Page 287 - Journal of Asian History_Neat

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Manpaviu.k: Thr Ottoman Pruvincr oj al-Hand 51 1 ;

to luiw btvii low or irivgulur pay. Thr problom occasionally he collected despite it. But practi­
•ilTi-ctoil the o!Iircr> but little until the late >L\* cally speaking, he was dependent on local tax
ieonth century. Their income w:us in this earlier revenues. The province was in this matter ex­
period largely derived from local fiefs, zc'amrlUr pected to be self-supporting. Should Portuguese
and, in the case of the governor gene nil, and raids and bad weather destroy Labsa’s crops and
collected directly by themselves or their own men. customs revenues, the governor general might
When income from the fiefs was short, the gover- draw on the treasury at Basra, Aleppo or Diyar-
nor generiU could simply raise taxes to bring in bekir to cover troop pay that year; but it was a
more This method was forbidden by Istanbul,5,1 loan, not a transfer of funds, and was expected to
however, and in fact rarely seems to have been be repaid.71' Such loans were not always requested
used. Predictably it brought forth local demon­ when money was needed. There was another al­
strations and the dispatch of popular petitions to ternative; in years of poor revenue, payment of
the sultan. The Sultan and his advisors in the salaries of the Labs5 garrison might be postponed.
Imperial Council were sensitive to such peti­ It was from this practice, or course, that garrison
tions.711 revolt grew.717
More acceptable and encouraged by Istanbul However the money was obtained for troop
was the method by which the money needed to pay, the military accounting bureaus in Istanbul
supplement the fief's income was simply drawn insisted on the maintenance of current and accu­
out of the government treasury in Lab*sS.214 This rate details of receipt and expenditure by the pro­
in turn could lead to a situation in which there vincial agents. In May of 1560 an order was sent
would be lacking sufficient funds in the treasury to the governor general from Istanbul stating that
to pay the common soldiers. More than one gover­ the accounts book for the janissary corps of the
nor general hesitated to take the funds allowed by previous year as received in Istanbul was un­
Istanbul precisely for this reason.214 acceptable; it was only a rough summary of the
In theory the ordinary soldier, whether janis­ provincial original. Another copy was to be made
sary or volunteer, was entitled to his pay regard­ in full detail, carefully checked against the origi­
less of the economic status of the province, and nal, and expenditure was to be shown balanced
against income.214 In 1565 thirty-nine new kullar
7,1 M 27:517, 24 $cvval 983/26 January 1576; M 43:567, (janissaries?) were enrolled for the Labsi garrison.
n.d. (9S8/15SO-81); M 53:207, Muharrem 992/January Each had been issued appointment papers detail­
1584.
ing their pay (*ulufe) from Istanbul. The governor
1,1 M 35:735, n.d. (986/1578-79). In this case, a delega­
tion of men from Lahs& travelled to Istanbul to present general was ordered carefully to compare these
a petition of complaint about the extraordinary taxes. papers with his own records and enter them in the
In response, an imperial courier (cavur) was sent to pay schedule.21* Current records of the Laljsfi
LahsA to investigate. Other charges brought by the dele­
gation against the governor genera] must also have en­ *'• Ibid. To cover the needs of the province the gover­
couraged this response, e.g. that he was a rdfizi, here nor general was enpowered to borrow {fair's tarifayU)
implying Shi’a, and had tried to convert the population 500,000 afae from the Aleppo treasury and 500,000 a&e
of LahsAto his belief (ksndl r6jiH ’<5fti6 kendunun mclhtbl from the Diyarbekir treasury. It was to be repaid as soon
Urvic . . . rafzi tcktlf 'edxlb . . .). This latter charge as sufficient funds were collected in LabsA. Conversely,
was especially weighty since the empire had just declared Basra might borrow funds from the treasury in LabsA
war against the Safavids, partially in response to sus­ when needed. See M 9:21, 23; 16 Ram as an 977/22 Febru­
pected Shi’a subversion in the eastern provinces; it is ary 1570, wherein Basra applied for such a loan from
given no special emphasis in the report, however. (For Diyarbekir, failed to gain it, and was authorised to ob­
subversion, see Kiituko&lu, Osmanll-Iran Siyari Mdna- tain instead the needed funds (47,633 fitdri) from LabsA.
scbctUri. pp. 8-16). 117 M 53:S95-96, 20 Safer 992/3 March 1584, in which
,u M 43:567, n.d. (988/1586-81). year occurred the seixuro of mlri funds by the officers
1,4 M 7:1360, 16 ZK 975/14 May 1568, when the gover­ and open rebellion by the men of the garrison because of
nor general avoided drawing 500,000 afao of his xdfydne a year’s delay in payment.
because doing so would have impoverished the troops m M 3:1127, 21 Sa'bln 967/17 May 1560.
{'<ukcr).
111 M 6:600, copied early CA 973/24 December 1665.

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