Káldy-Nagy Gyula: A gyulai szandzsák 1567. és 1579. évi összeírása – Forráskiadványok a Békés Megyei Levéltárból 10. (Békéscsaba, 1982)

THE CENSUS OF THE SANJAK OF GYULA OF 1567 AND 1579

word "hane". This number usually was corresponding with the number of heads of families in different settlements, and therefore in our work we took the word "hane", which means "house, family" (about the Turkish word "hane" read more in: Bevölkerungsstatistischer Quellenwert der öizye-Defter und der Tahrir-Defter, in Acta Orient. Hung., 1960, 259-69), for the definition of "family". The 50 akche jizye-tax, every family had to pay per year, always belonged to the treasury, the timar-holders never were allowed to collect it. Then the census-taker put down the amount of the probable income in akche and enumerated which different taxes and tenths this consisted of. Among those he registered primarily the gate-tax (resm-i kapu), which was also 50 akche per family a year. The tenth of corn and other crops (hay, hemp, cabbage, lentil, fruit and sometimes must) were put down according to the yearly average counted from the previous three years. Concerning the calculation of the yearly average crop we can state from our source-material that in 1567 the Turkish census-taker in had been some cases a bit indulgent, but in 1579 he often may have been too rigorous. The tenth of corn was registered by the Turkish censustaker in Turkish measures, in "kile", which was 22.65 kg measuring wheat, 22.25 kg measuring barley. The tenth of grape-juice was already measured in the Hungarian "pint" (1.69 liter) and registered this way. Beside the amount of the tenth of corn and grape-juice they always put down their value in akche, as the probable income from the settlement was calculated from these dates. The amount of the tenth of the rarer fruits and other crops was not noted, only the value of them in akche. The value of the tenth after beehives, the pig-tax and lamb-tenth were also calculated from the average of the previous three years. But the number of sheep noted above the name of the owner on the list of inhabitants was probably showing the actual state of stock in the year of the census. Separately the census-takers calculated also the fish-tenth, from the average of the previous three years, then there generally was the "barrel-tax" calculated from the sale of wine, the bride-tax, the tax for fuel wood, the fines for different delicts, or the penalties payed after field damage. Besides the mentioned taxes and dues, in bigger or more busy settlements the dues collected on markets and country fairs were registered, the goods-tax gathered along the commercial roads, from time to time the salt-tax, bride-tax was separately mentioned, further the income from selling the heirless inheritance, or straying, ownerless animals. Of course, the different taxes and dues were not simply registered according to declarations, but according to the accounts of the so-called "muqataa" of the tax-collectors of the treasury. The word muqataa was a financial term, which meant either only one, or all branches of income as a definite amount for a district, according to the agreement between the treasury and the tax-collectors; so the muqataa meant a special tax-district, or provisionary unit (concerning this see: Rechnungsbücher türkischer Finanzstellen in Buda 1550-1580, Budapest 1962, 755-761). The knowledge of this definition helps us to understand such a sentence appearing in the censuses as, e.g. that noted in the case of the village of Székudvar: "The tax is contained in the muqataa of Simánd, but not in the muqataa of the village mentioned". By this we have to understand that the tax-due of Székudvar village was counted to the muqataa established around the town of Simánd, this means it was joined with the taxdistrict of the latter. Besides the above mentioned incomes, an other one, though rare, was the tax collected after gardens. Two kinds of gardens were differenciated: a garden beside the house, which was in Turkish called "bagche" and the territory used as a garden outside the settlement, which 400