Provincial Daybooks of Tīmār Bestowals as Sources of Ottoman Provincial Bureaucracy

Abstract

 In the classical age of the Ottoman Empire, there were daybooks (rūznāmčes) of tīmār bestowals regarding the tīmār bestowal proceedings prepared by the Daftarkhāna-i Āmira in Istanbul. Also their equivalents which were prepared by the treasuries of the tīmārs (tīmār daftardārliks) at the centres of the provinces existed. These daybooks can be named as “provincial daybooks of tīmār bestowals”. They include tīmārs bestowed by the beglerbegs’ own berāts (tedhkiresiz tīmār) and also the tedhkires’ copies which were sent to Istanbul in order to be submitted to the Ottoman Imperial Council. Therefore, those daybooks give significant information on the bureaucratic proceedings performed between Istanbul and the provinces. There has not been any detailed study on these daftars so far. In this article, I matched and compared some of the tedhkires which were recorded in the provincial daybooks and their copies in the daybooks of Istanbul belonging to the 16th and 17th centuries with each other. Besides, in this context, I evaluated the set of daftar registers and the tīmār bestowal proceedings in Istanbul and the provinces. In addition, I introduced some provincial tīmār daybooks in the Ottoman Archives.