministry, and partially, Haleb, Adana, and Ankara provincial yearbooks/annuals (sālnāma) and National Education Yearbooks were used. Ilyas Efendi, who was born in Hācın (Saimbeyli) and received his first education there, was appointed as a mudarris by a scientific committee by judging his competence and merit. Western influence in education that started with the Tanzimat Period and modernization in education with the establishment of new educational institutions caused some changes and contractions in the employment of madrasah graduates. As a matter of fact, while the need for judicial, administrative, military, etc. officials was met by newly opened educational institutions, employment areas of the madrasah was mostly comprised of officials who would perform religious services and madrasah staff such as mudarrisun. When Ilyas Efendi’s education life, ijazatnāma/id̲j̲āza texts, and exam document are examined, it is seen that he was tested in the sciences he studied, and there are no direct questions in the disciplines such as Tafsir, Hadith and the Methodology of Hadith. Although there is no clear information about the field(s) in which Ilyas Efendi thaught in the document we examined, it can be argued that he primarily gave lectures on religious disciplines such as Fiqh and Kalam, as well as Arabic Language and Rhetoric, based on the certificate and examination. Although it is difficult to talk about a standard curriculum with a certain framework, it can be concluded from the file belonging to İlyas Efendi that the courses/books taught in the rural madrasahs are similar to the texts taught in the Ottoman madrasahs in almost every period, and in this respect, they continue the Ottoman central madrasah culture to a large extent. It is also possible to see this from the series of scholars in the text of id̲j̲āza. In addition, when the Ottoman Madrasahs and their curriculum are examined, common books such as Mutavval, (Molla) Cāmî, Multeka’l-Ebhur, Dureru’l-Hukkām, Şerh-i Akāid and Îsāgûcî (to be taught in different degrees) are encountered. Considering the works taught and the practices related to employment, it can be concluded that it is not possible to distinguish the madrasahs in the rural areas from their counterparts in the urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]