Socio-economic structure of Turhal district according to temettuat registers (1844-1845)

The Ottoman State, at the beginning of the 19th century, sought financial resources for the modernization efforts it initiated. It aimed to fully determine its economic potential and implement new regulations in the financial sphere. The first step taken in this context was a significant change in the tax system. All taxes, except for a few like the tax-farming (iltizam) system, tithe (öşür), and jizya, were abolished. A new tax was introduced, based on the principle of ensuring tax justice, to be collected from everyone according to their ability to pay. To determine this tax, it was first necessary to identify and record even non-taxable potential sources of income. For this purpose, assigned individuals surveyed and recorded the movable and immovable properties of household heads throughout the country, such as real estate, land, and animals, as well as any professional earnings, in ledgers. These ledgers are called Temettüat registers. These registers, which contain valuable social and economic information about their respective regions, are significant in Ottoman history, especially in local history research. In this study, using records from 1844-1845 belonging to the district of Turhal, which is part of the province of Sivas, one of the places where Temettüat censuses were conducted, new findings about the social and economic structure of the region were revealed by evaluating the population structure, religion, ethnic diversity, household and personal names, nicknames, occupations, land and product diversity, animal species, partnerships, and the roles of individuals within foundations, in order to reveal new findings about the social and economic structure of the region. The study aims to contribute to the local history of Turhal.