Provincial powers: the rise of ottoman local notables (ayan)

The history of the ayan (local notables) is the socio-economic history of the Ottoman state from the late sixteenth until the nineteenth century. In recent years the ayan have been the subject of numerous studies; however, these works have either been very general in nature or micro-histories of individual ayan. This article studies the ayanlık as a whole by examining a variety of ayan in the Balkans during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, while comparing them to their Anatolian and Arab counterparts. The ayan's rise to power, sources of revenue, relationship with the central government and other provincial authorities, and their interaction with the local community are central to this comparative study. In doing so, the paper investigates the possibility of creating a model ayan that would supersede geographical boundaries within the Ottoman state.

Ottoman Empire ,

Eighteenth Century ,

Ayan ,

Provinces ,

Notables ,