Reclamation of Agrarian Space in Parts of Ottoman Rumeli, 15th – 16th centuries (Case study of the kaza of Eskihisar Zağra)

Year 2021, Issue: 12, 32 - 41, 15.04.2021

Milena Petkova

https://doi.org/10.21021/osmed.865451

Abstract

The study focuses on the process of reclamation of agrarian space on the territory of the Thracian valley, the kaza of Eskihisar Zağra. Based on different archival material – ottoman registrations of 15th and 16th centuries, chronicles and travelllers’ accounts it reveals features of the local environment and the adaptation of the colonized Muslim population to the conquered territories. In the analyses of the economic activities and the agrarian profile of the villages we use a different approach which is more secure in times of inflation as it was the last decades of the 16th century. We define the number and quantity of different agrarian productions but not as a quantity in money but to show each agrarian production as a tax portion to the total tax portion of the villages instead of comparing enlisted numbers of the registered taxes. It traces back the process of reclamation of the agrarian space by revealing the agrarian profile of the registered newly established settlements. The main observations refer to the role of the semi-nomadic groups of the yürüks who were engaged more in agriculture, than in pastoral nomadism.

Keywords

agriculture, pastoral nomadism, yürüks

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