ROSSITSA GRADEYA

WAR AND PEACE ALONG THE : VIDIN AT THE END OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

ranz Babinger once called the Danube «the river [where] the fate of the F Ottoman empire [was decided]». 1 For other scholars this was just a natural border of the Ottoman state. A number of attempts have been un• dertaken recently to analyse the defence line along the northernmost border of the Ottoman empire, mainly in the 16th century. 2 Other historians have turned their attention to the economic relations between the empire and its neighbours across the Danube, again mainly in the 16th century. 3 The re-

I - Babinger, Fr., "Die Donau als Schicksalsstrom des Osmanenreiches", in: Siid• osteuropa Jahrbuc/1, Munich, I 961, p. 15-25. 2 - Various aspects of the Ottoman defence line on the Danube, mainly for the late 15th and the 16th centuries, have been discussed in the studies of: Dimitrov, S., "TTbp• BHTe OCMaHCKH rapHHJOHH n Yttrapml H npo6JieMHTe Ha 0CMaHCKaTa KOJIOHHJaUllil" [The First Ottoman Garrisons in Hungary and the Problems of Ottoman Colonisation], in: HcTop11'1ecK11npeme,a, IV-V (1993), p. 3-20; Hegyi, KI., "The Ottoman Military Force in Hungary", in: Hungarian-Ottoman Milita,y and Diplomatic Relations in the Age of Suleyman the Magnificent, ed. by David, G. & P. Fodor, , I 994, p. 131-148; Mutafcieva, V., "BH.1lHH H BH.1lHHCKO npeJ XV-XVI n." [Vidin and the Re• gion of Vidin in the 15th-16th centuries], in: Bojanic-Lukac, D., BH,a11H II B11,a1m• CKIIHT C8H,0)1(8K llpe3 XV-XVI DCK. ,40K)'MCHTII OT aap11rpa,acK11Te apXIID/f [Vidin and the Vidin Sancak in the 15th- I 6th centuries. Documents from the Archives in Tsari• grad], Mutafcieva, V. & M. Stajnova (eds.), , 1975, p. 15-52; Radushev, E., "Ot• toman Border Periphery (Serhad) in the Nikopol Vilayet, first half of the 16th cen• tury", in: Etudes Balkaniques, Ill-IV, 1995, p. 140-160; Romer, Cl., Osmanische Fes• tungsbesatzungen in Ungarn zur Zeit Murads ill. Dargestellt unhand von Petitionen zur Stellenvergabe, Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vi• enna, 1995; Zirojevic, 0., TypcKo oojHo ypeileHhe y Cp61111, 1459-1683 [Turkish Mili• tary Administration in , 1459-1683], , 1974; Eadem., "Oxpatta)lyttall. K nonpocy 06 HCCT0JlbJ0BaHHH 0CMaHCKHMH BJiaCTllMH MeCTH0fO HaceJieHHll AIU! norpa• HH'-IH0H CJIY)K6b1" [The Defence of the Danube. On the usage of local population by the Ottoman authority for frontier service], in: OcMaHcKafl 11Mnep11J1: rocy,aapcTDCHHafl JJ.llaCTh II cOl.(lfa.JihHO-non11T111/ecKaJ1 CTPYKTYPa [The Ottoman Empire: State Power and Socio-political Structure], Oreskova, S.F. (ed.), Moscow, Nauka, 1990, p. 159- 166; Velkov, A. and E. Radushev, Ottoman Garrisons on the Middle Danube. Based on Austrian National Librwy MS MXT 562 of 95611549-1550, with an introduction by S. Dimitrov, Budapest, Akad. Kiado, 1996; Kovacev, R., On11c Ha H11KononcKIIJ1 caH,a)KaK oT 80-Te ro,a/lH/f Ha XV oeK [ An Inventory of the Sancak of Nicopolis from the 1480s], Sofia, NBKM, 1997, p. 33-101. 3 - See for example, Berindei, M., M. Kalus-Martin, G. Veinstein, "Actes de Murad III sur Ia region de Vidin et remarques sur Jes qanun ottomans", in: Sudost-Forschungen,

OM. n.s. XX (LXXXI), I, 2001 150 ROSSITSA GRADEYA gion along the Danube, and the Vidin area in particular, has also attracted scholars' attention, particularly the events and socio-economic phenom• ena specific to the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, such as the activities of Osman Pazvantoglu, while the situation in the region throughout the previous centuries provided opportunities for the formation of <;iftliks and the establishment of "gospodarltks", causing the vehement reaction of local peasantry in the first halfofthe 19th century.4 In tum, we have chosen to analyse the role of the river as regards the Ot• toman state and the rank-and-file Ottoman subjects at the tum of the 17th century, using the example of a Danubian city, Vidin. Where possible, we shall try to point out the specifics of life by the river and in what way it affected the Ottoman subjects living in Vidin during the war with the Holy League and immediately afterwards. Our study will be concerned with three aspects of life in the region in particular: the city as a military centre in the immediate hinterland of the serhad, during the war and in the first years after the conclusion of the Karlowitz peace treaty; as a communication link and transport artery for military supplies and loads and for travellers along and across the Danube; and, closely related, as an economic, trading and fishing centre. For centuries Vidin was an important administrative centre in the Bul• garian kingdom. In the 14th century it became the capital of one of the three Bulgarian kingdoms, the so-called Vidin Tsardom. Throughout the period of Ottoman domination it was a sancak centre, initially on the frontier and, later, after the expansion in Central Europe in the 16th cen• tury, in the immediate hinterland of the serhad with the main Ottoman adversary in that region, the Austrian Habsburgs. 5 Even in the 16th-17th centuries, despite the transfer of the serhad to the West, the town and the

XXXV (1976), p. 11-68; Tsvetkova, B., Ilpo)"!BaHu.11 Ha rpaJJ.CKOTO CTonaHcTBo npeJ XV-XVI BeK. [Studies in the Town Economy during the 15th- I 6th centuries], Sofia, Nauka i izkustvo, 1972; Maxim, M., "Ottoman documents concerning the Wallachian salt in the ports on the Lower Danube in the second half of the sixteenth century", in: Revue des Etudes Sud-Est Europeennes, XXVl/2 (1988), p. 113-122. 4 - Gandev, H., "3apa)KJl.aHe Ha Ka0HTaJIHCTH'leCKH OTHOllleHH.11 B 'IHq>nHlllKOTO CTO• naHCTBO Ha CeuepoJana.nHa 6-hJJrapu.11 npeJ XVIII a." [The emergence of capitalist re• lations in the ~iftlik economy in Northwestern in the 18th century], in: Idem. llpo6J1e,1111 Ha EMrapcKoro B'b3pa)J(l]aHe [Problems of the Bulgarian Revival], Sofia, Nauka i izkustvo, 1976, p. 272-394; Dimitrov, S., BocraH11ero or 1850 r. B EMrap11J1. [The Uprising of 1850 in Bulgaria], Sofia, BAN, 1972; Mutafcieva, V., KopJl)l(8- JTJfJICKO BpcMe [The Ktrcah Time], Sofia, Nauka i izkustvo, 1977. 5 - On the town and its fortifications during the and the Ottoman period see in more detail: Kuzev, A., "6.autt" [Bdin], in: EMrapcKit cpc,llHOBCKOBHJf rp8,l(OBe 11 Kpenocr11, I, Fpa.aooe If Kpenocr11 no ,/(yHao 11 l/epHo Mope [Bulgarian Medieval Towns and Fortresses. I. Towns and Fortresses along the Danube and the Black Sea]. Kuzev, A. & V. Gjuzelcv (eds.), Varna, lzdatelstvo "G. Bakalov", 1981, p. 98-115 (based mainly on archaeological material and narrative sources); s.v. «Widdin» (S. Ivanova), £/• (forthcoming). I wish to thank the author for allowing me to use the manuscript.