Reassessing the tımar system : the case study of Vidin (1455-1693)

This dissertation is based on a long durée approach and utilizes micro historical analyses to reconsider the nature and transformation of the timar system through a case study of the sancak of Vidin. It presents a method that I call timar tracking which allows a systematic analysis of various primary sources such as; mufassal, icmal, ruznamçe, cebe, tahvil and yoklama registers, which facilitates a better evaluation of the reliability of sources and a wider picture of the issue. One of the main concerns of the study is to question the conventional understanding of the timar system that has been mainly built upon the terminology of the sixteenth century. The argument offered here is that the timar system evolved into its orthodox form after 1530. This transition is simply described as the change from two-layered to tripartite form of the timar system. Moreover, the transformation of the timar system, so its degeneration, is handled as a matter of systemic paradoxes. The argument is that the development of the system also made it vulnerable. In this sense the process of the hassification, meaning the expansion and development of state/sultan’s lands, both contributed to the further development of the timar system and made it dissolve. Similarly, centralization policies of the state resulted in the timar system being highly controlled by the government; but those same policies actually led to the central state losing control over the system. This occurred through what I term the abstraction of the timar is a conceptualization of the paradoxical transformation of the system. Lastly, the timar system is approached as one of several components of a general Ottoman complex/system. What I call military sphere is the area on which the timar system was built. The three stages of the transformation of the organization of this sphere, as well as, the inter-relations between the other spheres are discussed in detail. Finally, it is concluded that the military sphere was occupied by other spheres, which occurred in Vidin through hassification and privatization.