The Castle of Erzurum in the 18 th century in regard of its governance and functioning

Erzurum has been a city where political, mercantile, and military struggles of many states have occurred within the historical process, because of its geopolitical location. The Castle of Erzurum is a border castle within the orient borders of Anatolia, it has been continuously fortified against invasions because of its strategic importance, and its military and logistic power has been increased.Especially the military structure, the numbers of military units in the castle, and their daily wages in the 18th Century were determined with the help of the ? mevacib defter? - which is a file which is used for the records of the services of the janissaries which were paid once in three months-, and it?s comparison with other castles was materialized and the importance of the Castle of Erzurum has been exposed in our study.Mobilization at times of war has occurred for many times at the Castle of Erzurum. Increases in the number of soldiers and military units were especially observed during the Ottoman- Persian wars in the first half of the 18th Century, and the amount of grain which was distributed among these units was determined. The ammunition and the specifications of this ammunition which was transported to the Castle of Erzurum ? which was the crucial logistic base of the Ottoman army during the Ottoman- Persian wars- are mentioned in this study. Information about the ammunition which was dispatched from Istanbul to the Castles of Tabriz, Revan, Tiblisi, Kars, van, and Meshketia has been reported with this study.Detailed information has been presented in this study about the reparations, costs, used construction material, the distances between bastions, internal and external castle walls with the help of the repair books. Keywords: Erzurum, Castle, Mevacib, Ammunition, 18. Century