Because they are Genghis Khan’s Descendants: The Involvement of the Giray Dynasty in Tax Farming and Allocations of Timars in Eighteenth-Century Serfice

Abstract

The Ottoman eighteenth century is a period of decentralisation dominated by the emergence of peripheral semi-autonomous lords. This period is also marked by the spread of tax farming (iltizam), especially lifelong malikane contracts. This article is a case study of these two phenomena, through examination of the activities of minor/secondary notables in a remote corner of Ottoman Macedonia, namely the town of Serfice (today Servia, in Greek Macedonia), their relationship with the Giray dynasty ruling over the Tatar khanate of Crimea, who were in their own right the traditional patrimonial beneficiaries of the hasses of Serfice, and the role of the Ottoman administration operating as an efficient power broker. It also examines the role of the Giray dynasty in bestowals of timar grants on beneficiaries, in an era in which the timar system is described in the available bibliography as either moribund or completely defunct.