Deographic structure of Çine district in XIXth century

The Ottoman Empire which spread to a very large geographical area composed of different cultures, gave importance to using statistics in order to be able to administrate this large area and to take the necessary precautions to defend the country against the possibe threats from inside and outside. This statistical data at the very beginning was shaped by the human potential of the state. The Ottomans identified the human factor in a very similar way of the previous states followed in the same geography. The census activity of the Ottoman Empire which was manifested itself with the cadastral record books in the classical period, later transformed into census in the modern sense in the 19th century as an extension of the developments that had taken place in the centuries. Especially in 1826 when the Janissaries were removed and Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye was replaced as a modern army, in order to determine the military needs, more systematic and regular censuses were directed by the state, itself. In this context, the first Ottoman census was carried out in 1831. There are 14 books in the catalog of the Ottoman Archive Records of Prime Ministry Population Books that belong to the 19th century Çine District which was an important agricultural region and also a transition point between Aydın and Menteşe Sanjaks in Aydın Province. The books especillay numbered as 2904 and 2926 that contain the records of the first census and the second census kept after a ten-year period, were transcributed to determine and analyze the Muslim and non-Muslim population, their physical characteristics, ages, names-nicknames, professions, birth and death data and military informations of them. Thus, this study is an effort to give an adequate answer to the reasons of the change in the demographic structure of Çine district in a ten-year period, and determine the characteristics of the population in the region in the first half of the 19th century. KEYWORDS: XIXth Century, Census, Population Records, The Sanjak of Sığla, Çine District.