OSMANLI’NIN İLK GENEL NÜFUS SAYIMLARINDAN NUMUNE: BİTLİS MÜSLİM YOKLAMA DEFTERİ ÜZERİNE DEĞERLENDİRME
SAMPLE FROM THE FIRST GENERAL (POPULATION) CENSUSES OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: CONSIDERATIONS ON BITLIS MUSLIM POPULATION (ROLL-CALL) REGISTER BOOK

Summary/Abstract: In 1830-1831, the Ottoman Empire conducted censuses in order to recruit soldiers for the Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediyye army, which was established after the abolition of the Janissary Corps. Censuses continued after Sultan Mahmud II in order to meet the various needs of the developing army. These censuses do not only include Muslims. With the censuses conducted in this way, the aim was to determine the income to be obtained by counting also the non-Muslim subjects, who are liable to pay jizya. Initially targeting certain areas, these censuses were subsequently expanded and tried to be extended in line with the same goals. Today, the corpus consisting of the registers belonging to these censuses is largely preserved in the Ottoman Archives under the Directorate of State Archives of the Presidency. Our study focuses on Bitlis District Muslim Population Register Book of 1859, recently made available to researchers and preserved in this archive. This book presents a different type among the registers kept as a result of the censuses conducted in terms of the period in which it was conducted and its structure. In this study, the subject will be tried to be handled by focusing on the data obtained from this book, in terms of the methods, justifications and processes used in the censuses conducted by the Ottoman Empire, and some of the her problems that are addressed for the first time in this study. Likewise, the study text will be established by supporting it with the relevant literature, the population register in question and archive documents.

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