A question about an Ottoman title/rank

[boelar]

Hello fellow Apricity users!

I'm creating this thread in the Turkish Apricity, because it is most likely that people from Turkey will know what to answer to my question. My family has a rich history, with a family tree first recorded back in the late 1600 or early 1700s. As I know from the book of my family, the head of the family (a direct ancestor of mine through male line of my father) had some kind of rank in the Empire, but we are unable to find the exact one. It is stated that my family had 300 hectares of land (up to 600 hectares in late years) and lived in the region of nowadays Macedonia, having administrative functions for the local Bulgarian population. We were moved every 50 years on different places of the Bulgarian ethnic land throughout the Ottoman Empire, (and were eventualy placed in the East of Bulgaria) and given the same amount of property every time, with the same administrative functions to the local people. My ancestors were Bulgarian Orthodox.

Was there an exact title/rank name in the Ottoman Empire for a man who was Bulgarian (Christian) and administrated the local population (usually a village or two + the lands given) in return of land? I was thinking sipahi, but they must be muslim, right ? :/

Thanks in advance!

[Thanas Django]

Hello fellow Apricity users!

I'm creating this thread in the Turkish Apricity, because it is most likely that people from Turkey will know what to answer to my question. My family has a rich history, with a family tree first recorded back in the late 1600 or early 1700s. As I know from the book of my family, the head of the family (a direct ancestor of mine through male line of my father) had some kind of rank in the Empire, but we are unable to find the exact one. It is stated that my family had 300 hectares of land (up to 600 hectares in late years) and lived in the region of nowadays Macedonia, having administrative functions for the local Bulgarian population. We were moved every 50 years on different places of the Bulgarian ethnic land throughout the Ottoman Empire, (and were eventualy placed in the East of Bulgaria) and given the same amount of property every time, with the same administrative functions to the local people. My ancestors were Bulgarian Orthodox.

Was there an exact title/rank name in the Ottoman Empire for a man who was Bulgarian (Christian) and administrated the local population (usually a village or two + the lands given) in return of land? I was thinking sipahi, but they must be muslim, right ? :/

Thanks in advance!

Muhtar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhtar_(title)

I like how you jumped straight to Sipahi though. In a war, at best he would have served as a başıbozuk if at all.

[Böri]

Without converting to Islam (or at least playing the theater in front of an imam like many Janissaries did) one couldn't rise in Ottoman bureaucratic ranks. You needed to show yourself as Muslim at least posing as one by wearing some Middle Eastern cloths, appearing in a mosque once every other time, telling Hamdulillah to Muslims around not to draw suspicions etc. LOL. So your ancestors, if rich, could have been used by the Ottomans to boost economy at some places but being state official, that's difficult.

[Thanas Django]

Without converting to Islam (or at least playing the theater in front of an imam like many Janissaries did) one couldn't rise in Ottoman bureaucratic ranks. You needed to show yourself as Muslim at least posing as one by wearing some Middle Eastern cloths, appearing in a mosque once every other time, telling Hamdulillah to Muslims around not to draw suspicions etc. LOL. So your ancestors, if rich, could have been used by the Ottomans to boost economy at some places but being state official, that's difficult.

petty local community leaders were still elected within the elders of their given community and in many cases were liable to collect taxes from their people to give to the Muslim Ottoman tax collector. These people were called Muhtar.

[Kaspias]

petty local community leaders were still elected within the elders of their given community and in many cases were liable to collect taxes from their people to give to the Muslim Ottoman tax collector. These people were called Muhtar.

Muhtar is pretty basic thing that every village had, his ancestor seems like powerful than a typical muhtar.

[Böri]

Muhtar was village head, every village had a muhtar from own people. That's not a bureaucratic position. Muhtar was responsible for his village against the state authorities. Non-Muslim villages had theirs too. And those muhtars were kafirs.

Ottoman society wasn't a meritocratic society but one based on a religious identity. The religious identity wasnt strict like in Judaism, that was just based on simple public declaration of faith. Thus pushing many to convert or appear to have converted so to benefit from the opportunities. Hence, a society built around hypocrisy. Still Turkey has many aspect of that old hypocrite social order.

In a system like that, an Orthodox Bulgarian couldn't be anything more than Muhtar to his local village.

[Thanas Django]

Muhtar is pretty basic thing that every village had, his ancestor seems like powerful than a typical muhtar.

I see what you are saying with regards to the OP's description of the position. However, I agree with Böri in that it makes no sense that a Christian non-cleric would be commissioned to a paid position of authority that a Muslim could occupy instead, unless on the grounds of some exception the then Sultan chose to observe during his reign (some term negotiated with the Entente regarding the Christian subjects of the Empire for example).

[boelar]

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In a system like that, an Orthodox Bulgarian couldn't be anything more than Muhtar to his local village.

But he owned the lands he took care of. My family kept them until communism when they were nationalised... He was referred to as Koca Slavi by the surroundings' beys. The family used the surname Boelar.