Merzifon district Muslim Population Book no. 2237, dated 1840-1841- analysis and transcription

In the XIXth century, Merzifon Kazâsı was part of the Amasya Sanjak of Sivas Province. Merzifon, which had been home to many civilizations before, formed its true identity during the Ottoman Empire. It realized its real development and progress in the seventeenth century. The Turkish-Islamic tradition, which started with the Dânişmendliler period, has continued uninterruptedly until today. The first census of the XIXth century was conducted in 1831. The Ottoman Empire implemented population censuses in order to determine the people who would be recruited and taxed. The censuses were first started in Anatolia and Rumelia regions. The reason for this is that the Ottoman Empire had the largest territories in these regions. The Merzifon Muslim population book numbered 2237, which is the subject of this study, was organized in 1256 (1840/1841). The Muslim population book of Sivas province, Amasya Sanjak, Merzifon Kazâsı was included in the Ottoman Archives under the code NFS d. in the State Archives Directorate. The book, which is 19x53 in size, consists of 99 entries and is written in black and red ink. A total of 1715 people were found to live in 28 villages of the kaza. Family names, names, descriptions, migration status, occupations and ages of the people were included in the book. The village with the largest population was Belvar, followed by Narınca, Alala and Zoğu. The most common names in the villages were Ali, Ahmed, Hasan, Hüseyin and Muhammed. The majority of the population was concentrated in the 0-9 and 10-19 age brackets. The most common physical characteristic mentioned in the description records is height. This was followed by beard, mustache and shabb-ı emred, respectively. The analysis of Book 2237 provides information on the social and economic status of the people living in the villages of Merzifon and sheds light on the social and population structure of Merzifon. With the data obtained, it was tried to contribute to the literature by completing the points left incomplete by previous studies.