Reclamation of Agrarian Space in Parts of Ottoman Rumeli, 15th – 16th centuries (Case study of the kaza of Eskihisar Zağra) (original) (raw)
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RURAL SETTLEMENTS FROM OTTOMAN ANATOLIA: THE CASE OF THE DISTRICT OF KIRELI OF KONYA OF 1845
KARADENİZ ARAŞTIRMALARI
This research article is based mainly on Ottoman archival data of 1845. They are manuscripts, written in Ottoman Turkish. Ottoman government needs cash in the years of 1820s due to wars with Russia and Iran. To achieve this, the state demands extra taxes from all peasants of Anatolia. In this study, the economic situation of 22 small Muslim villages of the district of Kıreli of Konya of Anatolia was examined in outline. Agriculture and livestock were the main means of livelihood for the Muslim peasants. However, with the increase of the population, the economic resources were not enough for the Muslim peasants and the nomads (Yörük) living in this region. Many men had to leave their villages and went to the large cities to earn struggle for life. Ottoman administration founds them there and also taxes the labor. This was a very heavy practice for them. In the region, most villages were abandoned. The peasants had to be content with only rural resources. The vacant agricultural lands were immediately planted by the surrounding peasants.
HACETTEPE ÜNİVERSİTESİ İİBF DERGİSİ, 2016
In spite of the prevailing hegemony of petty commodity production over the structure of Turkish agriculture, Southeastern Anatolia Region of the country had been characterized by relatively high share of large scale agricultural estates usually cultivated by small tenants on a sharecropping basis until late 20th century. The peculiarity of the region was at the heart of the debates around agrarian question of Turkey and it was interpreted in the context of feudalism or semi-feudalism from 1960s onwards. This study aims to evaluate the theoretical premises of this debate through a critical approach by focusing on the economic, social and political aspects of Ottoman rule in the region from 16th century onwards to the early 20th century.
2019
The present article is an attempt to reveal the process of adaption of the colonized Muslim population in parts of Ottoman Rumeli -modern Eastern Upper Thrace, where the majority of the migrated population were the semi-nomadic groups of the yörüks. After the establishment of new settlement network in the region at the end of the 15th and first half of the 16th centuries, the huge pasturelands and swamps were converted to regular exploitations under the çift-hane system by the semi-nomadic groups. Last led to the sedentarizaion of some of the yörüks and changes in the settlement network. A role in the process played the ottoman state by implementing special tax policy toward the yörük taxpayers.
Third European Convention on Turkic, Ottoman and Turkish Studies, 2018
This paper examines the emergence of a new agrarian society and settlement system in the uninhabited regions of the Lower Danube frontier districts Razgrad, Cherven and Shumen in the first half of the 16th century. Contrary to the Mehmet II”s deportation policy, Suleyman I (1520-1566) granted lands to the leaders and members of the sufi orders as free hold property as the first step of a new settlement policy. The first sufi convents emerged in these uninhabited lands in the second and third decade of the 16th century. According to the Ottoman land and tax surveys of 1516,1530 and1556, seventy six new settlements emerged around these sufi convents and both settlement and personal names in these regions indicate that the settlers were sheikhs, members of sufi orders, divided nomadic clans of Western Anatolia, new converts and freed slaves. The land and tax surveys indicate that the names of these first settlements also imply a proper division of labour. These villages were producers of specific military goods such as Okçu (arrow maker), Kılıççı (sword maker), Semerci (saddle maker). In addition, significant tax exemptions given to these villages indicate a policy that specifically designed in order to promote increase in agricultural production in a short period. This paper examines the reasons behind why Ottoman central authority specifically populated the uninhabited lands of Razgrad, Cherven and Shumen districts and why a gradual settlement policy was applied other than deportation. Also this paper explores why these people were chosen and directed to these regions as the first settlers. Lastly, this paper answers why there were a proper division of labor among these villages and why promoting agricultural production using tax exemptions in the new villages was more important than maximizing the tax revenue for the central authority .
2017
Bu makale 15. ve 17. yuzyila ait mufassal ve icmal tapu tahrir defterlerine, Sofya’da Milli Kutuphanenin Şarkiyat Bolumunde muhafaza edilen belgelere, seyahat raporlarina, Osmanli kroniklerine ve yayinlanmis hatiratlara dayanmaktadir. Osmanli Rumelisinin bir kasabasi olan Eskihisar Zagra’da etnik-demografik degisim ve Musluman nufusun kolonizasyonunu ortaya koymaktadir. Kasabada sehir mekaninin organizasyonu surecini ve Musluman ibadethanelerinin insasini arastirmaktadir. Calismanin son bolumu yerlesimin ekonomik yapisini ortaya koymaktadir.