Resm-i bennâk
{{Short description|Ottoman Empire tax on landless peasants}}
{{Taxation in the Ottoman Empire sidebar}}
The resm-i bennâk was a tax on peasants who had little or no land - those who did not pay the resm-i çift - in the Ottoman Empire.{{cite journal|last=Demirci|first=Suleyman|title=Avariz and nüzul levies in the Ottoman Empire: An assessment of tax burden on the tax-paying subjects. A case study of the Province of Karaman, 1628-1700|url=http://sbe.erciyes.edu.tr/dergi/sayi_11_16_S_Demirci.pdf|year=2003}}
The name is probably a loanword of Armenian origin;{{cite book|author1-link=Robert Dankoff|last=Dankoff|first=Robert|title=Armenian loanwords in Turkish|year=1995|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-03640-5}} in the Ottoman Empire, "bennâk" came to mean a landless peasant, or a man who had married but not yet established his own household. "Bennâk" was also a term for a small area of farmland, less than half a çift.{{cite journal|last=Vryonis|first=Speros|title=The Byzantine Legacy and Ottoman Forms|journal=Dumbarton Oaks Papers|year=1969|volume=23/24|pages=251–308|doi=10.2307/1291294|jstor=1291294}}
The resm-i bennâk was usually paid annually, on 1 March, by the head of a family who is either landless or has very little land - not enough to be assessed for resm-i çift. The tax was payable to the timar-holder{{cite book|title=ACCOUNTING METHOD USED BY OTTOMANS FOR 500 YEARS: STAIRS (MERDIBAN) METHOD|publisher=Turkish Republic Ministry of Finance Strategy Development Unit|url=http://www.sgb.gov.tr/Publications/Accounting%20Method%20Used%20By%20Ottomans%20For%20500%20Years%20-%20Stairs%20(Merdiban)%20Method.pdf|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201203209/http://www.sgb.gov.tr/Publications/Accounting%20Method%20Used%20By%20Ottomans%20For%20500%20Years%20-%20Stairs%20(Merdiban)%20Method.pdf|archivedate=2014-02-01}} or to a tax-farmer in their stead.
The rate of resm-i bennâk was generally lower than the resm-i çift. For instance, in the provincial tax code of Hüdavendigar in 1487, a married man with his own farm might pay the full resm-i çift rate of 40 akçes; a bennâk would pay 12 akçes, and a mücerred (bachelor) would pay 6 akçes (see also resm-i mücerred).{{cite book|last=Zilfi|first=Madeline|title=Women in the Ottoman Empire: Middle Eastern women in the early Modern Era|year=1997|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-10804-2|page=179}}
In some cases, bennâk was only paid by peasants in the Ottoman Empire who had a small but nonzero area of land to farm; the truly landless peasants would pay a caba tax{{cite book|last=Faroqhi, Quataert|title=An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-57455-6|page=532|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c4MbH7vThb4C&q=nuzul&pg=PR10}} in which case the remaining bennak might be called "ekinlü-bennâk".
Academics might be exempted. Miners were also exempted from many taxes, and the resm-i bennâk was no exemption - for example, sipahis who worked in saltpetre mines would be exempt from resm-i bennâk, resm-i çift, and caba; they would also be exempted from avariz and other taxes.{{cite book|last=Ágoston|first=Gábor|title=Guns for the sultan: military power and the weapons industry in the Ottoman Empire|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-84313-3|page=116}} Some of the sadat - those claiming descent from Muhammed - were initially exempted from paying resm-i bennâk, but this exemption was eroded over time.{{cite journal|last=Acun|first=Fatma|title=The Other Side of the Coin: Tax Exemptions within the Context of Ottoman Taxation History|journal=Bulgarian Historical Review|year=2002|volume=1|issue=2}} There were even cases of people forging certificates of ancestry in order to claim tax exemptions.{{cite journal|last=Canbakal|first=Hülya|title=The Ottoman State and Descendants of the Prophet in Anatolia and the Balkans (c. 1500-1700)|journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient|year=2009|volume=52|issue=3|pages=542–578|doi=10.1163/156852009X458241}}