The transcription and assessment of 1699 dated Medina Surre Notebooks

Surre literally means coin pouch. The term means "the money, gold which was sent to Haremeyn before the pilgrimageseons from İstanbul by Sultans in order to be distributed between the richest and the poorest people with a special ceremony. There are two holy cities, one of them is Mecca, where the Kaaba-I Muazzama called Beytullah is located and Madina where the holy tomb of the Prophet Muhammad is located. Starting from the Umayyad period, foreign aid was sent to Madinah but these aid was regularly sent by the Caliph Al-Muqtadir Billah during the Abbasid period. The Ottoman Empire saw the Harem-i Sharif as a relic from the Prophet and sent money and various gifts to these lands under the name of Surre every year. The Surres were first sent during the period of Yıldırım Bayezid (1389-1402). The systematical delivery of Surres every year with the participation of the state officials accompanied by ceremonies goes back to time of Selim I. The custom of sending surre to Haremeyn continued until 1915. This tradition was ended with the last Caliph Abdülmecid Efendi in 1923-1924. In this study, the surres sent to Medina by the Ottoman Empire in 1110 Hijri / 1699 Gregorian date and the records of these surres are discussed. With the information obtained from these transcribed books, various inferences were tried to be made about the Medina of the period.