Taxes in the Ottoman Empire: Who Paid Them and the 5 Main Taxes

Taxes in the Ottoman Empire were paid by the reaya, the name given to the village and town people obliged to pay them. Peasants, farmers, and the shopkeepers and craftsmen of the towns all belonged to this group. Yet who the reaya were, which taxes they paid and why, and how this order kept the state standing cannot be explained in a single word. In this article we give the answer first and then examine the system behind it.

Quick Summary

The producing, taxpaying population was called the reaya.
The military class paid no taxes and lived on the revenue collected from the reaya.
In villages, taxes were levied on produce; in towns, on trade and crafts.
Muslims paid the öşür (tithe) and the çift resmi, while non-Muslims paid the haraç and the cizye.
The cizye was abolished by the 1856 Reform Edict and replaced by the bedel-i askerî.

Short answer: the reaya
Rulers and ruled
Village and town differences
The timar system
Types of taxes
Tax-exempt reaya
How were taxes collected?
The Tanzimat and after
Frequently asked questions

Who Paid Taxes in the Ottoman Empire? The Short Answer

Reaya was the common name for the part of society that produced goods and paid taxes to the state. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the word is the plural of raiyye or raiyyet, which literally means “flock”. In the Islamic world it became a term for the taxpaying population outside the ruling military class and the ulema.

In the usage of the period, the word carried no contemptuous meaning. On the contrary, it described the governed people whom the ruler was obliged to protect. The image of the flock and the shepherd rested on an old political idea that stressed just government as a responsibility.

Social Structure: Rulers and Ruled

Society was divided into two large groups. On one side stood the military class (askerî), made up of soldiers, kadis, müderrises (professors) and officials serving in the sultan’s name. On the other side were the reaya, who produced and paid taxes.

This division was based on function, not lineage. A member of the reaya could move into the military class through education or by entering state service. The reaya was also defined without regard to whether a person was Muslim or non-Muslim. Religious difference changed not the class but the items of tax to be paid. For an overall picture of the social order, see our article on Ottoman social structure.

Painting depicting taxes in the Ottoman Empire, with officials keeping records at a market and villagers bringing goods

Village and Town: Same Class, Different Tax Items

Although villages and towns belonged to the same reaya class, their economies differed. Taxes in the Ottoman Empire were shaped according to this difference.

Villages: Livelihoods rested on farming and animal husbandry. Taxes were taken as a share of the harvested crop and according to the number of animals.
Towns: Markets, shopkeepers and crafts came to the fore. Taxes were calculated on goods sold, market transactions and craft products.

Keeping the towns lively was especially important for the state. Markets meant both tax revenue and the production the army needed. We described how this network worked in our article on commercial spaces in the Ottoman state.

The Timar System: The Framework of Tax Collection

Most taxpaying villages lay within the timar system. Instead of a cash salary, the state assigned the tax revenue of an area to a sipahi (cavalryman). The basic workings of this order were as follows:

The sipahi lived on the revenue left to him and, depending on its size, maintained mounted soldiers called cebelü.
The peasant continued to work the land and gave a share of his produce to the sipahi.
Ownership of the land stayed with the state, while the peasant could pass the right of use from father to son.
A peasant who left his land idle for three years in a row paid a fee called the çift bozan resmi.

Revenue grants (dirlik) were divided into three grades according to their size. Those with an annual income of up to twenty thousand akçe were called timar, those from twenty thousand to one hundred thousand akçe zeamet, and larger ones has. Has revenues were reserved for the sultan, members of the dynasty and senior administrators such as beylerbeyis. The higher the revenue, the more soldiers had to be maintained.

Thanks to this order, the state both supported an army and secured continued production without paying cash from the treasury. The breakdown of the system, however, became one of the greatest problems of state finances from the seventeenth century onward. For the place of the timar-holding sipahis in the army, see our article on Ottoman military organization.

Types of Taxes in the Ottoman Empire

The taxes of the period fall under two main headings: şer‘î taxes based on religious law and örfî taxes imposed by the sultan’s decree. Below we explain the most important ones.

Öşür (Tithe)

This was the tax taken from the agricultural produce of Muslim reaya. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the word means “one tenth”. In practice, however, additional obligations often brought the rate up to one eighth. The rate could also vary by region and by irrigation method.

Haraç

This was the tax taken from the land worked by non-Muslim reaya. It had two forms. Harâc-ı mukāseme took a share of the produce, while harâc-ı muvazzaf was collected as a fixed amount according to the size of the land.

Cizye

This was the poll tax taken from non-Muslim men and was seen as the counterpart of the obligation of military service. Women, children, the elderly, clergy and those unable to work were exempt. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, taxpayers were divided into three groups by their ability to pay: âlâ, evsat and ednâ.

Çift Resmi and Avârız

Çift referred to the amount of land that could be ploughed with a pair of oxen. A Muslim peasant working such land paid a basic tax called the çift resmi in the law codes. Its counterpart for non-Muslim peasants was the ispence. Avârız, by contrast, was at first collected only in extraordinary situations such as war, but from the seventeenth century onward it turned into a regular tax.

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, a çift was a piece of land of 60 to 150 dönüms, depending on its fertility, enough to support a farming family. In the law code of Mehmed the Conqueror, the çift resmi was the cash equivalent of seven services the reaya owed to the sipahi and amounted to 22 akçe in total. A peasant holding half a çift was registered as nîm çift and paid half the tax. A married peasant with no land, or with less than that, was recorded as bennâk.

According to the encyclopedia, the Anatolian Seljuks also had a tax called the çift akçesi, worth one dinar. Over time the origin of the tax was forgotten and it turned into a land tax tied to the soil. In the sixteenth century Ebüssuûd Efendi also counted it among the şer‘î taxes.

Reaya Exempted from Taxes in Return for Services

Not every member of the reaya carried the same tax burden. The state granted tax exemptions or reductions to villages that undertook certain public services. This practice kept important services running without spending money from the treasury.

Derbentçis: They guarded mountain passes and dangerous roads and ensured the safety of travellers.
Bridge keepers: They undertook the maintenance and repair of important bridges.
Miners: They worked in mining operations for the state.
Rice growers and falconers: They undertook the rice production the state needed or the raising of hunting birds.

In return for their services, these groups were exempted from extraordinary taxes or from some örfî taxes. In this way, the system of taxes in the Ottoman Empire became not only a means of collecting revenue but also a tool for organizing state services.

How Were Taxes Collected?

The collection of taxes in the Ottoman Empire was based on the tahrir registers. In every conquered or reorganized region, the number of households, the cultivated land and the amount of production were recorded. Taxes were calculated from these records, with the aim of preventing arbitrary collection.

In timar areas, the sipahi carried out the collection. In areas attached directly to the treasury, officials such as the emin, the mültezim or the mütesellim stepped in. When the people had a complaint, they could apply to the kadi. For the role of kadis in such cases, see our article what did Ottoman kadis do?

Taxes in the Ottoman Empire after the Tanzimat

In the nineteenth century, the tax order underwent a radical change. The 1839 Tanzimat Edict declared that taxes would be levied fairly and according to each person’s means. This principle aimed to limit the privileges and arbitrary practices of the old order.

According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the cizye was abolished by the 1856 Reform Edict, which introduced the principle of equality among subjects. However, in return for exempting non-Muslims from military service, a tax called the bedel-i askerî began to be collected. This tax lasted until 1907. For the legal status of non-Muslim communities, read our article on the millet system.

Frequently Asked Questions

What were the village and town people who paid taxes in the Ottoman Empire called?

They were called the reaya. This producing, taxpaying group formed the foundation of the state’s economic order.

Did the reaya include only peasants?

No. Besides peasants, the shopkeepers, craftsmen and merchants of the towns also belonged to the reaya class. What they had in common was producing and paying taxes.

Did the people who paid taxes in the Ottoman Empire own their land?

No. Ownership of state land (mîrî) belonged to the state, while the peasant held the right of use. This right could pass from father to son, but the land could be taken back if it was left idle without reason.

Conclusion

The reaya, the village and town people who paid taxes in the Ottoman Empire, formed both the economic and the military foundation of the state. The timar system turned the value these people produced directly into an army. Although the types of taxes varied by religion and occupation, the aim was to keep production going and the state standing.