Administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was first subdivided into provinces, in the sense of fixed territorial units with governors appointed by the sultan, in the late 14th century.
[4] Until the Tanzimat period from 1839 to 1876, the borders of administrative units fluctuated, reflecting the changing strategies of the Ottomans, the emergence of new threats in the region, and the rise of powerful ayans.
[6] In English, Ottoman subdivisions are seldom known by myriad Turkish terms (vilayet, eyalet, beylerbeylik, sancak, nahiye, kaza, etc.)
The initial organization dates back to the Ottoman beginnings as a Seljuk vassal state (Uç Beyligi) in central Anatolia.
The Ottoman Empire over the years became an amalgamation of pre-existing polities, the Anatolian beyliks, brought under the sway of the ruling House of Osman.
This extension was based on an already established administrative structure of the Seljuk system in which the hereditary rulers of these territories were known as beys.
[10] Following the establishment of beylerbeyliks, sanjaks became second-order administrative divisions, although they continued to be of the first order in certain circumstances such as newly conquered areas that had yet to be assigned a beylerbey.
[12] The beylerbeyliks where the timar system was not applied, such as Habesh, Algers, Egypt, Baghdad, Basra and Lahsa, were more autonomous than the others.
Instead of collecting provincial revenues through the timariot sipahis, the beylerbey transferred fixed annual sums to Istanbul, known as the salyane.
[16] At the same time, the law left to the governors vast scope for independent action as well as responsibility, as part of a system intended to achieve a large degree of efficiency in ruling the provinces.
[14] The new provincial system could not be introduced in provinces at the same time, due to both insufficient funds and a lack of experience in administering the new law.
[17] By the end of 1876 the new provincial system was in operation all over the empire, with the sole exception of the Arabian Peninsula and autonomous provinces like Egypt.
Precedence among the remainder, according to Ayn Ali in 1609, followed the order in which the eyalets were conquered, although he does not make it clear whether this ranking had anything other than a ceremonial significance.
Like the Beylerbey, the Sanjak-bey drew his income from a prebend, which consisted usually of revenues from the towns, quays and ports within the boundary of his sanjak.
Sanjak governors also had other duties, for example, the pursuit of bandits, the investigation of heretics, the provision of supplies for the army, or the despatch of materials for shipbuilding, as the sultan commanded.
[19] The barleycorn was known as arpa in Turkish, and the feudal system in Ottoman Empire employed the term Arpalik, or "barley-money", to refer to a second allowance made to officials to offset the costs of fodder for their horses (for covering the expenses of keeping a small unit of cavalry).
