A War-Funding Source during the Ottoman-Holy Alliance Wars: Nefîr-i Âmm (General Levy) Tax (1688-1689)

Abstract

In 1683, the defeat of the Ottomans in Vienna led to the emergence of a Crusader alliance as Sacra Ligua in Europe. The Ottoman Empire started to lose ground in Hungary and Morea in the war with the alliance. In 1686, because of the great losses, a general levy was declared. Participating in jihad then became fard (a must in Islamic law) for all Muslims and a kind of mobilization was implemented. The general levy imposed financial and military obligations on the population. In this context, in 1688, a new tax was enacted called nefîr-i âmm bedeli. In this study, the Ottoman Empire’s effort to increase financial income via nefîr-i âmm bedeli has been analyzed. The focus of the study is nefîr-i âmm bedeli’s financial contribution to the sustainability of the war and the reflections of the society against the demands of the state. The investigations show that the tax resulted in a revenue of 3.28% of the state’s total income, and the society did not show great opposition during the collection of this tax.