Todorov, N. Newly Discovered 1845 Ottoman Register of Non-Muslim Population of Plovdiv (Introductory Notes)

Some of the most complete records of the economic and social history of the 1840s Ottoman Empire are temettuat defters. Their compilation in 1845-1846 was required by the reform policy of Sultan Abdulmejid I and reflected the changes in the economic development of the Empire since the end of the 1820s and 1830s. The preserved temettuat defters allow the reconstruction of many elements of the provincial economy of both towns and villages, shed light on the state of land ownership, the occupational structure of the individual settlements, the annual income of each subject, the tax burden, etc. Traditionally, the attention of historiographers is mainly focused on large and important urban centres such as Plovdiv in the period under consideration. Until now, however, there was no temettuat defter of the non-Muslim population of Plovdiv. Therefore, it was not included in the studies of Neriman Ersoy, Andreas Lyberatos, etc. The intense digitization of the documents kept in the Ottoman Archives in Istanbul has also made this hitherto unknown register accessible. The temettuat defter of the non-Muslim population includes the following Plovdiv population groups: Christians, Jews, Armenians, and Gypsies. Its volume amounts to 879 pages, written in the Rikʿa script. This study aims to give a general description of the structure of the defter, its characteristic features, and the total number of the population registered, i.e. introductory notes about such a significant Ottoman evidence of the history of Plovdiv. The document is planned to be further investigated in subsequent studies.

Temettuat defter, Plovdiv, demographic structure, mahalle, local elite