Content deleted Content added
No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
||
Line 14:
The Iltizam tax system consisted of tax farming. The Ottoman Empire, rather than using its own resources to collect taxes, awarded tax collecting rights to the highest bidder, who could keep profits after sending a portion back to the central government.<ref name=Piterberg1990/> Though access to these tax farms took different forms throughout the period, local a'yan developed into the chief owners of these rights. They were very efficient at sending money back to the center (far more than the governors in the preceding [[Timar]] system) and their local nature gave them more knowledge of the region and a vested interest in its success.<ref name=Piterberg1990/>
The tax collector role gave the ayan even more status in their regions. However, the arrangements also increased the average Ottoman subject's access to political and economic systems. Often in control of massive territories, the a'yan set up [[Hierarchy|hierarchical]] structures underneath them to manage the tax farming process. Though the a'yan had to be Muslim, those working in these [[Administration (law)|administrations]] did not. "Non-Muslims, such as Jews, [[Greeks]], and [[Armenians]], though prohibited from holding tax farm leases, could serve as financiers."<ref name="Balla & Johnson 2009">{{cite journal |last1=Balla |first1=Eliana |last2=Johnson |first2=Noel D. |title=Fiscal Crisis and Institutional Change in the Ottoman Empire and France |journal=The Journal of Economic History |date=2009 |volume=69 |issue=3 |pages=809–845 |doi=10.1017/S0022050709001132 |jstor=40263944 |s2cid=153390372 }}</ref> Thus, in addition to serving the Empire as chief tax collectors under the [[Iltizam]]
==Military responsibilities==
| |||