AMASYA 05

Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar · ESER VE YAZAR HAKKINDA · 2. AMASYA TARİHİ HAKKINDA · 2.4. Eserin Kaynakları · 2.4.2. Arşiv Kaynakları

Mukataât Registers

Encyclopedia · History of Amasya, Introduction: The Work and Its Author, p. 65 • Edited by: Doç. Dr. Songül KEÇECİ KURT

Original Text (Ottoman Turkish)

Mukâtaalar, senelik belli bir bedel karşılığında devlet adamlarına verilir veya emanet usulü ile idare edilirdi. Buradan elde edilen gelirlerin toplandığı yere de "Mukâtaât hazinesi" denilmiştir. Bu hazineye ait 778 defter bulunmaktadır. Bunun dışında mukataât defteri adı altında başka kalemlerde de defterler bulunmaktadır. İltizama verilen bir mukataanın isminin, kime verildiğinin, ait olduğu tahvil döneminin veya yılının, iltizam bedeli bilgileri maddeler halinde deftere kaydedilirdi. Bu defterlere 17. ve 18. yüzyılda “mukataa defterleri” denilmiştir.¹⁰⁹ Müellifin en çok yararlandığı kaynaklardan biridir. Özellikle malikane mutassarrıflığı, mukataa emini ve mukataa mültezimi görevlerini üstlenenlerin kayıtları dolayısıyla bu defterler kullanılmıştır.

Footnotes

  • 109 Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşiv Rehberi, s. 159.
Our Research Article Editor: Mevlüt Erdem Öztürk

In Modern English

Mukâtaas were given to statesmen for a fixed annual sum or were administered by the emanet method. The place where the revenues obtained from them were collected was also called the "Mukâtaât treasury". There are 778 registers belonging to this treasury. Apart from these there are also registers under the name mukâtaât register in other offices. Information such as the name of a mukâtaa given in tax farming (iltizam), to whom it was given, the tahvil period or year to which it belonged and the iltizam price was entered in the register item by item. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries these registers were called "mukâtaa registers". It is one of the sources the author used most. These registers were used especially for the records of those who took on the posts of malikâne holder, mukâtaa steward and mukâtaa tax farmer.

Notes and Research

Old Words in the Text

  • mukâtaa: a unit of state revenue fixed at a set sum
  • iltizam: granting the right to collect taxes to a private person for a fixed sum
  • mültezim: the person who undertakes the iltizam, who buys the right to collect taxes
  • emanet usulü: the direct collection of revenue by a state official
  • tahvil: the start of an iltizam period; a contract term of one to three years
  • malikâne: the form of mukâtaa transferred for life
  • mutasarrıf: a person with authority over a revenue or property
  • emin: an official who collects or manages revenue on behalf of the state

The Mukâtaa and Malikâne System

According to the Türkiye Diyanet Foundation Encyclopedia of Islam, mukâtaa at first described the farming out of taxes for a fixed amount; in time it became a term for the tax unit that was the subject of the iltizam. Mukâtaas were very varied: some brought in a few hundred akçe a year, while others reached ten or twenty million akçe. Some lay within the boundaries of a single village, others covered several provinces. Among the records at the centre, the office called Başmuhasebe was the largest. Mukâtaas in distant regions such as Tokat were recorded in groups in the Başmuhasebe.

The malikâne system began to be applied in 1695 and brought the granting of mukâtaas in iltizam for life. A berat was issued to the person who offered the highest down payment (muaccele) at the auction. When the malikâne holder died, the mukâtaa was regarded as "mahlûl" and put up for tender again. In this system the great majority of malikâne holders were middle and upper-ranking members of the military class. Malikâne holders, most of whom lived in Istanbul, often did not collect the tax themselves but appointed someone or farmed it out. Hüsameddin's search in these registers for those recorded as malikâne holders, mukâtaa stewards and tax farmers is therefore understandable: the names, years of service and prices of those who undertook these duties are recorded in these registers.

The Mukâtaa Registers in the Waqf Archive

The Waqf Records Archive of the General Directorate of Foundations has a separate series of mukâtaa registers; this series consists of 88 registers covering the years 1050-1330 in the hijri calendar (1640-1911 in the Gregorian) and concerns waqf mukâtaas. Here mukâtaa means the annual fee paid to the waqf for a privately owned building on waqf land. The "mukâtaât treasury" and the 778 registers in the text belong to the financial series in the Ottoman Archive and should not be confused with this waqf series.

Bibliography

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Academic studies

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