Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T03:00:11.252Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Aspects of Authority

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 May 2011

Amy Singer
Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University
Get access

Summary

Authority for the efficient and effective governance of the Ottoman dominions was vested in the military and judicial officials appointed from Istanbul to the provinces and districts of the empire. The beylerbeyi (provincial governor) of the province of Damascus controlled ten sancaks (districts), including Jerusalem. At the district level, the officials included the sancakbeyi (district governor), sipahis (cavalry officers), subaşis (soldiers with police functions), a local garrison of janissaries, and the kadi(s). In turn, senior officials were assisted by subordinates and support staffs drawn either from their accompanying households or from the local population.

Rural administration focused on the collection of taxes and ensuring peasant production. Among the peasants, immediate authority over the community and responsibility to the government lay with the village leader(s), the ra'īs al-fallāḥīn. He was the principal channel of official communication to the village population, and the mouthpiece of the villagers before Ottoman authorities. Moreover, the village leaders assumed a legal obligation for the payment of local taxes, making them liable for the sum due from their entire community.

This chapter examines the structure of authority at the district level. It tries to define the functions of the various officials and the village leaders in the routines of annual taxpaying and collecting.

Type
Chapter
Information
Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials
Rural Administration around Sixteenth-Century Jerusalem
, pp. 24 - 45
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Aspects of Authority
  • Amy Singer, Tel-Aviv University
  • Book: Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511563560.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Aspects of Authority
  • Amy Singer, Tel-Aviv University
  • Book: Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511563560.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Aspects of Authority
  • Amy Singer, Tel-Aviv University
  • Book: Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials
  • Online publication: 03 May 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511563560.005
Available formats
×