Chiflik

The system was one in which the projected revenue of a conquered territory was distributed in the form of temporary land grants among the Sipahis (cavalrymen) and other members of the military class including Janissaries and other servants of the Sultan.

Timars could be small, granted by governors, or large which required a certificate from the Sultan but generally the fief had an annual value of less than twenty thousand akçes.

The financial aims of the system were to relieve pressure from the Ottoman state of paying the army as well as to gain a new source of revenue for the central treasury.

[4] Most of the chiflik rulers only controlled small land holdings but some like Ali Pasha of Ioannina ruled autonomous kingdoms inside the Empire.

[4] No longer free to work for their own monetary gain they now had to labour under the rule of a feudal lord many days a week plus a larger percent of their harvest was seized.

The name of the Palestinian town Al-Jiftlik on the West Bank is derived from the above system of land tenure, which was applied there as in many other Ottoman locations.