Money and its use in the Ottoman Empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Abstract

This dissertation is intended to examine the monetary past of the Ottoman Empire over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To the extent made possible by the availability of sources, both from a numismatic and a historical perspective, it will focus on the whole of the Ottoman monetary system as much as on the individual parts and the linkages between them from the Balkans and Crimea through Syria, Egypt, and the Gulf to the Maghrib. These regions were drawn into very divergent patterns of trade and payments flows from Western Europe to the Indian Ocean. Besides, the political, administrative, and economic linkages between the centre and these regions varied enormously over time. The study will thus emphasize the complexity and heterogeneity of the monetary arrangements and their evolution in response to both local developments and global economic forces. Such a perspective on monetary history will offer new insights into the nature of the demand for money, the supply of money and the very concept of money. Based on these regional and international perspectives, it established the logic and perception of the monetary system.