Demographic structure of atça and Sultanhisar during the first half of the XIXth century

Ottoman Empire regularly conducted population and land registers from beginning to the XVIth century. With the deterioration of timar system, tahrir registers were also affected. Since the tahrir only register taxed male population, it is not possible to reach a precise population data. First modern census was conducted during the reign of Mahmud II. This census was aiming to provide manpower sources for the newly raised army (Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye) in place of the abolished Janissary Corps in 1826 following the incident which was called as Vaka-i Hayriye. It also meant to determine the amount of tax that would be collected by the state. This census could not be completed in a short period of time like the modern ones and ceased because of the reasons like wars, diseases, migrations; and concluded in 1847 with later survey registers. In this study, population registers of Atça and Sultanhisar, counties of an important Western Anatolia, the Sanjak of Aydın, will be transcripted and evaluated. These registers were obtained from the population registers of the Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives. Although there are several registers that are belong to mentioned counties for the XIXth century with the code of Nfs.d. and numbers of 2980, 2981, 2982, 2983, 3051, 3052, 3053, 3074 and 3078 Nfs.d. 2981, which gives more detailed information with regard to context and content, constitutes the main source of the work. Proceeding from the mentioned registers, it has been intended to contribute to the recent trend of sanjak and county based demography studies. By this way, determination of the age, profession and patronymics of the population of Atça and Sultanhisar in the XIXth century, will provide bibliographical source to the more extensive studies on western Anatolia. KEYWORDS: XIXth century, Census, Population Register, Sanjak of Aydın, Atça and Sultanhisar.