The human and economic geography of Shumen province acording to the Ottoman Tahrir Registers of the XVI. century

It is possible, only with the information in the Turkish archives to take the first step to start to illuminate the past geographical features of Shumen area, which dates back to the Thracians, which was a castle settlement during the Roman-Byzantine period and the Bulgarian State I and II; the center of a county administrative unit in the Ottoman Empire, and today which is an oblast (provincial) administrative unit within the borders of the Republic of Bulgaria with the same name. In this study, the administrative unit of the county has been determined according to itswidest administrative borders in this century by scanning the tahrir books of the 16th century generally in horizontal section. According to the information in the tahrir books, the human and economic geography of the area was re-established in the sections related to localization, settlement, population and economic characteristics, and the change in this process was determined. The tahrir and also other booksexcept for the 16th century, especially their sections of localization and settlement have been evaluated due to the needs. As a matter of fact, it has been understood that there have been some changes in the administrative area of Shumen both during the study period and today.In the evaluations made according to the widest administrative borders, based on the elimination of this problem, it has been realized that the 16th century was a turning point for Shumen and its surroundings in terms of settlement, population and economic characteristics and the effects of this period has continued to a great extent with regard to settlement and population today. In short, the historical geography in the Ottoman period of the administrative unit mentioned in this study has largely been clarified. Keywords: Bulgaria, Nikopol, Shumen, History, Geography, Tahrirs.