Social and economic life in Kadı Village of Ezine-i Latakia district according to dividend records (1844-1845)

The Tanzimat Edict (1839) symbolises the beginning of a period of change, development and innovations in many areas of the Ottoman Empire. The aim of the Tanzimat ideal was to realise the goal of social equality. The issue of collecting taxes fairly and regularly, which had long been a subject of complaint in the society, was the main goal of the Tanzimat in the financial field. In order to realise this goal, a comprehensive assessment of the country's revenues had to be made. For this purpose, the Muhassıllık institution was established at the beginning of 1840 in order to reveal the state's population, real estate, land and livestock assets. The Muhassıllık institution, which aimed to eliminate the economic and social problems brought by the iltizam system, to ensure the state's direct contact with the people and to ensure that the revenues were transferred directly to the central treasury, was to function directly under the central administration. At the beginning of 1840, some of these officials called Muhassıl-ı Emval, who were sent to their duty stations, started to conduct Temettüat censuses in their duty stations. However, the Muhassıl institution was not successful due to various reasons and was abolished in early 1842. In the remaining geographical areas that could not be counted by the Muhassıls, dividend censuses were completed between 1844 and 1846. As a result of these censuses, Temettüat books, which are a very important source in determining the socio-economic situation of the Ottoman society in the mid-19th century, were created. The Kadıköy dividend census and registry, which constitutes the main source of our study, is dated H.1260-1261 (M. 1844-1845). Temettüat books reveal that Kadıköy consists of 12 neighbourhoods. Temettüat books offer the opportunity to determine the population structure of the region to which they belong, the nicknames, family and personal names used in the region, the income distribution of the population, occupational structuring, livestock and animal breeds, land and product diversity. In our thesis, we tried to examine the social and economic structure of Kadıköy by making use of the Temettüat books of the years 1844-1845. According to what we have determined from the temettüat records we have examined, the region was an important weaving centre in the Ottoman Empire. We believe that our study will be a source for new studies to be carried out on Kadikoy, which is now a district of Denizli province under the name of Babadağ and makes a living with textiles.