A SEMI-NOMADIC TRIBE IN THE EYALET OF AYDIN: TWO TAHTACI COMMUNITY IN THE KAZA OF ALAŞEHİR ACCORDING TO THE OTTOMAN POPULATION REGISTER NUMBERED 2973

Abstract

This article focuses on a semi-nomadic Kizilbash-Alevi Tahtacı tribe that lived in the Kaza of Alaşehir in the Eyalet of Aidin (Aydın) in the first half of the 19th century. In the analysis, which approaches the topic of the examination with a micro-historical viewpoint, the tribal population register numbered 2973 was used to reveal the socio-economic structure of the Tahtacı tribe. The study is made up of three substantial parts. In the first part, in the light of relevant journey notes and archive documents, three villages (Tahtacı, Tahtacı Bektaşlar, Tahtacı Alandız) where Tahtacı communities were located in Alaşehir in the first phase of the 20th centurywas identified. Then, the liaisons of these settlement centers with the Tahtacıs of Kızılçukur and Karacaali, who were inscribed in the aforesaid register in the first half of the 19th century, were questioned. In the second part, two separate communities of the Tahtacı tribe, encountered in the periphery of Kızılçukur and Karacaali villages, were evaluated by demographic and socio-economic criteria within the possibilities of the population register numbered 2973. In the third chapter, the symbiotic ligament established between the extensions of the Tahtacı tribe in two different places that are close to each other is demonstrated, and their semi-nomadic idiosyncrasy is interpreted from a comparative aspect. In the conclusion part, the raw data of the related population register for Tahtacıs in the region are presented by socio-demographic and economic factors. As a result, for the first time, a local example of the micro-historical “from below” historiography method was created for the Alaşehir Tahtacıs. Keywords: Kizilbash-Alevism History, Ottoman Tahtacıs, Alaşehir Tahtacıs, Woodcraft, Population Registers, Temettuat Registers, Semi-Nomadism, Settlement.