From Tax-exempt to Tax-paying

The Müsellems in the Balkans during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and its tax-exempt auxiliary units. Throughout the 16^th century, both in wartime and peacetime, these auxiliary units received tax exemptions. Their members were employed as warriors and cannon carriers, as well as laborers in dockyards, mines and so on. One type of these units, called müsellems, received fiefs, and members who gave service were supported by the others, called yamaks.

  In Western Anatolia, the müsellem system was abolished in 1582 because of a shortage of lands and tax assignments to allocate. However, investigations into the müsellems in the Balkans have been few. Because of this, it has not been clarified when müsellems were abolished in the Balkans, some claiming around the end of the 16^th century and others, around the beginning of the 17^th century.

  In this paper I examine the müsellem groups and the system that existed in the Balkans in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, making full use of tax registers, especially the tax registers held in the Archive of the General Directorate of Land Registry and Cadaster, situated in Ankara.

  I conclude that the müsellems, who had the tax exempt privilege were not abolished in the Balkans until 1602, unlike the müsellems in Western Anatolia. However, by the 1630s–1650s, the müsellems in the Balkans became normal taxpayers, that is, they became tax-farming units, so-called muḳāṭaʻas.

  I believe the reason is that in the 17^th century when the Ottoman military and social system changed greatly, the Ottoman auxiliary units lost their importance to the Ottoman army, at which point the müsellems in the Balkans became normal taxpayers.