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DEMİR, Tanju-ÇELİK, Bülent
Muhassıllık Application in Ottoman Empire During the XVII th and XVIII th Centuries
It can be observed that rulers of the Ottoman Empire during the XVII th and XVIII th centuries experimented different
administrative-fiscal applications, tried to fit into society and strived to centralize their power at the same time. These
rulers learned from their mistakes, gave up some of their applications and maintained some.
One of these applications was the muhassıllık administration which was applied in the some sanjaks of the Ottoman
Empire. Mukataa-iltizam system was filling the gaps left by the collapsing timar system. Timars that are deserted or
converted to havâss-ı hümâyûn and lost their dirlik traits were transformed to large mukataas and allotted to iltizam. Some
of these were such large estates that proxy control was not enough to administer them. These large mukataas generally
supporting the hasses belonging to Sultan and his family. It was certain that a new mechanism would be needed to be able
to supervise these hasses.
This new administrative form, examples of which in Aydin, Morea, Aleppo, Khios, Cyprus and Canik will be tried
to be display in this study from the Ottoman records in the Mühimme and Maliyeden Müdevver registers was an original
administrative understanding in which Ottoman rulers were appointed as both administrative and fiscal officials. The muhassıllık
application in which officials among ex Grand Viziers, ex-beylerbeyis of Rumelia and ex-treasurers were appointed
in the course of time was transformed to an apparatus which was useful to Ottoman bureaucracy for controlling the rural
financial resources.
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