Date: June 4 2010, 16：00～18:00
Venue: AA401, Research Bldg. No. 2, Yoshida Campus Kyoto University
http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/access/campus/map6r_y.htm
http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kias/contents/tariqa_ws/access_map.pdf
Presentation:
Kayoko Hayashi (Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies）
【Activity Report】
Based on the presentation with the contents outlined above, two major questions were asked by the participants. The first concerned the transition from the rule by soldiers to the rule by the Ottoman bureaucracy, and the second with the use of the wealth gained through the tax collection system and asset management at the time. Below is an outline of the discussion that developed on each of these questions.
The era of military rule was characterized by the war against the Safavids and the conquest of Arab territories, and during that time, the sipahis (cavalrymen) constituted a powerful force toward the centralized regime led by the bureaucracy. They maintained their power by incorporating themselves into the timar system, under which they were able to levy taxes in compensation for their military service, but in the following era of Ottoman rule, they lost this power. As the bureaucratic institutions of the era of military rule continued to be maintained and develop, the bureaucrats composed of military officers, secretaries, and ulamas started to play an important role. On this point, some participants pointed out that since the transition to the Ottoman bureaucracy coincided with the spread of paper, it could be argued that the development of paper promoted the rise of the bureaucratic institutions. However, the presenter pointed out that it is believed as the empire, whose growth had stopped, went through a process of growth of its ruling institutions, and that the bureaucracy developed as a result of the weeding out of unnecessary institutions and the maintenance of the necessary ones. Because of this, it can be said that rather than paper encouraging the changes, there was also a process through which paper was utilized by the newly developed bureaucratic institutions.
In the period of bureaucratic rule, the timar system was replaced by the muqata’ah (tax farming) system and later the malikane (lifelong tax farm system). This led to an increase in the power of the influential local figures who actually collected the taxes, and became a factor behind the devolution of power within the Empire. The participants showed an interest in how the wealth accumulated by the tax collectors was used, and there was discussion regarding the sale of tax collection rights and the situation regarding investment at the time.
(Shizuka Imai)