—» ^ vV67 REFLECTIONS OF THE QIFT-HANE SYSTEM IN MEDIEVAL BOSNIA AND SERBIA A T H E S IS PRESENTED BY YORK NORMAN TO THE INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF HISTORY NoPmaO Ci.: BILKENT UNIVERSITY M ARCH 1 9 9 7 . л .N69- I certify that I have read this thesis and in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Master of History. Prof. Dr. Halil İnalcık 0 ■ [¿'C I certify that 1 have read this thesis and in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Master of History. Dr. Akşin Somel I certify that I have read this thesis and in my opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Master of History. Dr. Mehmet Kalpaklı Approved by the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Ali Karaosmanoglu ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first want to acknowledge that the original idea behind this thesis was given to me by my advisor, Professor Halil Inalcik and that I am fully in debt to his guidance for the following survey, both in terms of primary and secondary source materials. Secondly I would also like to thank Professor Bojani^ -LukaÎ' for her help in defining the themes of this thesis. In addition I am grateful to Jennifer Bolen for her translation of Bojanic-Lukac's "De la Nature et de Origine de L'Ispence" from French to English and Sarah Price for her help in editing my material. Finally I would like to thank Ambassador Darko Tanaskovi^, Özkul Çobanoğlu and Birsen Bulmuş for their advise during my research. In regards to the texts I have used, I want to take responsibility for all translations I have made and any of the errors which appear. I have chosen to translate all of the foreign language material into English in order to present a clearer picture to any potential readers. I also wish to apologize for problems in transliteration. Another motivation for translating into English was the fact that due to a lack of fonts I was unable to transliterate several of the Serbo-Croatian letters and all of the proper Ottoman Turkish notations. I ask for your understanding in this matter. ABSTRACT The main argument of this thesis is to examine the historical continuity of the çift-hane, the one family peasant farm unit that Professor Halil İnalcık has discovered to be the most basic unit of the rural Ottoman Ottoman social and economic structure. After a review of inalcik's definitions and theory, this thesis will then attempt to investigate the historical predecessors of this system in two Balkan nations within the empire, Serbia /' and Bosnia. As a starting point the influential work of Giro Truhelka will be considered, who writing early this century created several enduring myths about the agrarian economic structure in these two lands. Later in the Serbian case, by utilizing several important recent studies performed by Georgije Ostrogorski and Dusanka Bojanic, we come to the conclusion that there was in fact a çift-hane like regime in place before the conquest, namely during the rule of the Serbian emperor Stefan Dusan. It came as the result of central rule and the colonizing influence of Byzantium. However, in Bosnia no similar predecessor is found. Being outside of the empire of Stefan Dusan, Bosnia never was put under strong central rule, nor was it greatly influenced by Byzantium. Only under the Ottomans was a çift-hane like system imposed. The fact that it was accomplished does point to a functional continuity continued in this case however. The çift-hane remained a method of rural colonization. ÖZET Bu tezin temel tartışma konusu çift-hanenin tarihsel sürekliliğidir- kırsal OsmanlI sosyo-ekonomik yapısının en temel ünitesi olan aile köylü çiftliği Profesör Halil İnalcık tarafından keşfedilmiştir. İnalcık'ın teorisi ve tanımlamaları ile ilgili incelemeden sonra, tez, bu sistemin tarihsel öncülleri olan imparatorluk sınırları içerisindeki Balkanlı iki ulus Sırbistan ve Bosna'yı / araştırmayı deneyecektir. Ciro Truhelka etkili eseri başlangıç noktası olarak gözönünde bulundurulacaktır. Truhelka, içinde bulunduğumuz yüzyılın başlarında Sırbistan ve Bosna'da tarımsal ekonomik yapı hakkında devam eden pek çok mitler yarattı. Daha sonra Sırbistan konusu içerisinde Georgije Ostrogorski ve Dusanka Bojanic'in yakın dönemdeki pek çok önemli çalışmalarını kullanarak şu sonuca ulaşmaktayız: Fetihten önce Sırbistan İmparatoru Stefan Duşan'ın hükümdarlığı zamanında Sırbistan'da çift-hane gibi bir rejim vardı. Çift-hane rejimi merkezi otoritenin ve Bizans'ın kolonizasyon etkisinin bir sonucu olarak belirdi. Bununla birlikte Bosna'da benzer bir öncül bulunamadı. İmparator Stefan Duşan'ın dışında oluşan Bosna asla güçlü merkezi kontrolün altına girmediği gibi Bizans tarafından da büyük ölçüde etkilenmedi. Sadece Osmanhlar'm hükümranlığı altında çift-hane sistemi empoze edildi. Bununla beraber çift-hane Bosna'da devam eden fonksiyonel bir süreklilik gerçekleştirdi. Çift-hane kırsal bir kolonizasyon metodu olarak kaldı. Table of Contents Acknowledgments Abstract Özet Chapter 1. Introduction. 1.1. The historiographical problem.............................................1 1.2 The çift-hane theory of Halil İnalcık.................................... 3 1.3 The ideas of Ciro Truhelka....................................................20 Chapter 2. The çift-hane reflected in medieval Serbia. 2.1. Problems in interpreting Dusan's Law Code......................29 2.2. The pronoia system................................................. 31 2.3. The medieval mjerop bastina and related taxes...................37 2.4. Conclusions.........................................................................56 Chapter 3. The çift-hane reflected in Medieval Bosnia. 3.1. Problems in applying the Serbian case................................59 3.2. Medieval Bosnian social categories and landholding patterns................................................................................ 64 3.3. The application of the Ottoman kanunnames for Bosnia. ..70 3.4. Conclusions.........................................................................80 Glossary..................................................................................................................81 Appendix............................................................................................................... 90 Bibliography............................................................................................................110 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. THE HISTORIOGRAPHICAL PROBLEM. When considering the social structure in the medieval Balkans, an area where diverse ethnic groups, religions and cultures clash, one is always in search of a continuous, all-encompassing structure that would unite these groups or, at least, a scenario that would explain later disparities. Thus social and economic historians have paid a good deal of attention to what is perhaps the most basic unit of the social structure, the one-family peasant landholding, and its continuity from the Roman period though the Ottoman period up until the establishment of the modern Balkan states. The foremost advocate of the primacy of the landholding (especially during the Ottoman period) has been the Turkish historian Halil İnalcık, who has defined the one-family peasant landholding during the Ottoman period as the "çift-hane". The following paper will seek to explore the Ottoman çift-hane peasant household as it relates to Serbia and Bosnia during Ottoman and pre-Ottoman times. To do this I will first present an explanation on inalcik's theory regarding the çift-hane unit and its application to Serbia and Bosnia. Next I will provide an ✓ overview of Giro Truhelka's, work on the subject, who, in spite of the eighty-five years that have elapsed since his publication, has remained the only historian to have made a comparison of agrarian relations in both of these two Ottoman Balkan provinces and has established several enduring preconceptions of the character of feudalism there. Given inalcik's çift-hane theory, a critique can finally be made. After completing this extended introduction, I will then analyze the character of the peasants' landholdings and the standard tax structure in both Serbia and Bosnia in particular in order to determine the extent to which a historical continuity of the çift-hane, or a peasant family unit similar to it, can be made.·' These two separate sections will take into account not only the findings of modern historians, but more importantly attempt to utilize some of the most important primary sources which exist on the subject, namely the Code of Stefan Du^an for the pre-Ottoman period and the Ottoman kanunnames, or regional land codes which were regularly put into legislation during the Ottoman period. The selection of the Ottoman kanunnames is obvious because of the emphasis which will be given to the gift-hane theory. However it should be stressed that the selection of Dusan's Code has been made because of first its date of promulgation (1349 and 1354) and which was valid until shortly before Ottoman rule. Secondly, the Code of Stefan Dusan has been chosen because of the Code's influence both directly on the extensive lands under its regulation and indirectly on the Balkan peninsula as a whole. The reason behind this influence is that the Code was a unique attempt in the south Slavic lands during the pre-Ottoman period to establish a centralized system of land and revenue control.2 For here several variables