The development of Islamicate spaces in the Ottoman Balkans (1450-1600)

The military conquest of the Balkans by the Ottomans in the fourteenth century was followed by the establishment of a new administrative order that resulted in the initiation of a long process of Islamization in the region. This study analyzes this process through the timar-system, a military-administrative revenue collecting institution, implemented in the regions of the southwestern Rhodope Mountains and surrounding plains during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The period between 1455 and 1575 covers both the earlier periods of Ottoman rule in the Balkans after the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed II, into the Süleymanic period when the timar was at its most developed, and timar revenues were at their most complex. It traces the development of Islamicate spaces that emerged out of the experience of the timar-system within rural spaces. The impact of this system was the initiation and development of a process of Islamization that changed the existing space, and put Muslims and Christians together in a new way. This process is traced through a detailed study of the tax-revenue registers produced to keep track of income generated from the timar-system for the military-bureaucracy. Using quantitative and qualitative data found in a close reading of all available registers from this period, the dissertation traces the emergence of new groups, brought together by the state or through the timar-system at the rural level. The resulting space brought Christians and Muslims, military and peasant, together in a way that fundamentally changed the region through Islamization. Furthermore, I argue that a Muslim society emerged that was not dependent on a Muslim-majority demographic, yet still developed all the hallmarks of an Islamic civilization. This study begins with an overview of the Islamization process and its characteristics in the Ottoman Empire, from a comparative perspective to broadly understand how it developed under a state apparatus. It moves on to then focus on the timar-system itself, and how it re-organized the physical and socio-economic space for both the soldier and the peasant, resulting in a new-found way to use the land and put these classes into direct contact with each other. As the upper class was primarily of Muslim orientation, this resulted in a space where a primarily Christian peasantry became a part of a new agricultural space encroached upon by the Muslim military class. This space is then argued to have emerged out of a process of Islamization, and resulted in an Islamicate space for the peasant. Following the movement of the military class into the rural space, I then analyze the peasantry itself, through the timar-system. The state reorganized the peasantry, directly creating a new intermediary class based on exemptions provided in return for certain services. The very existence of this class was dependent on the state, and the resulting religious and socio-economic spaces were a result of an Islamization process initiated by the state’s involvement in the first place. Finally, questions regarding the role of conversion are addressed in the final part of this project, where an onomastic study of convert names once more argues that an Islamicate society can successfully develop without a majority Muslim population.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Chmiel, Agata Anna

Contributors dc:contributor

• Todorova, Maria
• Cuno, Kenneth M
• Nobili, Mauro
• Randolph, John

• History

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Agata Chmiel

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113906

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F113906