REGIONAL NETWORKS AND PATRONAGE RELATIONS: THE CASE OF THE PROVINCIAL NOTABLE (AYAN) OF RAZGRAD FROM THE LATE 18TH CENTURY
REGIONAL NETWORKS AND PATRONAGE RELATIONS: THE CASE OF THE PROVINCIAL NOTABLE (AYAN) OF RAZGRAD FROM THE LATE 18TH CENTURY

Summary/Abstract: The period of the 18th-century Ottoman history is commonly labelled “the age of ayans”. As a rule, the great local warlords attracted considerable research interest. However, this paper aims to shed light on a local notable of the group of so-called “minor” ayans, whose stories are relatively less frequently presented in the historiography: the case of Elhac Ömeroğlu Hacı Ömer Ağa – the ayan of Hezargrad (mod. Razgrad) for the last two decades of the 18th. century. The study focuses on the one hand, on his networks of cooperation and contention with the regional notables and power-holders, and on the other hand, on his locally based patronage network. The 1787 – 1792-war deeply affected the everyday life of the South-Danubian Ottoman borderland districts and gave crucial impetus of the regional notables’ partnerships and struggles for supremacy. Locally based patronage relations are another main research issue in this paper. Тhe focus is on the role of local leadership in the system of social and administrative management of the district of Hezargrad, the ayan’s interaction with the community he represented, and his recognition in the local society as reflected in the documentation concerning some volatile points of the local notable’s story: the state decrees for his executions (at least two) and the process of the confiscation of his property (müsadere) in 1790, and another one – after Ömer Ağa’s death, in 1800.

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