Güzelhi̇sar town in 15th - 16th century

It is doubles that Tahrir records are one of the most important archival documents of Ottoman Empire. Thanks to these records, it is possible to identify social, economic and demographic conditions of a specific region. In this work, it is tried to identify the population and economic conditions of the town Güzelhisar. The town Güzelhisar which has a long history, is captured by Turks in 14th century and ıt is dominated by Ottomans from the year 1426 at all. Güzelhisar became a township of Sanjak of Aydın in Anatolia province. It is named as Güzelhisar in tahrir records. In some records, it is also called Güzelhisar of Aydın. While it consists of 7 neighborhoods and 30 villages in the records of 1461, the township became a larger settlement which has 9 neighborhoods and 61 villages in the year of 1573. This means we have a threefold increase in population of Güzelhisar during a century. In Güzelhisar, primary economic activities are based on the land. The town has a proper climate and fertile lands and most raised agricultural products are wheat, barley, maize, gram, black eyed peas, lentil, cotton, sesame, linen and hemp. In addition to these agricultural activities we have other livelihoods like sheep&goat breeding and apiculture. Keywords: Güzelhisar, Aydın, Ottoman Empire, Tahrir Records