Resm-i mücerred

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The resm-i mücerred was a bachelor tax in the Ottoman Empire, related to the resm-i çift and the resm-i bennâk.[1]

The amount payable varied from year to year and from region to region, but the tax was payable annually, in March, to the

muafname
(tax exemption) might excuse a person, or a village, or an entire social group from paying resm-i mücerred and related taxes; alternatively, örfi taxes might be lifted from a community but they would still have to pay resm-i mücerred.

Resm-i mücerred was paid by landless poor or unmarried peasants who did not have sufficient resources to qualify for the resm-i çift and the resm-i bennâk land-taxes - whose names, taken literally, refer to one "çift" of land, and a half-çift, respectively.[2] This structure may have been directly inherited from the Byzantine system of land taxes, in areas which were conquered by the Ottomans.[3]

One 19th-century tahrir, from a group of villages in a district which is now in

caba resmi (for farmers who rented rather than owned land) was 12 akçes, and mücerred resmi was valued at only 6 akçes; in this case, the tahrir set aside tax revenue from the villages to support a local charitable foundation (or trust), rather than returning it directly to the state.[4] Comparison of different tax records suggests that the ratio between tax rates for bachelors and for established farmers may have narrowed over time.[1]

Tax records show that mücerred were more likely to migrate to other areas; they had fewer ties to the land, and may have been more vulnerable. Migrant mücerred were more likely to make their way to a growing town; some may have moved locally, but a few would travel to Istanbul from a distant district.[5]

See also

Bachelor tax

References

  1. ^
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  4. ^ "HACI BEKTASH VELI'S SON: PIR SALTUK ZAVIYE FOUNDATION IN IRAN" (PDF). Türk Kültürü Ve Hac Bektafl Velî Arafltrma Dergisi. 50: 43–44. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
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