Imperial Order (Gurre-i cemadeyülahire 1012)

This document is an imperial/sultanic order issued on the first day (Gurre) of Cemadiyelahir 1012 (6 November 1603) concerning absentee usufruct owners. The order allowed the sipahi (cavalryman responsible for collecting taxes from land production) to distribute the land of an absentee if a year had passed since their departure without any news. This measure was taken during a period of economic and social turmoil, when many peasant-cultivators abandoned their land, leading to tax collection issues and a potential deficit in the treasury. The document is a copied version by Sarkis Karakoç (d. 1944), an Ottoman lawyer who conducted research on Ottoman law and collected many original and copied legal texts.
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