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Ḥawāla

(1,747 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, as a financial term, assignation; in Islamic finance, an assignation on a muḳāṭaʿa [ q.v.] effected by order of the ruler in favour of a third party. The term is applied both to the mandate for the payment and to the sum paid. It is already established in these senses in ʿAbbāsid finance (see F. Løkkegaard, Islamic taxation in the classic period, Copenhagen 1950, 63-5). In the ʿAbbāsid empire, ḥawāla was widely used in both state and private finances to avoid the dangers and delays inherent in the transport of cash. The mandates were known as suftad̲j̲a [ q.v.] or ṣakk [ q.v.]. Thus we know tha…

Dog̲h̲and̲j̲i̊

(924 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
Turkish term for falconer, from dog̲h̲an , falcon ( tog̲h̲an in Ki̊pčak Turkish, cf. al-Tuḥfa al-zakiyya fi ’l-lug̲h̲a al-Turkiyya , ed. B. Atalay, Istanbul 1945, 260), and in general use any kind of bird of prey. Bāzdār , from Persian, was also frequently used for the dog̲h̲and̲j̲i̊ . In the Ottoman empire the term dog̲h̲and̲j̲i̊ in the same sense as in later periods was found as early as the 8th/14th century (cf. P. Wittek, Zu einigen frühosmanischen Urkunden , in WZKM, liv (1957), 240; lvii (1961), 103; for dog̲h̲and̲j̲i̊ čiftligi see H. Inalcık, Sûret-i defter-i sancak-i Arvanid

Aḥmad Pas̲h̲a, called Bursali̊̊

(606 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman poet of the second half of the 15th century, the most important after S̲h̲eyk̲h̲ī and before Ned̲j̲ātī. He was the son of the ḳāḍī ʿasker Welī al-Dīn b. Ilyās (who claimed descent from Ḥusayn) and was most probably born in Adrianople (according to some authorities in Brusa). He was appointed müderris at the madrasa of Murād II in Brusa and in 855/1451 succeeded Mollā Ḵh̲osrew as ḳāḍī of Adrianople. After the accession of Muḥammad II he became ḳāḍī ʿasker, and tutor of the new ruler, obtaining the rank of vizier. He accompanied the sultan during the conquest ¶ of Constantinople. Thou…

Mazraʿa

(3,189 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
(a.), mazraʿa , mezra or ekinlik in Turkish, means in general arable land, a field; as used in the Ottoman survey registers, it designates a periodic settlement or a deserted village and its fields. According to a regulation, to register a piece of land as mazraʿa it was required that it be checked whether the place had a village site in ruins, its own water supply and a cemetery (Barkan, 53, 133, 190). Such a piece of land is occasionally called matrūk yer, abandoned land. In the daftars [ q.v.] we often find the following note on mazraʿas : “previously it was a villag…

Erzurum

(921 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
one of the principal cities in eastern Turkey, today the chief town of the province of Erzurum with a population of 91,196 (1960 census). Situated between the Karasu and Aras valleys which formed the main thorough fare between Turkey and Īrān for caravans and armies, Erzurum has been an important commercial and military centre in the area since antiquity. It was the ancient Ḳarin, also called Ḳarnoi Ḳal(g̲h̲)aḳ in Armenian, from which Ḳālīḳalā or Ḳālī in the Arabic sources (cf. Ibn Ḥawḳal, i, 343; Ibn al-Faḳīh, Ak̲h̲bār al-buldān , Leiden 1885, 295) must have …

Aḥmad Pas̲h̲a K̲h̲āʾin

(380 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman Vizier. Georgian in origin, Aḥmed entered Selīm I’s palace as iĉ-og̲h̲lani̊ ; later, as büyük emīr-i ākhūr he took part in the campaign against the Mamlūks in 1516-7 and became beglerbegi of Rūm-ili in 1519. In the campaign of Süleymān I against Belgrade Aḥmed’s plan of operations was accepted. Accordingly he took Bögürdelen (Sabacz) (2 S̲h̲aʿbān 927/8 July 1521) and invaded Syrmia. As a reward for his services in the siege of Belgrade the sultan appointed him vizier of the dīwān (autumn of 1521). In the campaign against Rhodes he, as commander…

Iskender Beg

(2,429 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman name for George (Gjergj) Kastriota (b. 808/1405, d. 872/1468), in Western sources Scanderbeg, etc., hero of the Al-banian “resistance” to the Turks in the mid-9th/15th century. By the first half of the 9th/15th century the Kastriota family, with their centre at Matia, had supplanted the Bashas as the most influential power of Northern Albania. They had acknowledged Ottoman suzerainty since 787/1385; Iskender’s father John/Ivan (in Ottoman sources Yovan) had been a buffer between the Venetians installed in Scutari (Is̲h̲kodra [ q.v.]) and the Ottomans, ready to flee …

Meḥemmed I

(4,140 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman sultan, reigned 816-24/1413-21, also known as Čelebi (Turkish "of high descent", "prince") or as Kiris̲h̲d̲j̲i (from Krytzes , meaning in Greek "young lord"). During the period of interregnum, 804-16/1402-13, he ruled over Anatolia from Tokat, Amasya, and Bursa while his brothers Süleyman (804-13/1402-11) and Mūsā (813-16/1411-13) had control of Rūmili from Edirne. Meḥemmed brought under his rule Bursa and western Anatolia in the years 805-6/1403-4 and 813-16/1410-13, and finally ac…

Rūmeli̇

(4,166 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, originally rūm-ili , the territory of the Rūm [ q.v.], the geographical name given to the Balkan peninsula by the Ottomans; also the ¶ name of the Ottoman province which included this region. The Muslims knew the Byzantines as Rūm , and the Eastern Roman Empire as Bilād al-Rūm or Mamlakat al-Rūm , hence once Anatolia came under Turkish-Islamic rule, the designation Rūm survived as a geographic name to designate Asia Minor. Some Western travellers of the 13th century, however, referred to Anatolia under Turkish rule as Turquemenie or Turquie and used the name Romania

G̲h̲zī Girāy III

(192 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ḵh̲ān of the Crimea from 1116/1704 until 1118/1707. In Rad̲j̲ab 1110/January 1699 he was appointed Nuradin ( Nūr al-Dīn [ q.v.]) by his brother Dewlet Girāy II, but rebelled, in collusion wtih the Nog̲h̲ay, and was dismissed. He came to Edirne and was exiled by the Porte to Rhodes. Upon the accession of his father Selīm Girāy [ q.v.] in 1114/1702, he was recalled and made ḳalg̲h̲ay [ q.v.], and at his death succeeded him as Ḵh̲ān (3 Ramaḍān 1116/30 December 1704). In spite of the Porte’s pacific attitude, he himself followed an anti-Russian policy during the Ru…

D̲j̲em

(2,363 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
son of Sultan Meḥemmed II, was born on 27 Ṣafar 864/22 December 1459 in Edirne (cf. Wāḳiʿāt-i Sulṭān Ḏj̲em , 1). His mother, Čiček K̲h̲ātūn, was one of the djāriyes in Meḥemmed II’s harem. She may have been connected with the Serbian royal house (cf. Thuasne, Djem-Sultan , Paris 1892, 2). Her brother, ʿAlī Beg, was with D̲j̲em in Rhodes in 887/1482 ( Wāḳiʿāt , 7). D̲j̲em was sent to the sand̲j̲aḳ of Ḳastamoni as its governor with his two lalas in the first ten days ( awāʾil ) of Rad̲j̲ab 873/15-25 January 1469 ( Wāḳiʿāt, 1; according to Kemāl Pas̲h̲azāde, Tevârih-i Āl-i Osman

Čift-Resmi̇

(593 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
also called čift-ḥaḳḳi̊ or ḳulluḳ-aḳčasi̊ , in the Ottoman empire the basic raʿiy̲y̲e̲t (see reʿāyā ) tax paid in principle by every Muslim peasant, raʿiyyet , possessing one čift . The term čift (original meaning = "pair") was used to denote the amount of agricultural land which could be ploughed by two oxen. It was fixed as from 60 to 150 dönüm s according to the fertility of the soil (one dönüm was about 1000 sq. m. = 1196 sq. yds.). We find a čift-aḳčasi̊ in Anatolia under the Sald̲j̲ūḳids at the rate of one dīnār [ q.v.]. On the other hand the Ottoman čift-resmi had stri…

D̲j̲amālī

(623 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Mawlānā ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-D̲j̲amālī , Ottoman S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ al-Islām from 908/1502 to 932/1526, also called simply ʿAlī Čelebi or Zenbilli ʿAlī Efendi, was of a family of S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ s and scholars of Ḳaramān who had settled in Amasya. D̲j̲amālī was born in this city (Ḥ. Ḥusām al-Dīn, Amasya taʾrīk̲h̲i , i, Istanbul 1327, 105, 321). After his studies under such famous scholars as Mollā K̲h̲usraw in Istanbul and Ḥusām-zāde Muṣliḥ al-Dīn in Bursa D̲j̲amālī was appointed a mudarris at the ʿAlī Beg Madrasa in Edirne. His cousin, S̲h̲ayk̲h̲ Muḥammad D̲j̲amālī…

Bog̲h̲dān

(1,318 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, originally Bog̲h̲dān-ili or Bog̲h̲dān-wilāyeti (‘the land of Bog̲h̲dān’), Turkish name of Moldavia, so called after Bog̲h̲dān who in 760/1359 founded a principality between the Eastern flanks of the Carpathians and the Dniester (Turla). The name Bog̲h̲dān-ili appears in the ḥükm of Meḥemmed II dated 859/1455 (Kraelitz, Osm. Urk. Table I). The name Ḳara-Bog̲h̲dān is found in the letter of Iminek dated 881/1476 (Belleten, no. 3-4, 644) and in the Ottoman chroniclers generally. The principality suffered its first raid ( aḳi̊n ) by the Ottomans in 823/142…

Bursa

(2,891 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, also called burusa by the Ottomans after the ancient city of Prusa (προῦσα) on the northern foothills of Mysian Olympus, became the main capital of the Ottoman state between 726-805/1326-1402. It was mentioned by Pachymeres along with Nicaea and Philadelphia as one of the three principal cities still in the hands of the Byzantines when the Turkish borderers invaded the whole of western Anatolia about 699/1300. According to ʿĀs̲h̲iḳ Pas̲h̲azāde (ed. Fr. Giese, 22-23) the Ottomans were able to lay siege to Bursa for the first time when they invaded the Bursa pl…

Bennāk

(280 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, also called benlāk in the 9th/15th century, an Ottoman ʿörfī ( ʿurfī ) tax paid by married peasants ( muzawwad̲j̲ reʿāyā ) possessing a piece of land less than half a čift [ q.v.] or no land, the former being called ekinlü bennāk or simply bennāk and the latter d̲j̲abā bennāk or d̲j̲abā . The word bennāk might possibly be derived from the Arabic verb banaka . Actually the bennāk resmi made part of the čift resmi [ q.v.] system and can be considered originally as consisting of two or three of the seven services ( ḳulluḳ , Ḵh̲idmet ) included in the čift resmi. The rate of bennāk was 6 or 9 akča

Selīm I

(5,008 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, in official documents Selīms̲h̲āh, nicknamed Yavuz or the Grim, ninth Ottoman sultan (reigned from 7 Ṣafar 918/24 April 1512 to 8 S̲h̲awwāl 926/21 September 1520), conqueror of eastern Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt, and the first Ottoman sultan entitled K̲h̲ādim al-Ḥaramayn al-S̲h̲arīfayn or Servitor of Mecca and Medina. The struggle for the throne, 1509-13. To comprehend the circumstances and nature of the fierce struggle for the throne between Bāyezīd’s three sons Ḳorḳud, Aḥmed and Selīm, we have to keep in mind that Turco-Mongol peoples firmly be…

Bāyazīd

(1,703 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, ( bāyezīd ) I, called Yi̊ldi̊ri̊m, “the Thunderbolt”, Ottoman sultan (regn. 19 D̲j̲umādā II 791-13 S̲h̲aʿbān 805/15 June 1389-8 March 1403), born in 755/1354 of Murād I and Gül-čiček Ḵh̲ātūn. In about 783/1381 he was appointed governor of the province which was taken from the Germiyānids in guise of a dowry from his wife, Sulṭān Ḵh̲ātūn. Settled in Kütahya, he became responsible for the Ottoman interests in the East. He distinguished himself as an impetuous soldier (hence hi…

Dobrud̲j̲a

(3,991 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, the plateau between the Danube and the Lom river in the North, the Black Sea in the East and the Prowadijska river or the Balkan range in the South. Deli Orman in This area is distinguished from the steppe region, Dobrud̲j̲a-Ki̊ri̊, in the East which is considered as the Dobrud̲j̲a proper. Called Scythia Minor in the Graeco-Roman period, it was included in the Byzantine province of Paristrion (Bard̲j̲ān in Idrīsī’s world map) in 361/972. In Bulgarian Karvunska Chora, it was ‘the land of Karbon…

Rūmī

(446 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, a designation for the Turks from al-Rūm [ q.v.], which was once under the Eastern Roman Empire. The name Rūmī was widespread in all eastern Islamic countries, including the Arab lands, Persia, Central Asia and Indonesia, from the 9th/15th century onwards. The Ottomans restricted the name Rūm to the provinces in the Amasya and Sivas areas. The Rūmīs were appreciated particularly for their tactical skills and for skills in the making of firearms. Rūmī mercenaries were employed by the Mamlūk sultans, the rulers of Arabia, ʿIrāḳ, and, thereafter, by the Indian and Indon…

Ḥād̲jd̲j̲ī Girāy

(1,234 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
(d. 871/1466), founder of ¶ the Girāy dynasty of K̲h̲āns of the Crimea. On his coins he calls himself ‘al-Sulṭān Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Kerey b. G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn K̲h̲ān’ (see O. Retovski, Die Münzen der Girei , Moscow 1905, nos. 1-4); according to Abu ’l-G̲h̲āzī Bahādur K̲h̲ān ( S̲h̲ad̲j̲ara-i Turk , ed. Riḍā Nūr, Istanbul 1925, 184) his father and grandfather were G̲h̲iyāt̲h̲ al-Dīn and Tas̲h̲-timur respectively (cf. M. Riḍā, al-Sabʿ al-sayyār , 69-71). The identification of him with Dewlet-berdi (V. D. Smirnov, Kri̊mskoe k̲h̲anstvo ..., St. Petersburg 1887, 221…

Či̇ftli̇k

(1,322 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
is the ordinary word for farm in Turkish, but in the Ottoman times it designated, at first, a certain unit of agricultural land in the land-holding system, and then, later on, a large estate. It was formed from čift (pair, especially a pair of oxen) from the Persian d̲j̲uft with the Turkish suffix, lik . Originally, a čiftlik was thought of as the amount of land that could be ploughed by two oxen. Čift and čiftlik were used synonymously. In the Slav areas of the Ottoman empire the term bas̲h̲tina was often substituted for čiftlik. In the Ottoman land-holding system during the period in which the tīm…

Ispend̲j̲e

(350 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman name of an ʿörfī ( ʿurfī ) tax levied on adult non-Muslim subjects, and amounting usually to 25 aḳčas a year. Neither of the expianations advanced for its etymology ( pend̲j̲ik [ q.v.], Hammer-Purgstall, Staatsverfassung , i, 213; spenza : C. Truhelka, in THIM, i, 63) is convincing; in texts of the first half of the 9th/15th century ( e.g. H. İnalcık (ed.), Sûret-i Defter-i Sancak-i Arvanid , Ankara 1954, p. 130) it is spelied ispenĉe . The oldest reference to this tax belong to the reign of Bāyezīd I ( Arvanid , p. 103). According to this register (of 835…

Gönüllü

(782 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Turkish word meaning ‘volunteer’, in the Ottoman Empire used as a term (sometimes with the pseudo-Persian plural gönüllüyān , in Arabic sources usually rendered d̲j̲amulyān or kamulyān ) for three related institutions: 1. From the earliest times of the Ottoman state, volunteers coming to take part in the fighting were known as gönüllü ; their connexion with the mutaṭawwi-ʿa , g̲h̲āzīs [ qq.v.], of earlier Muslim states is evident (see M. F. Köprülü, Les origines de l’ Empire Ottoman , Paris 1936, 102-3; İ. H. Uzunçarşılı, Osmanlı devleti teşkilâtına medhal , Is…

Ḏj̲ebeli

(408 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, also d̲j̲ebelü , in the Ottoman empire an auxiliary soldier equipped by those to whom the state assigned a source of income such as tīmār , čiftlik , waḳf etc. The word d̲j̲ebeli is made by adding the suffix - li or - to the word d̲j̲ebe, arms (cf. Mogollarin gizli tarihi , tr. A. Ternir, Ankara 1948, 75; in the Ottoman army the d̲j̲ebed̲j̲i-bas̲h̲i̊ was the superintendent of the arms store at the Porte, see I. H. Uzunçarşili, Kapi̊kulu ocaklari̊ , ii, Ankara 1944, 3-31). In the 15th century the arms of a d̲j̲ebeli consisted mainly of a lance, bow and arrow, a sword, and a shield (cf. Ḳānūnnāme Sult…

Dawlat Giray

(360 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
(918/1512-985/1577), styled the Taḥt-alg̲h̲an or Dag̲h̲ti̊-alg̲h̲an (Conqueror of the ¶ Capital), K̲h̲ān of the Crimea from 958/1551 to 985/1577. He was the son of Mubārek Giray, and was appointed ḳalg̲h̲ay , first heir to the throne, by Saʿādet Giray K̲h̲ān in 938/1532. When he was made K̲h̲ān in 958/1551 with the firm support of the Ottomans, the latter increased their influence in the Crimea. He vigorously continued the anti-Russian policy of his predecessor, and made an alliance with the Jagellons a…

Istanbul

(26,864 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, the capital of the Ottoman Empire from 20 Ḏj̲umādā I 857/29 May 1453 to 3 Rabīʿ II 1342/13 October 1923. In strict Ottoman usage the name is confined to the area bounded by the Golden Horn, the Marmara coast and the Wall of Theodosius, the districts of G̲h̲alaṭa, Üsküdār and Eyyūb being separate townships, each with its own ḳāḍī ; occasionally however the name is applied to this whole area. NAME. In the period of the Sald̲j̲ūḳ sultanate of Anatolia (see Kamāl al-Dīn Aḳsarāyī, Musāmarat al- ak̲h̲bār , ed. O. Turan, Ankara 1944, index at p. 344) and under the early Ottomans ( Die altosm. anon. Chroni…

Ḳaplan Girāy I

(676 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Crimean Tatar K̲h̲ān, the third son of Ḥād̲j̲d̲j̲ī Selīm Giray [ q.v.], born on Rhodes in S̲h̲aʿbān 1091/July 1680. In 1108/1697 he became temporary commander of the military forces in Bud̲j̲āḳ [ q.v.] and made a successful raid into Poland. During the negotiations at Carlowicz, he remained in defense of Ferah-Kerman, but Örek-Timur the beg of the rebel S̲h̲irins, forced him to take refuge in Kiliya (Rabīʿ al-Āk̲h̲ir 1111/October 1699). He was afterwards appointed military commander of Chrcassia, where he fought the Kalmuks (…

Ḳapu Ag̲h̲asi̊

(863 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, ḳapi̊ ag̲h̲asi̊ (or Bāb al-Saʿāde Ag̲h̲asi̊ ), the senior officer in the Ottoman Sultan’s Palace, until the dār al-saʿāde ag̲h̲asi̊ [ q.v.] began to gain ascendancy in the late 10th/16th century. Like the other Palace ag̲h̲as in continuous service, the Sultan himself selected him from the eunuchs. He had the authority to petition the Sultan for the appointment, promotion and transfer of Palace servants, ag̲h̲a s and ič og̲h̲lan s [ qq.v.]. As the sole mediator between the Sultan and the world outside the Palace, he sat at the gate known as the Inner Gate or Bāb al-…

Aḥmad Pas̲h̲a Gedik

(550 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman Grand Vizier. Born in Serbia, he was taken into Murād II’s palace as an iç-og̲h̲lani̊ and became for a short time beglerbegi of Rūm (Toḳat) under Meḥmed (Muḥammad) II before being appointed beglerbegi of Anatolia in 1461. He kept this post until he was made a vizier in 1470. He played a decisive role in consolidating the new conquests in Anatolia against the Ḳaramanids and Aḳ Ḳoyunlus. He first distinguished ¶ himself by capturing Koyli̊ Ḥiṣār (1461). In 1469-72 he subdued the mountainous part of Ḳaraman-ili and its coastal area, taking ʿAlāʾiyya in 1471, …

Islām Girāy

(974 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, the name of three Ḵh̲āns of the Crimea. Islām Girāy I (938/1532) was the son of Mengli Girāy [ q.v.]. As the leader of the party wishing to follow an independent policy, he embarked on a struggle with his brother, the k̲h̲ān Saʿādet Girāy, the appointée of the Ottoman sultan, enjoying the support of the Crimean tribal aristocracy, who wished to wage unrelenting war on the Russians. With this following, in 933/1527 he ravaged the region of Ryazan and threatened Moscow. In 938/1532, Saʿādet Girāy, assisted by the O…

G̲h̲āzī Girāy I

(146 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ḵh̲ān of the Crimea, reigned for about six months in 930/1523-4. He was proclaimed k̲h̲ān in Muḥarram 930/November 1523 after conspiring with the Crimean begs to rebel against his father Meḥmed Girāy I [ q.v.] and procuring his death. The Ottoman Sultan (Süleymān I) refused to recognize him and, in agreement with Memis̲h̲ Beg of the S̲h̲īrīn, the leader of the begs, appointed as k̲h̲ān G̲h̲āzī Girāy’s uncle Saʿādet Girāy (Ḏj̲umādā II 930/April 1524). G̲h̲āzī Girāy, unable to resist, accepted Memis̲h̲ Beg’s proposal that he should be ḳalg̲h̲ay ([ q.v.] ‘heir-apparent’) to Saʿādet Gi…

Resm

(1,407 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
The Arabic word rasm , in Turkish resm , resim , means in Ottoman usage state practices and organisations as distinguished from those based on Islamic principles and traditions. Specifically, the word indicates taxes and dues introduced by the state called rüsūm-i ʿurfiyye [see ʿurf ] as distinguished from the s̲h̲arʿī taxes which are called ḥuḳūḳ-i̊ s̲h̲erʿiyye . In the Ottoman Empire, resm was sometimes called ḥaḳḳ in the sense of legal right, as in the term ḥaḳḳ-i̊ ḳarār , a fee which asipahī or feudal cavalryman took when vacant mīrī [ q.v.] land was assigned to a peasant. The term resm is …

Ḥaydar-Og̲h̲lu, more correctly Ḳara Ḥaydar-Og̲h̲lu, Meḥmed

(789 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, sometimes given the title of “Beg”. His father, Ḳara Ḥaydar, is mentioned in the sources simply as a brigand; according to Ewliyā Čelebi ( Seyāḥatnāme , iv, 472-3, and cf. Naʿīmā, iv, 240) he took to the mountains in about 1050/1640 and began to plunder caravans in the passes between Eskis̲h̲ehir and Izmir (Smyrna). During the Grand Vizierate of Ḳara Muṣṭafā (and hence before 1052/1643, when the vizier was executed), a nefīr-i ʿāmm against Ḳara Ḥaydar was proclaimed in Anatolia, i.e., the civilian population was impressed in the hunt. He was surrounded near Uluborlu and killed. The first …

Eyālet

(2,738 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, from the Arabic iyāla , “management, administration, exercise of power” (cf. Turkish translation of Fīrūzābādī’s Ḳāmūs by ʿĀṣim, Istanbul 1250/1834, iii, 135); in the Ottoman empire the largest administrative division under a beglerbegi [ q.v.], governor-general. In this sense it was officially used after ¶ 1000/1591. The assumption that under Murād III the empire was divided up into eyālets (M. d’Ohsson, Tableau général de l’empire ottoman , vii, 277) must be an error since the term does not occur in the documents of the period. Instead we always find beglerbegilik and wilāyet ( wilāy…

Dār al-ʿAhd

(697 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, “the Land of the Covenant”, was considered as a temporary and often intermediate territory between the Dār al-Islām [ q.v.] and the Dār al-Ḥarb [ q.v.] by some Muslim jurists (see Al-S̲h̲āfiʿī, Kitāb al-Umm , Cairo 1321, iv, 103-104; Yaḥyā b. Ādam, Kitāb al-K̲h̲arād̲j̲ , trans. A. ben Shemesh, Leiden 1958, 58). Al-Māwardī ( Kitāb al-Aḥkām al-Sulṭāniyya , trans. E. Fagnan, Algiers 1915, 291) states that of the lands which pass into the hands of the Muslims by agreement, that called Dār al-ʿAhd is the one the proprietorship of whi…

Bulgaria

(2,919 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, a country in the Balkans. It drew its name from the Bulgare, a people of Turkic origin, who first invaded the Dobrud̲j̲a [ q.v.] under Asparuk̲h̲ or Isperik̲h̲ in 679 A.D. and founded an independent state in the Byzantine province of Moesia. Adopting Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium (865) and identifying themselves with the native Slavs who had previously settled Bulgaria, the Bulgare built up a strong empire in the Balkans which extended from the Danube to the Adriatic Sea under Czar Symeon (893-927). The first Islamic accounts of Bulgaria belonged to this period through…

G̲h̲urabāʾ

(1,398 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
(in Turkish G̲h̲urebā ), pl. of A. g̲h̲arīb , Ottoman term for the two lowest of the six cavalry regiments ( Alti̊ Bölük ) of the Ḳapi̊-ḳullari̊ . The regiment riding on the Sultan’s right was known as G̲h̲urebāʾ-i yemīn ( Sag̲h̲ g̲h̲arībler , Sag̲h̲ g̲h̲arībyigitler ), that riding on his left as G̲h̲urebāʾ-i yesār ( Sol g̲h̲arībler , Sol gharīb-yigitler ). The oldest terms used for them are g̲h̲arīb-yigitler and g̲h̲arīb-og̲h̲lanlar (see F. Babinger, Die Aufzeichnungen des Genuesen Iacopo de Promontorio . . ., SBBayer . Ak., Jg. 1956, Heft 8, Munich 1957, 30; Ordo Portae

Bud̲j̲āḳ

(458 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, southern Bessarabia (the name Bessarabia formerly denoting only Bud̲j̲āḳ). In Turkish bud̲j̲āḳ ( bud̲j̲g̲h̲aḳ in the Turkish of the Kumans who had settled here earlier) means ‘corner’. This area, from 638/1241 on, had formed part of the empire of the Golden Horde [see batuʾids ]. When it was in decline, the area was occupied temporarily by the voyvode of Wallachia (ca. 746/1345), and later by the voyvode of Bog̲h̲dān [ q.v.] around 802/1400. As a result of the joint action of the Ottoman and the Crimean Tatars ¶ first Aḳ-Kirmān and Kili in 889/1484, and then the whole of Bud̲j̲āḳ…

G̲h̲āzī Girāy II

(1,012 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, known as Bora (‘tempest’), twice Ḵh̲ān of the Crimea (996/1588-1005/1596 ¶ and 1005/1596-1016/1607). Born in 961/1554, he first distinguished himself in 986/1578 as general of Crimean forces operating in support of the Ottomans against Persia, and won the regard of Özdemir-og̲h̲lu ʿOt̲h̲mān Pas̲h̲a [ q.v.] (ʿĀlī, Kunh al-ak̲h̲bār , MS; idem, Nuṣret-nāme , MS Istanbul, Esad Ef. [Süleymaniye] 2433; Āṣafī, S̲h̲ed̲j̲āʿat-nāme , MS Istanbul Un. Lib. 6043; Iskandar Muns̲h̲ī, Taʾrīk̲h̲-i ʿālam-ārā-yi ʿAbbāsī , Tehrān 1314, 191, 197). Taken prisoner b…

Filori

(736 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman name for the standard gold coins of Europe (see H. Sahillioğlu, Bir mültezim zimem defterine göre XV . yüzyil sonunda Osmanlidarphane mukataalari, in Ist . Ü n. Iktisat Fak . Mecm ., xxiii (1962-3), 145-218); also a tax amounting to one filori , in which sense it is usually referred to as resm-i filori. The tax, paid especially by the 1 Eflāḳ (i.e. the semi-nomadic Vlachs of the Balkans, and especially of Serbia), was, together with other supplementary imposts, also called Eflāḳiyye ʿādeti . According to the oldest surviving Ottoman Ḳānūn for the Eflāḳ (see H. Inalcik, Stefan Duşan…

Meḥemmed Ii

(3,528 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman sultan (reigned 848-50/1444-6 and 855-86/1451-81), called Abu ’l-Fatḥ or Fātiḥ "the Conqueror". Considered the ultimate founder of the Ottoman Empire, he was born in Edirne on 27 Rad̲j̲ab 835/30 March 1432 as the fourth son of Murād II [ q.v.] from a slave girl in the harem, and as a youth was sent to the governorship of the province of Amasya with his two lalas , [ q.v.] in the spring of 846/1443. In Rabīʿ II 848/July 1444, at the age of twelve, he was recalled and declared sultan by his father, who abdicated in his favour in order to ensure his succes…

Girāy

(2,236 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, cognomen borne by the members of the dynasty which ruled in the Crimea from the beginning of the 9th/15th century until 1197/1783. The family was descended from Tog̲h̲a Temür, a younger son of Čingiz Ḵh̲ān’s son Ḏj̲oči. Möngke Temür, the Ḵh̲ān of the Golden Horde (665/1267-679/1280), had granted the Crimea and Kafa as nuntuk̲h̲ (appanage) to his son Urang Temür (Öreng Timur) (Abu ’l-G̲h̲āzī Bahādur Ḵh̲ān, S̲h̲edj̲ere-i Türk , St. Petersburg 1871, 173). During the civil wars which from 760/1359 onwards convulsed the domains of the Golden Ho…

Gelibolu

(4,709 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, in English Gallipoli , town on the European coast and at the Marmara end of the Dardanelles (Turkish: Čanaḳ-ḳalʿe Bog̲h̲azi̊ [ q.v.]), in the Ottoman period a naval base and the seat of the kapudan-pas̲h̲a [ q.v.], now an ilçe belonging to the il of Çanakkale; the name derives from the Greek Kalliopolis, Kallioupolis, also Kallipolis (for the various forms see E. Oberhummer, in Pauly Wissowa, x, 1659-60). ¶ When, towards 700/1300, the Turks of Anatolia first concerned themselves with the town, it was one of the greatest and strongest Byzantine fortresses in Thrace (P. Lemerle, L’émirat d’…

Es̲h̲ki̇nd̲j̲i̇

(692 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, also es̲h̲künd̲j̲i , means in Turkish ‘one who rushes, goes on an expedition’ ( es̲h̲kin is defined by Maḥmūd Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī [ Dīwān lug̲h̲āt al-Türk , i, 100; = Besim Atalay’s T. tr., i, 109] as ‘long journey’, and es̲h̲kind̲j̲i as ‘galloping courier’; cf. also Taniklariyle tarama sözlüǧü , ed. Türk Dil Kurumu, i-iv, s.v.; the verb es̲h̲mek , to go on an expedition, was later replaced in Ottoman Turkish by mülāzemet , Ar. mulāzama ). As a term in the Ottoman army es̲h̲kind̲j̲i meant in general a soldier who joined the army on an expedition. Thus es̲h̲kind̲j̲i timariots (see tīmār …

Balkan

(2,091 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, the Balkan peninsula. The word Balkan means mountain or mountain range and, in the form of Balkanli̊k , rugged zone in Turkish. The etymology of the word is now linked with balk , mud, and the diminutive suffix, -an in Turkish (according to H. Eren). There is a mountain called Balk̲h̲an in Türkmenistan. The word Balkan was used first by the Ottomans in Rumeli in its general meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊ (the Carpathians). But specifically it was applied to the Haemus range of the ancient and mediaeval…

Ḳaplan Girāy II

(351 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Crimean Tatār K̲h̲ān (S̲h̲awwāl 1183-S̲h̲aʿbān 1184/February-November 1770). He was appointed nuradin ( nūr al-dīn) in 1182-1183/1768-1769 and K̲h̲ān in S̲h̲awwāl 1183/February 1770. He sent his ḳalg̲h̲ay and nuradin to the Crimea to defend it against the Russians, while the Ottoman commander K̲h̲alīl Pas̲h̲a appointed him to the campaign intended to expel the Russians from Bog̲h̲dān (Moldavia). He was unsuccessful against the Russian artillery on the Prut, and retired to Kalči, whilst Rumyantsev crossed the Prut and rou…

Ḳānūnnāme

(4,937 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, in Ottoman usage the term generally referred to a decree of the sultan containing legal clauses on a particular topic. In the 9th/15th century the term yasaḳnāme had the same meaning, and during the Arab caliphate ḳawānīn had the sense of “a code of laws”. In the Ottoman empire Ḳānūnnāme was occasionally extended to refer to regulations which viziers and pas̲h̲as had enacted (see Ḳāsim Pas̲h̲a ḳānūnnāmesi , in M. T. Gökbilgin, Edirne ve Paşa livasi , Istanbul 1952, 434), laws which a competent authority had formulated ( e.g., the ḳānūnnāme of the nis̲h̲ānd̲j̲i̊

Bender

(425 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, a town in Bessarabia; the name appears on a coin of Mengli Gerey dated 905/1499-1500. It is found in the Tatar documents as Bender Kerman (V. Zernov, Materiaux , 16). Bender, from Persian Bandar , was called earlier Tigina or Tighinea which may have a Kuman origin. That the town was first established by the Genoese is a legend ( Chronique dUreche , ed. Giurescu). Its rise as a trading town with important customs revenue was due to its being on the “Tatar-route” on which an active trade was carried on between Lvov and the Crimea and Ak Kirmān [ q.v.] in the 14th century. The place seems to pa…

Mesīḥ Pas̲h̲a

(1,467 words)

Author(s): İnalcık, Halil
, Ottoman Grand Vizier in 906/1501. Mesīḥ and his elder brother Ḵh̲āṣṣ Murād were sons of a brother of Constantine IX Palaeologus (Babinger, Eine Verfügung ). Apparently Mesīḥ and Murād were captured during the conquest of Constantinople and brought up as pages in Meḥemmed II’s seraglio. The Greek faction under this Sultan first came to power when he decided to conquer the Greek island of Euboea (Eg̲h̲riboz) in 875/1470. Mesīḥ distinguished himself for the first time during this campaign as sand̲j̲aḳ begi of Gelibolu [ q.v.] and admiral of the navy. But soon afterwards he offere…
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