balkan city or ottoman city? a study on the models of urban development in ottoman upper thrace 15th...

7/29/2019 Balkan City or Ottoman City? A Study on the Models of Urban Development in Ottoman Upper Thrace 15th 17th

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BALKAN CITY OR OTTOMAN CITY?:

A STUDY ON THE MODELS OF URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN

OTTOMAN UPPER THRACE, FROM THE FIFTEENTH TO THE

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Grigor Boykov

In the course of the past century number of historians studied the developmentof towns and cities all over the Balkans during the Ottoman period. In general,

in their great majority, these otherwise important works, failed to provide a

comprehensive and realistic answer to the question of - how the urban centers

in the Balkans looked like at the time of the Sultans and more specifically was it

there an unifying model of a city that could be labeled either Balkan or Ottoman

city. Most works followed two main historiographic trends, roughly describing

the cities in the Balkans either as pure products of Turco-Islamic urban

tradition, brought to the Balkans from Anatolia, or stressed on the strongcontinuation of the medieval Byzantino-Slavic urban model, which was slightly

modified by Turks and received an Islamic appearance.

The major deficiency of the above mentioned works is the fact that main

arguments and large generalizations have been usually produced on the basis of

scattered, insufficient and in some cases even unsuitable archival materials.

Studying the urban development of a given Balkan area A, scholars often

concluded that the same processes must have had taken place in a given area B,

or furthermore all over the Balkan Peninsula. Needless to say, such approach

could only provide a theoretical framework, which does not need to be explicit

or even correct. Evidently, our better understanding of Balkan urbanism in the

Ottoman era requires much more profound and detailed approach, which

should be materialized only through a great number of time- and labor

consuming local studies of the colorful Balkan localities.

Ph. D. candidate, Department of History, Bilkent University.

Proceedings of the Third International Congress on the Islamic Civilisation in the Balkans

1-5 November 2006, Bucharest, Romania (Istanbul: IRCICA, 2010), 69-85.


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Doubtlessly, this is not an unknown idea and the numerous pioneering

informative works of Machiel Kiel, dealing with various localities in the Balkans

deserve an explicit mention here.1 Almost 20 years ago Professor Kiel devoted

an enormous in length article, recently published also in Turkish, to the variety

of models of urban development in the territory of present-day Bulgaria2.

Following framework offered in Prof. Kiels article, this short conference paper

will test it in smaller in size territory with a special attention to the demography

of four sizable settlements in the area of Upper Thrace in the period of late

fifteenth early seventeenth centuries. Evidence derived from Ottoman archival

sources, on which the paper is primarily based, will stress once again on the

importance of local studies and will attempt to illustrate the imperfection of

large generalizations when examined on a micro level.

Situated in the heart of modern Bulgaria laying no more than 50-60 km by one

another, the cities of Filibe (Plovdiv), Eski Zara (Stara Zagora), Tatar Bazar

(Pazardjik) and stanimaka (Asenovgrad) represent a sound example of

settlements that followed different patterns in their urban development, despite

being situated in a relatively small and homogeneous geographic area. However,

to discuss the continuity or discontinuity in their development after the

Ottomans took the area under control, we need to take a brief look on regionspre-conquest political history and cities geographic location.

All three cities, with the single exception ofstanimaka (Byz. Stenimachos), are

situated in the vast fertile Thracian plane, laying on important routes known

since the Antiquity. These favorable at a first glance conditions, however, seem

to have been often hostile to their prosperity. In the course of the two centuries

preceding the Ottoman conquest Upper Thrace became a military border zone

where the actions, apart of being very destructive, were often accompanied by

population deportations by one side or another. The instability in the provincecontinued even after the Ottomans managed to establish control over Thrace.

1 Machiel Kiel published about 200 articles devoted to various Balkan areas, most of which are wellknown to the historians of the Ottoman Empire. His works related to the territory of modernBulgaria have been recently collected and published in a single volume in Bulgarian. See MachielKiel. Hora i selishta v Bulgaria prez osmanskia period. Subrani suchinenia (Sofia: Amicitia,2005).

2 Machiel Kiel. Urban Development in Bulgaria in the Turkish Period: The Place of the TurkishArchitecture in the Process.International Journal of Turkish Studies 4:2 (1989): 79-129 and its

Turkish translation Machiel Kiel. Bulgaristanda Osmanl Dnemi Kentsel Geliimi ve MimariAntlar, lknur Kolay, tr. (Ankara: Kltr Bakanl, 2000).


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The numerous campaigns against the remains of Bulgarian kingdoms and

further to the west against Serbia, followed by the Ottoman civil war in the

Interregnum period presuppose difficult times for the inhabitants of Upper

Thrace. It was only after the first decades of the fifteenth century when a long

peaceful period and stability was finally established in Thrace.

Putting together the evidence for two-century long destructive military

campaigns in the area and consequences of the Black Death in the fourteenth

century, which affected mainly the settlements in the plains, one could suppose

that the Ottomans found the region almost depopulated. It is highly likely that

most of the settlements in the flat plain were either destroyed or affected so

badly that they were abandoned by the inhabitants during the centuries ofconstant wars. The Ottoman documentation of the fifteenth century shows that

most of the surviving settlements from the pre-Ottoman period in Thrace are

those situated at the foot of the mountains.

Turning our attention to Filibe, it could be defined as an example of our first

type model of urban development in Ottoman Thrace, i.e. a city from the pre-

Ottoman period, which as a consequence of a colonization, policy of the state,

was transformed into a Muslim urban center designed in accordance with the

Islamic tradition. However, it preserved a Christian minority which played animportant role in the demographic processes there.

Filibe (Philippupolis) surrendered without a fight to the Ottoman commander

Lala ahin Pasha, who in accordance with the istimalet policy allowed local

Christians to preserve their properties, remaining to live in the neighborhoods

that they had occupied prior to the conquest, even within the city stronghold3.

The first Muslim colonists must have appeared immediately after the conquest,

but the big migratory wave began in the beginning of fifteenth century and

continued with diverse dynamics until the first years of the sixteenth century.

Numerous references in the Ottoman narratives speak about occasions of

forceful population transfers from Asia Minor to the area of Filibe, which

without underestimating the numbers of voluntary migrants, assigns an

important role to the central authority.4 Moreover, a look at the various public

3 There is a rich literature on Ottoman conquest of Thrace. See Halil nalcks most recentcontribution for details and bibliography. Halil nalck. Murad I in Trkiye Diyanet Vakfslm

Ansiklopedisi(stanbul, 2006), pp. 156-164.4 There are several occasions of deportation of Anatolian population to Filibe area mentioned in the


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buildings in Filibe, shows that their sponsors were very often either high

ranking Ottoman officials (like the complex ofihabeddin Pasha, who was at

that time the beylerbeyiof Rumeli) or the Sultan himself (Murad II sponsored

the main Friday mosque Muradiye, or Cumaya Mosque).

The data from the Ottoman taxation and population registers (tapu tahrirs)

shows that in the second half of the fifteenth century Muslims have already

become the majority of citys population.5 The rapid expansion of Muslim

population was interrupted by the successful military campaigns of Sleymanic

age and a large number of Filibes Muslim inhabitants has been transferred to

the west, some to be found in the Ottoman records as far as Buda 6. This could

explain the sudden unusual sharp decrease of Muslim population in the 1520sand 1530s, when a further growth should be expected. In the second half of

sixteenth century Muslims recovered in numbers just to drop again in the

beginning of the following, a possible indication for a start of the so-called

seventeenth century crisis.7

Unlike the Muslims, Christian population suffered only minor fluctuations in

the period of study, slowly growing in numbers until the late sixteenth and early

seventeenth century when a big migratory wave, coming from the overpopulated

Christian mountainous rural environment, rushed towards the cities of UpperThrace, shaping the local demographic features of the seventeenth century8.

Other nationalities living in Filibe, such as Jews and Gypsies, followed in

general Christians trend. In 1610, as if to contribute to the cosmopolitan and

multicultural appearance of Filibe, a group of Armenian migrants settled in the

city, whose decedents still live in present-day Plovdiv.

Filibe represents a model in which continuity went alongside modification,

producing an interesting mixture in which the discontinuity clearly prevailed,

Ottoman narratives. Sultan Bayzid I deported a nomadic group from Saruhan to the plain ofFilibe, establishing there the town of Saruhanbeyli (modern Septemvri). On another occasionfollowing the orders of Sultan Mehmed I Minnet Bey and his people were transferred to KonuHisar a village to the south-east of Plovdiv.Akpaazade Tarihi. Tevrih-i l-i Osman. Ali Bey(haz.), (stanbul: Matbaa-i Amire, 1332/1916), pp. 74, 90; Friedrich Giese. Die AltosmanisheChronik des kpaazde (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1929), pp. 67, 80-81.

5 See Table 16 See Gyula Kaldy-Nagy. Kanuni Devri Budin Tahrir Defteri (1546-1562) (Ankara: Ankara

niversitesi, 1971), pp. 11.7 See Figure 1.8 See Figure 2.


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but also the inherited local elements should be taken into serious consideration.

The Ottoman state represented either by the central government or the local

authorities had a significant output in the process of shaping the citys natural

demographic development.

The second city of our interest Eski Zara (Zagra-i Eski Hisar), is an example

of dramatic discontinuity, i.e. a city which existed in the Byzantino-Bulgarian

period, but which after the conquest was recreated, repopulated and had

exclusively Muslim population. We first find Eski Zara in the register of 1516

when the entire city population was Muslim, having no single Christian

recorded to be living in the city9. Semi-legendary information, claimed to be

originating from the earliest citysicilrecords, which unfortunately have burnedin a fire in the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war, might reveal a possible

explanation that stayed behind such a development10. According to the record,

similarly to Filibe, the city of Zagra surrendered to Lala ahin Paa during the

same campaign and accordingly the population was granted the privilege to

retain its properties and remained to live intact in the city. However, in the

years following Sultan Bayezids Ankara battle there was a major disturbance in

the area and the entire Christian population revolted against the Sultan. The

rebellion was suppressed and all Christians living in Eski Zara have beendeported to Asia Minor in exchange of Anatolian population, which later

occupied their place11.

Certainly the reliability of this account is questionable, but the fact that

something might have happened with the Christian population around the time

ofeyh Bedreddins revolt, could be correct. A look at the data from the register

suggests that not only the entire city population was Muslim, but also it clearly

speaks of Anatolian demographic model. Nearly half of the adult male

9 See Table 2.10 Bulgarian historian Petar Nikov relates this story in otherwise excellent academic article published

in 1928. According to Nikovs findings after the 1877-1878 the secretary of the last Ottoman kadin Eski Zara, certain Halil Efendi, a man interested in history was asked to recall some passagesfrom the early sicils that he claimed to remember very well. His words were also confirmed byEminolu evket Bey, another local who had also read some of the court records. The testimoniesof these two men were recorded and partially published in Georgi Kabakoev. Statisticheskikalendar na Starozagorskia deparatment za 1882 gonina. Nareden or Starozagorskata

prefektura (Sofia: 1882). See Petar Nikov. Turskoto zavladiavane na Bulgaria i sudbata naposlednite Shishmanovtzi. (Turkish Conquest of Bulgaria and the Fate of the Last Shishmanids)

Izvestia na Bulgarskoto Istorichesko Drujestvo 7-8 (1928): 52.11 Nikov, Turskoto zavladiavane na Bulgaria, 53.


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population in 1516 was unmarried a feature more common for the Anatolian

provinces of the Ottoman Empire at that time. Compared with the data

concerning the town of Tatar Bazar, a Muslim community that settled in

Rumelia more than a century ago, the difference seems to be apparent 18% of

unmarried young men in 1516 and only 9% in 1530.12

Similarly to the development of Filibe, Eski Zaras Muslim population suffered

a small drop in the 1530s, possibly due to a migration towards the West13. In the

40-year period until the following registration, Muslim community recovered

quickly, acquiring a significant growth which continued in the next years. The

early years of seventeenth century show indications of a starting crisis in which

the city lost a significant portion of its Muslim population.Christians coming from the nearby rural environment are first to appear in the

city in the 1570 registration. In accordance with the process running in all other

urban centers of Upper Thrace, Christians had a rather rapid increase and

doubled in numbers for a period of 25 years, a trend which obviously continued

in the following years, when the Christian population of Eski Zara doubled in

numbers once again for even shorter period.14

Our second example of urban development in Upper Thrace shows that the

central authority might have played even more crucial role than it was in Filibe.

As a result of state activity, Eski Zara could be seen as a model of extreme

discontinuity, having exclusively Muslim population until the second half of the

sixteenth century when local Christians settled for the first time in the city.

From the model of change let us now turn our attention to stanimaka, a

settlement which remained largely unaffected by the colonizing policy of the

Ottomans, representing a sound example of continuity of urban life after the

Ottoman conquest. Throughout the Ottoman period stanimaka retained itsexclusively Christian appearance, having small, almost invisible Muslim

minority. Partially, this development is due to the fact that during the period of

continuous wars in Thrace, because of its safer geographic location at the foot of

the mountain, the town was less affected by the destruction and even attracted

migrants from the nearby lowlands. The nearby Bachkovo monastery, the

12 See Figure 3.13 See Figure 4.14 See Figure 5.


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second biggest in Bulgaria, a large and important centre at that time, along with

a chain of dozen smaller monasteries surrounding the town, contributed greatly

to its attractive appearance.

When the Ottomans established their authority in the region, unlike many other

settlements in the open plain, they must have had found stanimaka relatively

prosperous and populated. There was no empty space in the town, there was no

plenty of abandoned land to be cultivated, in other words there was no room for

Muslim colonizers logically they have never appeared. The data from the

Ottoman surveys shows it convincingly15. The large Christian majority seem to

have been growing rapidly, especially after 1530s when the town, along with

many other settlements in the area, was attached to the pious foundation ofSleymaniye complex in Istanbul16. The status of vakf reayas was found

attractive to many locals and in a course of less than a century due to natural

output of the city population and the arrival of new settlers, the Christian

population of stanimaka doubled in numbers17. Meanwhile the tiny Muslim

minority, with the exception of some minor fluctuations, remained quite stable,

overwhelmed by the Christians who dominated the urban space, shaped citys

appearance and predetermined the demographic processes.

The model of continuity of urban life which could be seen in the case ofstanimaka shows that despite, being situated between two urban centers that

have been largely recreated and repopulated by the Ottoman administration,

some settlements remained unaffected by the process of colonization of

Anatolian Turkish population in the area. Furthermore, retaining its almost

exclusively Christian character the small towns appearance was never shaped

by the Islamic architecture and its look differed considerably from the nearby

Filibe or Eski Zara.

Our last example, presented in this paper is a city which emerged in a place

where no mediaeval Byzantine or Bulgarian settlement existed, i.e. a town

originally created and promoted by the Ottomans the city of Tatar Bazar, later

on known as Tatar Pazarck. Pazarck was established in the late fourteenth

15 See Table 3.16 The vakfiye is published by Keml Edip Krkolu, Sleymaniye Vakfiyesi, (Ankara: Resimli

Posta Matbaas, 1962), 65-67, with many mistakes in the transliteration of local toponomy, butprovided with a very good, readable facsimile.

17 See Figure 6.


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century by a group of Crimean Tatars led by one of Tokatm Hans

commanders in chief - Aktav, who at that time admitted to serve Sultan Bayazid

and transferred along with his people to Rumelia18.

The small provincial, military base-like settlement, developed rapidly, soon

acquiring distinct features of a kasaba until the 1530s when it was already

promoted to a kaza center. However, the rapid emergence of Tatar Bazar, was

not due to centralized support of the Ottoman government, it rather attracted

the attention of the mighty military leaders of the day the aknc beyis and

their descendents. Everenosolu Ahmed Bey has built an imaret in the city,

while the famous Malkoolu Bali sponsored thezaviye of Pirzade in Pazarcks

vicinities. To this list it might be added Ishak elebi from skb, who erected amosque. The influence of nearby htiman, dominated by Mihaloullar family

should not be underestimated too. The only known public building sponsored

by Ottoman state official in Tatar Bazar was the enormous caravanserai built in

1596 by the Grand Vezier brahim Pasha. It functioned until the early twentieth

century, when it was neglected. A model of the now extinct building could be

seen in the local museum.

This semi-military, rather Heterodox appearance of Tatar Bazar, continued

until the 1530s, when in accordance with the general trend of the thenOttoman policy, the famous Halveti Sheyh Muslihddin Nureddinzade arrived

from Sofia to Pazarck to encourage the Sunni Muslims and fight against the

Heterodoxy in the region. In deed the 1530 register is the last one to mention

thezaviye of Pirzade.

Naturally, the population figures show a large Muslim majority living in the city in

the period of our interest.19 The emerging settlement was attracting local

Christians, who appeared in the records, just to disappear in the following ones.20

Firmly settled Christian community is to be found for the first time in 1570, which

18 On the foundation of Tatar Bazar see my conference paper Grigor Boykov, Who Established theTown of Tatar Pazarck in Middle Upper Thrace? in Meral Bayrak et al. (eds.), UluslararasOsmanl ve Cumhuriyet Dnemi Trk-Bulgar likileri Sempozyumu 11-13 Mays 2005.

Bildiriler Kitab(Eskiehir: Osmangazi niversitesi, 2005), pp. 253-259. Its extended version isforthcoming in Bulgarian same author Suzdavaneto na Tatar Bazar (Pazardjik) prez 1398 g. hipotezi, sporove, zakluchenia.

19 See Table 4.20 For example the register of 1516 has only one Christian registered in the Muslim neighborhood,

the following record of 1525 has a group of 13 Christian households, which disappear in the 1530registration.


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grew rapidly, doubling in numbers until every following registration21. Muslims,

on the other hand, in accordance with the trend in the area, had a stable constant

growth, with the exception of 1530 when likewise there was a small decrease22.

Contrary to the processes taking place in Filibe and especially in Eski Zara in the

beginning of 17th century, when a sharp decrease of Muslim population could be

observed, Tatar Bazars Muslims had significant, certainly not only natural

growth. No doubt, this rapid development should be attributed to the strategically

important location of the city and especially to the erection of brahim Pashas

caravanserai, which revived the trade and economy of the city, attracting quickly

new settlers probably even from Filibe and Eski Zara.

Evidently, the examples offered by this short paper are far from being all-inclusive, its aim is rather simpler to stress on the differences in the urban

development and demographic features of several settlements, situated in the

same geographic area, under the same climatic conditions. The diverse

processes that a researcher could observe in every particular locality, should

make us more hesitant while drawing large pictures and creating models. Local

studies, unfortunately very often terribly underestimated, have to cover the

white spots of our knowledge of Ottoman realities and should answer many

questions which are not asked yet.

21 See Figure 7.22 See Figure 8.


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Table1:PopulationofFilibe(1472-1614)

Date

Muslims

(hane)

Unm

arried

Muslims

Christians

(hane)

Unmarried

Christian

s

Christian

Widows

Gypsies

(hane)

Unmarried

Gypsies

Jews

(hane)

Unmarrie

d

Jews

Arme-

nians

1472(877H.)

549

---

95+(27)123

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

148

9(895H.)

791

107

80

5

12

36

---

---

---

---

1516(925H.)

877

2

20

88

0

13

35

---

32

---

---

152

5(932H.)

801

136

79

3

13

33

2

32

1

---

153

0(937H.)

636

126

81

3

13

33

2

33

1

---

157

0(978H.)

752

26

88

2

7

26

---

50

1

---

159

5(1004H.)

844

32

156

7

---

24

9

54

---

---

1614(1023H.)

721

---

255

---

---

87

---

46

---

21

147

2=SofiaArchive,PD17/27;1489=BOA,

stanbul,TD26;1516=BOA,


stanbul,MAD

519

;1530=BOA,


stanbul,TD494;1595=T.K.G.M.,Ankara,Edirne65;1614=BOA,

stanbul,TD729.

1232

7householdsfromthevillageofP

ollad,sincethefollowingregistrationoneofFilibesneighborhood

s.


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Table 2: Population of Eski Zara (1516-1614)

Date Muslims

(hane)

UnmarriedMuslims

Christians

(hane)

UnmarriedChristians

Gypsies

1516 (925 H.) 516 245 --- --- ---

1530 (937 H.) 497 192 --- --- ---

1570 (978 H.) 709 28 29 8 ---

1595 (1003 H.) 723 32 60 --- 21

1614 (1023 H.) 470 --- 120 --- ---

1516=BOA, stanbul, TD 77; 1530= BOA, stanbul, TD 370; 1570= BOA, stanbul,

TD 494; 1595=T.K.G.M., Ankara, Edirne 65; 1614= BOA, stanbul, TD 729.

Table 3: Population ofstanimaka (1516-1595)

Date Muslims

(hane)

Unmarried

Muslims

Christians

(hane)

Unmarried

Christians

Christian

Widows

Gypsies

(hane)

1516 (925 H.) 11 --- 206 14 28 ---

1525 (932 H.) 13 4 220 22 25

1530 (937 H.) 13 4 220 22 25 ---

1570 (978 H.) 7 --- 351 --- --- 7

1595 (1003 H.) 13 (+8)

iftliks

--- 416 --- --- 4

1516=BOA, stanbul, TD 77; 1525=BOA, stanbul, MAD 519; 1530= BOA,

stanbul, TD 370; 1570= BOA, stanbul, TD 498; 1595=T.K.G.M., Ankara,

Edirne 563


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Table 4: Population of Tatar Bazar (1472-1614)

Date Muslims

(hane)

Unmarried

Muslims

Christians

(hane)

Unmarried

Christians

Christian

Widows

Gypsies

(hane)

Jews

(hane)

1472

(877 H.)

105 --- --- --- --- --- ---

1516

(925 H.)

197 36 1 --- --- --- ---

1525

(932 H.)

195 18 13 2 --- --- ---

1530

(937 H.)

178 16 --- --- --- --- ---

1570

(978 H.)

231 1 28 --- --- 1 ---

1595

(1004 H.)

287 5 44 --- --- --- ---

1614

(1023 H.)

414 --- 100 --- --- 34 7

1472=Sofia Archive, PD 17/27 and OAK 94/73; 1516=BOA, stanbul, TD 77;

1525=BOA, stanbul, MAD 519; 1530= BOA, stanbul, TD 370; 1570= BOA,

stanbul, TD 494; 1595=T.K.G.M., Ankara, Edirne 65; 1614= BOA, stanbul, TD

729.


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Figure 1: Muslim Population of Filibe (1472-1614)

Figure 2: Christian Population of Filibe (1472-1614)

Figure 1

721

844

752

636

801

877

791

549

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1000

1472 1489 1516 1525 1530 1570 1595 1614

Figure 2

255

156

8881798895 80

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

1472 1489 1516 1525 1530 1570 1595 1614


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Figure 3: Households and Unmarried in Eski Zara and Tatar Bazar (1516)

Unmarried

48%

Hane

516

Unmarried

18%

Hane

197

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

1 2

Eski Zara Tatar Bazar

Figure 3


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Figure 4: Muslim Population of Eski Zara (1516-1614)

Figure 5: Christian Population of Eski Zara (1570-1614)

Figure 4

516 497

709 723

470

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

1516 1530 1570 1595 1614

Figure 5

120

60

29

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

1570 1595 1614


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Figure 6: Christian Population ofstanimaka (1516-1595)

Figure 7: Christian Population of Tatar Bazar (1516-1614)

Figure 6

416

351

220220

206

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

1516 1525 1530 1570 1595

Figure 7

100

44

28

0

13

1

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1516 1525 1530 1570 1595 1614


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Figure 8: Muslim Population of Tatar Bazar (1472-1614)

Figure 8

414

287

231

178195197

105

0

50

100

150200

250

300

350

400

450

1472 1516 1525 1530 1570 1595 1614


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