Croatian vilayet

The Croatian Vilayet^[a] (Ottoman Turkish: vilâyet-i Hırvat‎) was a temporary borderland entity in Dalmatia in the 16th century.[1] Its capital was Sinj.

Croatian Vilayet Vilayet-i Hırvat
Borderland of the Ottoman Empire
1520s–1537
Coat of arms
Capital	Sinj
History
• Ottoman conquest of parts of Dalmatia	1520s
• Annexation to the Sanjak of Klis	1537
Preceded by Succeeded by Kingdom of Croatia (1102–1526) Republic of Venice Sanjak of Klis
Today part of	Croatia

Establishment and territory

Immediately after the Ottoman capture of the Dalmatian hinterland and Lika from the Republic of Venice in the 1520s, they organized it as a borderland entity and named it the Vilayet of "Croats" (Turkish: Hırvat, Croatian: Hrvati).[2][3] The southern border of the territory of this vilayet was river Cetina while north-western border was Lika and river Zrmanja.[3][4] It also included region around river Krka.[5] This territory was administratively governed as the Croatian vilayet which belonged to the Sanjak of Bosnia and listed as such in its 1530 defter (tax registry).[6]

Administration

The capital of the vilayet was Sinj. Its territory was under the jurisdiction of the Skradin kadiluk. Aličić claimed that territories of the Croatian vilayet and Skradin kadiluk were the same and that the official Ottoman administrative unit, Croatian vilayet, was under administrative-judicial jurisdiction of Skradin.[7][8]

In 1528 the Croatian vilayet and kadiluk of Skradin had the following nahiyahs:[9][10]

• Sinj and Cetina
• Dicmo
• Zminje Polje
• Vrhrika
• Petrovo Polje and Petrova Gora (with seat in Drniš)
• Kosovo
• Nečven
• Strmica
• Plavna Popina
• Knin
• Grahovo
• Zečevo
• Skradin
• Zrmanja
• Ostrovica
• Benkovac
• Bukovica
• Kličevac
• Karin
• Nadin
• Obrovac
• Podgorje

The first governor of the Croatian vilayet was Malkoč-beg.[11] Around 1537 the governor of the Croatian vilayet was Mahmud Bey.[1] Many soldiers from the vilayet participated at the Battle of Mohács. Most of the Ottoman soldiers registered before the battle were labelled as Bosnians or Croats, designating the territory they were recruited at.[7] All of them had Muslim names, which proves that the process of Islamization of the newly conquered population was much faster than earlier assumed.[7]

The Croatian vilayet was disestablished when it was annexed by the newly established Sanjak of Klis in 1537.[12][13]

Annotations

1. ^
   In Turkish, it was named vilayet-i Hırvat.[1] In English translation, it is called "Croatian vilayet"[7] or "Croat vilayet".[13] It is also called "vilayet Croats" in a Croatian English-language journal.[14] In Serbo-Croatian, it is called vilajet Hrvati.[9]

References

1. Moačanin 2006, p. 148.
2. Mayhew, Tea (2008). Dalmatia Between Ottoman and Venetian Rule: Contado Di Zara, 1645-1718. Viella. p. 144. ISBN 978-88-8334-334-6. ... the Ottomans immediately imposed their administrative system on the conquered territory in the Dalmatian hinterland organising the whole territory of the Dalmatian hinterland and Lika as vilajet Hrvati.
3. Supercic, Ivan (15 October 2009). Croatia in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance: A Cultural Survey. Philip Wilson Publishers. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-85667-624-6.
4. Hrvatsko-Slavonska vojna krajina i Hrvati pod vlašću osmanskoga carstva u ranome novom vijeku. Barbat. 2007. p. 114. ISBN 978-953-7534-02-8.
5. Šime Pilić, God. Titius, god.1, br. 1 (2008.), p 107
6. Različite refleksije osmanskog osvajanja srednjodalmatinskog zaleđa, Zašto su osmanski popisni defteri nezaobilazni izvori, Anali: Gazi Husrev-Begove Biblioteke;2013, Vol. 34, p. 103 "Areas that are examined in this paper were conquered before the formation of the Klis Sanjak and were administratively regulated within the Vilayet Croats, which belonged to the Bosnian Sandžak, and was so listed in the extensive census of the Bosnian Sanjak in 1530.
7. Fine 2010, p. 215.
8. Mužić, Ivan (1989). Podrijetlo Hrvata: autohtonost u hrvatskoj etnogenezi na tlu rimske provincije Dalmacije. Nakladni Zavod Matice Hrvatske. p. 163. ISBN 978-86-401-0102-8.
9. Šabanović 1959, p. 176.
10. Šehić, Zijad; Tepić, Ibrahim (2002). Povijesni atlas Bosne i Hercegovine: Bosna i Hercegovina na geografskim i historijskim kartama. Sejtarija. p. 60. ISBN 978-9958-39-010-4.
11. Prilozi. Institut. 1978. p. 120.
12. Mogućnosti. Matica hrvatska, Split. 2000. p. 75.
13. Conference, International Research Project "Triplex Confinium." International (2007). Tolerance and Intolerance on the Triplex Confinium: Approaching the "other" on the Borderlands Eastern Adriatic and Beyond, 1500-1800. CLEUP. p. 187. ISBN 978-88-6129-300-7. Concerning the bordering Croat vilayet (in the Klis sandzak from 1537) ...
14. Radovi: Razdio povijesnih znanosti. 21. Fakultet. 1995. p. 170. There is a solid basis for this theorv because the territorial gains in this Dalmatian territorv were called initially vilayet Croats.

Sources

• Fine, John V. A. (2010). When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-02560-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Moačanin, Nenad (2006). Town and Country on the Middle Danube: 1526-1690. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-14758-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Further reading

• Šabanović, Hazim (1959). "Vilajet Hrvati i Kadiluk Skradin". Bosanski pašaluk: postanak i upravna podjela. Oslobodenje. p. 176.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Anali: Gazi Husrev-Begove Biblioteke . 2013, Vol. 34, pp. 103–115. 13p.