Forging urban solidarities : Ottoman Aleppo, 1640-1700 / / by Charles L. Wilkins.

• Superior document: The Ottoman Empire and its heritage, v. 41
• Author: Wilkins, Charles L.
• Year of Publication: 2010
• Language: English
• Series: Ottoman Empire and its heritage ; v. 41.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (344 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

As with most empires of the Early Modern period (1500-1800), the Ottomans mobilized human and material resources for warmaking on a scale that was vast and unprecedented. The present volume examines the direct and indirect effects of warmaking on Aleppo, an important Ottoman administrative center and Levantine trading city, as the empire engaged in multiple conflicts, including wars with Venice (1644-69), Poland (1672-76) and the Hapsburg Empire (1663-64, 1683-99). Focusing on urban institutions such as residential quarters, military garrisons, and guilds, and using intensively the records of local law courts, the study explores how the routinization of direct imperial taxes and the assimilation of soldiers to civilian life challenged – and reshaped – the city’s social and political order.

Table of Contents

pt. 1. Extraordinary taxes ('avariz) and local administration -- The 'avariz tax regime and the conduct of tax surveys -- The mechanics of local tax administration : land use, personal liability, and apportionment -- The responsibilities and compensation of quarter tax officials -- A fiscal demography of Aleppo -- Urban responses to the Imposition of extraordinary taxes -- The frequency and level of extraordinary tax levies -- Popular strategies for tax relief : tax exemption -- Other individual strategies for tax relief -- Collective action and mutual assistance -- Residential quarters and the question of "positive loyalties" -- pt. 2. Military units : elements of solidarity and division -- Survey of military cadres -- Residence patterns -- Compensation of troops -- Ocaklik and the guards of the Kars Citadel : soldiers, market regulation, and moneylending -- Mobilization and unit solidarity -- The career of 'Ali b. Shabib (d. ca. 1678) -- The episode of 'Ali Agha b. 'Abdullah -- Limits on unit discipline and solidarity -- pt. 3. Solidarity and leadership in the guilds -- Guild self-government -- The leadership of the guilds : two case studies -- The butchers -- The Kasapbasi : compensation and social background -- The tanners -- The Akhi Baba and Shaykh al-Sab'a -- A sketch of one Shaykh al-Sab'a : Sayyid Ibrahim b. Sayyid Rajab al-H'anbali (d. 1678) -- The Shaykh al-Dabbaghin and Naqib al-Dabbaghin -- Relations among guilds -- Guilds : patterns of autonomy and organizational fluidity.