adet-i ağnam
{{Short description|Tax on sheep and goats in the Ottoman Empire}}
{{Taxation in the Ottoman Empire sidebar}}
The adet-i ağnam (literally meaning "sheep number"{{cite book|last=Dostal, Kraus|title=Shattering tradition: custom, law and the individual in the Muslim Mediterranean|year=2005|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-634-8}}) was an annual tax on sheep and goats in the Ottoman Empire. Initially, the tax was known as resm-i ağnam; the name changed around 1550.{{cite book|last=Jennings|first=Ronald|title=Studies on Ottoman social history in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: women, zimmis and sharia courts in Kayseri, Cyprus and Trabzon|year=1999|publisher=Isis Press|isbn=978-975-428-132-3}}{{cite book|title=ACCOUNTING METHOD USED BY OTTOMANS FOR 500 YEARS: STAIRS (MERDIBAN) METHOD|pages=302|url=http://www.sgb.gov.tr/Publications/Accounting%20Method%20Used%20By%20Ottomans%20For%20500%20Years%20-%20Stairs%20(Merdiban)%20Method.pdf|access-date=2011-04-19|archive-url=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|archive-date=2014-02-01|url-status=dead}}
Rate
The tax varied; some records show a charge of one akçe per head of livestock,{{cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/25974628/24/Certain-Concepts-Concerning-Finance|accessdate=2011-04-03|title=Certain Concepts Concerning Finance|year=2008}} whilst other records show a charge of one akçe for every two{{cite journal|title=none|journal=Orientální ústav|year=1986|volume=54}} or three sheep.{{cite book|title=Inventory of Ottoman Turkish documents about Waqf preserved in the Oriental Department at the St. St. Cyril and Methodius National Library: Registers|year=2003|publisher=Narodna biblioteka "Sv. sv. Kiril i Metodiĭ}}{{cite book|last=Alexander|title=Toward a history of post-Byzantine Greece: the Ottoman kanunnames for the Greek lands, circa 1500-circa 1600|year=1985|publisher=J.C. Alexander|pages=273}} In one case, the first hundred animals in a flock were tax-exempt.{{cite book|last=Sugar|first=Peter|title=Southeastern Europe under Ottoman rule, 1354-1804|url=https://archive.org/details/southeasterneuro0000suga|url-access=registration|year=1977|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-96033-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/southeasterneuro0000suga/page/101 101]}}
This tax could be a source of considerable revenue, even in areas where wheat and barley farming were dominant.{{cite journal|last=Jennings|first=Ronald|title=Sakaltutan Four Centuries Ago|journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies|date=February 1978|volume=9|issue=1|pages=89–98|jstor=162627|doi=10.1017/S0020743800051710|s2cid=162941935 }} The adet-i ağnam could be subject to tax farming; magnates would pay a hefty downpayment to the treasury in return for the right to collect sheep-taxes from villages.{{cite web|url=http://www.thesis.bilkent.edu.tr/0002279.pdf|accessdate=2011-04-03|title=THE RISE AND FALL OF AN AYÂN FAMILY IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ANATOLIA: THE CANİKLİZÂDES (1737-1808) |date=2003-04-28}} The Ottoman government used various means to encourage sheep-rearing, because it was a source of substantial revenue; it could also make a profit for vakufs, and other concessions might be granted to sheep-farmers.{{cite book|last=Cvetkova|first=Bistra|title=Les celep et leur role dans la vie economique des Balkans a l'epoque ottomane|year=1970|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TDxRN32hBL4C&q=%22Les+celep+et+leur+role+dans+la+vie+economique+des+Balkans%22&pg=PA172|editor=M. A. Cook|accessdate=3 April 2011|page=173|language=French|isbn=9780197135617}} In 1540, a survey carried out around the Diyarbakir and Maras areas found 8013 nomadic households with a combined flock of two million sheep – and a tax liability of one million akçes.{{cite journal|title=none|journal=Journal of Turkish Studies|year=1984}}
Careful measures were taken to ensure appropriate taxation on butchers, too, who might buy sheep for slaughter in April (just before the tax was due) which would have reduced the sheep-farmers liability.{{cite book|last=Cvetkova|first=Bistra|title=Les celep et leur role dans la vie economique des Balkans a l'epoque ottomane|year=1970|publisher=Routledge|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TDxRN32hBL4C&q=%22Les+celep+et+leur+role+dans+la+vie+economique+des+Balkans%22&pg=PA172|isbn=978-0-19-713561-7|editor=M. A. Cook|accessdate=3 April 2011|page=185|language=French}}
Adet-i ağnam was one of the taxes that Yürük irregular troops were expected to pay, despite being exempted from other taxes when recruited.{{cite journal|title=none|journal=Osmanlı Araştırmaları|volume=20}}
Background
The tax was paid to the Ottoman treasury.{{cite book|last=McGowan|first=Bruce|title=Economic Life in Ottoman Europe: Taxation, Trade and the Struggle for Land, 1600-1800|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-13536-8|pages=105}} Because the tax went direct to the treasury, instead of local timar-holders, it is mentioned less often in tahrirs. Nonetheless, some tax records do show the annual revenue from adet-i ağnam in each district, and therefore show the number of sheep. For instance, in 1490, there were a total of 24509 sheep on Limnos – an average of 8.4 sheep per inhabitant.{{cite book|last=Lowry|first=Heath|title=Fifteenth century Ottoman realities: Christian peasant life on the Aegean Island of Limnos|year=2002|publisher=Eren|isbn=978-975-7622-89-5}} Sometimes, the annual adet-i ağnam charge would be rolled up with other taxes into a single composite annual tax including cizye and ispence - plus the tax-collector's fee.{{cite book|last=Imber, Kiyotaki|title=Frontiers of Ottoman studies: state, province, and the West|year=2005|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-631-7|pages=81}}
There was a further tax on sheep, the ondalık, which was only levied in the province of Rumelia.{{cite book|last=Karpat|first=Kemal|title=Studies on Ottoman social and political history: selected articles and essays|year=2002|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-12101-0}}
Unlike various other Ottoman taxes, adet-i ağnam continued after the Tanzimat reforms – alongside cizye, and a new income tax.{{cite book|title=Ondokuzuncu yuzyılda Mersin ve Akdeniz Dünyası|year=2002|publisher=Mersin Üniversitesi|isbn=978-975-6900-10-9|pages=62}}