Ayans of Antakya in 18th century

The 18th century is a period when significant changes were taking place in Ottoman Empire. The losses experienced in the late 17th century caused the groups ruling the empire in the 18th century to evaluate developments with a new perspective and accordingly, it leads that the groups move to new approaches in order to overcome the problems, Besides these changes in Ottoman central administration, it is seen that the groups which were effective to a certain extent until that day, had more dominant roles in this century and created new Ayan type. Antakya subprovince is a remarkable subprovince in terms of being transitional zone between Anatolian and Arab provinces of Ottoman Empire and having not only trade but also pilgrim route. Therefore, this new prominent groups in the rural administration of Empire undertook various roles from voivodship to commander-in-chief, from trusteeship to taxman in this region of Empire. It was seen that in this region, the rural governors sometimes played extremely useful roles which increase the power of execution, and also sometimes it created threats for the administration. This work about Ayans of Antakya is meaningful both in terms of revealing the new situation of rural administration of Ottoman Empire and in seeing what kind of changes the ruling elements undergo in the rurals in the face changing conditions.