Çiftlik Formation and Transformation of Land Ownership in the Kazas of Serfice, Çaharşenbe, and Eğri Bucak (1820–1850)

Abstract:This article presents a critical discussion of the formation of sultanic free-hold property (Emlak-i Hümayun) in the period 1820 to 1850, through an examination of Ottoman primary sources preserved in the Prime Minister’s Ottoman Archives in Istanbul. It examines this phenomenon in the area of Western Macedonia and traces its origins to the procedure of confiscation (müsadere) of movable and immovable properties of provincial magnates (ayan) in the central administration’s attempt to address political and fiscal decentralization and to enforce empire-wide fiscal, military, and administrative reforms. It also examines the process of selling-off sultanic freehold properties to prospective investors and local entrepreneurs, which ushered in the formation of a new socio-economic group of owners of extensive landed estates, known as çiftliks. Thus, it examines the differences between eighteenth- and nineteenth-century notables and concludes that the new group was under the control of the state and thus dependent upon the goodwill of the sultan and his administration.