17. Yüzyılın İkinci Yarısında Edirne'de Gayrimüslimlerin İktisadi Faaliyetleri

Abstract

Shortly after the conquest of Edirne, it became one of the important commercial and industrial centers of the Ottoman Empire. The city’s population was around 30,000 in the second half of the 16th century. Muslims as well as the inhabitants of the city were Christian, Jewish and other ethnic minorities. The focus of this work is the non-Muslims in the city and their agricultural, commercial and industrial activities. The main source of the work is tereke records. These records are important sources in terms of containing data to shed light on the social, economic and cultural life of Ottoman society. The documents contain information about the identity, title, origin, marital status of the deceased and the number of spouses and children, if any. More importantly, it includes the quality, quantity and prices of all kinds of movable and real estate goods that the person has saved during his /her life, as well as his debts and receivables, if any. The study examined the registration of 25 non-Muslims selected from 35, 37, 39, 40, 41 and 42 of Edirne registries. In the study, the books numbered 35, 37, 39, 40, 41 and 42 in Edirne Serʽiyye Registers were used. 25 non-Muslims who were considered worthy of examination in the books were evaluated on the tereke registry. It was tried to determine the assets, livelihoods, earnings and savings of the non-Muslims and the occupations on the securities and real estate goods recorded in the registers. On the other hand, the economic activities of non-Muslims engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry in the countryside, producing goods or buying and selling goods in the city center were evaluated.