suruç in the 16th century

Suruc, a district of Sanhurfa Province, is an old settlement dating back to 2nd Century B.C. Suruç witnessed the political hegemony of various powers as it is situated on the commercial roads connecting Asia Minor and Europe. The settlement was governed by Aramaeans, Persians and Seleucids consecutively. During the era of Caliph Omer, Suruc was governed by muslims. In the 1st half of the 13th Century, it was invaded by Moguls and reconstruction of the destroyed settlement units continued during and even after the Ottoman domination. In 1517, Yavuz Sultan Selim annexed Suruc to Osmanh Empire. The first cadastral survey of Suruç dates back to 1520. During the 16th Century, Suruç was a subdistrict of Birecik district (sancak). In our thesis, villages and hamlets are listed one by one based on five cadastral surveys. No cities or nefs were found in the 16th Century cadastral surveys of Suruc. Likewise, non-muslim elements were not observed within the period we examined. The economy of Suruç was mostly dependant on agriculture. Barley and wheat were grown at every village of this subdistrict. Stockbreeding and small scale industry business were the other economic activities. As a charitable foundation, §eyh Muslim dervish lodge draws attention in this district. In our research, the documents taken from a family which was acting as the head the said the dervish lodge were used. The above mentioned dervish lodge, whose foundation date is unknown, is believed to belong to the era of Seljuks. The land of the Suruç district was governed by timar system (ottoman land tenure) which was applied at many regions by the state then. According to the timar system, the land was divided into three groups as has (large fief), zeamet (middle fief) and timar (small fief). Given all these data and making the our best of circumstances, we tried to present various aspects of Suruç district by unbiased and scientific methods. As a result, Suruç is observed to be a subdistrict under the influence of Turkish Islamic culture