Aleppo Eyalet
the Ottoman Empire | |||||||||||
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1534–1864 | |||||||||||
Flag | |||||||||||
The Aleppo Eyalet in 1609 | |||||||||||
Capital | Aleppo[1] | ||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||
• Coordinates | 36°17′N 36°33′E / 36.29°N 36.55°E | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
• Established | 1534 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1864 | ||||||||||
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Today part of | Syria Turkey |
Aleppo Eyalet (
History
Thanks to its strategic geographic location on the trade route between
As a result of the economic development, many European states had opened consulates in Aleppo during the 16th and the 17th centuries, such as the consulate of the Republic of Venice in 1548, the consulate of France in 1562, the consulate of England in 1583 and the consulate of the Netherlands in 1613.[6] The desert hinterland and trade routes of Aleppo in this period were dominated by bedouin emirs of the Abu Rish and al-'Abbas families, who were officially appointed "desert emirs" (çöl beyi) by the Ottoman state.[7]
However, the prosperity Aleppo experienced in the 16th and 17th century started to fade as silk production in Iran went into decline with the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722. By mid-century, caravans were no longer bringing silk from Iran to Aleppo, and local Syrian production was insufficient for Europe's demand. European merchants left Aleppo and the city went into an economic decline that was not reversed until the mid-19th century when locally produced cotton and tobacco became the principal commodities of interest to the Europeans.[5]
The economy of Aleppo was badly hit by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. This, in addition to political instability that followed the implementation of significant reforms in 1841 by the central government, contributed to Aleppo's decline and the rise of Damascus as a serious economic and political competitor with Aleppo.[5]
Fiscal administration
Beginning in the 16th century, officials in Aleppo coordinated large municipal surveys that mapped the population and grouped them into administrative divisions for centralized regulation. The modernization of warfare during the second half of the century however encouraged changes in municipal administration, and the centralized system was replaced with a set of decentralized guidelines that allowed urban populations to determine their own policies. This did not change the original levels of taxation or military occupation in the cities.[8][page needed]
The surveys were conducted with the help of civilian locals familiar with the administrative quarters. These locals were exempt from extraordinary taxes because of their service in helping put together the survey. Their duties were likely to assist the surveying teams travel and find accommodations throughout the city, however they were also able to contribute their understandings of where pockets of wealth and poverty existed, and report any information they had about local society and administrative practices. As an example, one group included "a preacher, Sufi shaykh, merchant, cavalryman, and officer attached to the provincial council". These gestures demonstrated that the surveyors were interested in a holistic understanding of the city, and assured the local population that they were receiving information from a variety of sources.[8][page needed]
A basic unit of the survey was the beyt, which corresponds to the Arabic dar, and is about a single courtyard house. A second unit that was larger was the kaysariyye, or the kaysarhk, a courtyard structure with various chambers that consisted not only of smaller commercial buildings, but also caravanserais in the central market area. These buildings often housed a variety of different city residents, who all paid the owner some form of rent to reside there.[8]
The avarız tax, or extraordinary tax, was collected from the residents of Aleppo from 1640 to 1700. The state required residents to pay the tax to meet unpredictable expenses that often came during times of war until the Tanzimat reforms of the 19th century. Examples of these expenses were the transportation costs of moving goods to military strongholds or fees to enlist specialized corps to assist the army. It was collected from both city residents as well as farmers who lived on the outskirts of municipal boundaries, though it fell largely on the shoulders of city residents. The tax was not designed to replace any tax mechanism that existed beforehand, but rather to supplement the tax structure in its entirety.[8][page needed]
The avarız tax was determined and collected using a fiscal unit called avarizhane. An avarizhane indicated the ability of a number of households to pay a specific amount to tax collectors. This differed from the early Ottoman tapu system, in that the avarizhane system determined the ability of multiple households to pay, rather than only a single household. One reason why this system was used instead of the traditional tapu system, was that hanes were no longer owned by individual family units. Instead, a single hane could be occupied by a number of distinct households of varying means. Quarter officials responsible for what would have been considered a single hane, under the new system could re-negotiate taxes based on the general financial stability or redistribute taxes based on a family's financial success.[8][page needed]
Tax collection was also determined by the status of the land and the identity of the land owner. If the land owner was a member of the
While the inherent qualities of haric were highly desirable in Aleppo, members of the
Administrative divisions
The Eyalet consisted of five sanjaks between 1690 and 1740 as follows:[9]
- Aleppo Sanjak (Haleb Sancağı, Aleppo)
- Ma'arrah Sanjak (Mameratülnuman Sancağı, Ma`arrat an-Nu`man)
- Balis Sanjak (Bâliz Sansağı, Balis)
- Uzeyr Sanjak (Uzeyr Sancağı, Payas)
- Kilis Sanjak (Kilis Sancağı, Kilis)
Gallery
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The Vilayet of Aleppo in 1855
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The Province of Aleppo in 1600
References
- ^ Commercial statistics: A digest of the productive resources, commercial... By John Macgregor, p. 12, at Google Books
- ^ "Some Provinces of the Ottoman Empire". Geonames.de. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, p. 30, at Google Books By Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters
- ^ The Popular encyclopedia: or, conversations lexicon, Volume 6, p. 698, at Google Books
- ^ a b c Ágoston and Masters (2009), Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire
- ^ "Aleppo in History (in Arabic)". Panoramaline.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-15. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
- S2CID 214322237.pp. 86-108
- ^ ISBN 9789004169074.
- ISBN 975-6782-09-9, p. 94. (in Turkish)