Arpalik

Under the Ottoman Empire, an arpalik or arpaluk (Turkish: Arpalık) was a large estate (i.e. sanjak) entrusted to some holder of senior position, or to some margrave, as a temporary arrangement before they were appointed to some appropriate position.[1] Arpalik was a kind of appanage given to members of the Ottoman elite for tax farming.[2]

Etymology

The barleycorn was known as arpa in Turkish, and the feudal system in Ottoman Empire employed the term arpalik, or "barley-money", to refer to a second allowance made to officials to offset the costs of fodder for their horses (for covering the expenses of keeping a small unit of cavalry).[3]

History

The number of viziers was steadily increasing in the Ottoman Empire since 16th century. Many of them were not satisfied with the income they received so the institution of arpalik was introduced.[4]

The rank of the people who were given arpalik was often higher than rank of the regular governor of the whole district.[5] The institution of arpalik was introduced to make burden of government officials easier by compensating losses of its high officials.[6] Instead to resolve Porte's problems, the institutions of arpalik introduced new, even bigger ones.[6] The exact duties of the araplik holders were never precisely defined by the Ottoman government which caused frequent tensions between the Porte and the province.[5] This tensions probably additionally contributed to the decay of the traditional timar system because it left sipahi out of the clear chain of command.[5]

Initially, in the sixteenth century, the number of sancaks given as arpalik was very small.[4] After the decay of timar system many sancaks in Anatolia were given as arpaliks to the high Ottoman officials.[7]

References
  1. Zeʼevi, Dror (1996), An Ottoman century : the district of Jerusalem in the 1600s, Albany: State University of New York Press, p. 121, ISBN 978-0-585-04345-6, OCLC 42854785, retrieved 29 December 2011
  2. Somel, Selcuk Aksin (23 March 2010). The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Scarecrow Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-4617-3176-4.
  3. Houtsma M Th; Arnold TW; Wensinck AJ (1993). E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936. Brill. p. 460. ISBN 90-04-09796-1.
  4. Çiçek, Kemal; Kuran, Ercüment; Göyünç, Nejat; Ortaylı, İlber (2000). The Great Ottoman-Turkish Civilisation. Yeni Türkiye. p. 1. ISBN 978-975-6782-20-0.
  5. Ze'evi, Dror (1 February 2012). Ottoman Century, An: The District of Jerusalem in the 1600s. SUNY Press. p. 121. ISBN 978-1-4384-2475-0.
  6. Katircioglu, Nurhan Fatma (1984). The Ottoman ayan, 1550-1812: a struggle for legitimacy. University of Wisconsin--Madison. pp. 98, 99.
  7. Naff, Thomas; Owen, Edward Roger John; Near Eastern History Group, Oxford; University of Pennsylvania. Middle East Center (1977). Studies in eighteenth century Islamic history. Southern Illinois University Press. p. 30. Following the decay of the timar (fief) system in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many sancaks in Anatolia were assigned as arpalik to high officials in Istanbul or to commanders of a fortress on the frontiers .
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