The Economic Geography of Ottoman Anatolia: People, Places, and Political Economy around 1530

We use GIS data and information from the tax registers of the Ottoman Empire to study the economic geography of Ottoman Anatolia in the sixteenth century, soon after the vast expansion of the empire in Asian territories. For a consistent and systematic account of resources and activities, we use data from the official accounting registers (muhasebe defteri) of the empire recorded around the year 1530, available at the district (kaza) level from the State Archives in Turkey. The accounting registers include detailed information regarding the amounts and essential features of the inhabitants and resources of the empire, especially in relation to the fiscal and administrative capacity of the state. Since the data are given at the level of the district, we use the name of the district to georeference its location, calculate district-level values of several representative indicators, and use GIS software to display the geographic dispersion of these indicators on maps. Regarding people, we determine the total number of taxpaying inhabitants in a district and the fractions of inhabitants who were non-Muslims and those exempt from taxation. In the same vein, we use the information regarding productive resources to calculate the numbers of mills, caravanserais, and markets in each district. Finally, as an indicator of political economy constraints that the Ottomans faced in newly conquered territories, we provide information regarding the spatial implementation of the malikane-divani system, an unusual method of dividing tax revenues between the state and local private recipients (mülk, vakıf).