Adet-i deştbani

The adet-i deştbani (sometimes known as resm-i destbani) was a charge, or tax, in the Ottoman Empire, which was a penalty for crop damage.[1]

The adet-i deştbani may have arisen as a result of tension between nomadic livestock-herders and settled farmers; the former's animals would encroach on, and damage, the latter's arable land; to discourage this, an official called a deştban (who was responsible to a sipahi) was responsible for crop protection - they also guarded against crop theft.[1]

If a farmer's horses, cattle, sheep or goats escaped and damaged another person's crops, then the farmer was liable to pay a fine, of a fixed amount per animal. This was separate from any compensation to the owner of the crops. The level of adet-i deştbani could vary from time to time and from place to place; in Mosul in 1540, it was set at 5 akçes per animal.[2] A later kanunname (for the Morea and Anavarin in 1716) set a combined tariff of taxes and corporal punishment; after any damage had been estimated, a straying horse, mule, or ox would earn its owner 5 blows in addition to a 5 akçe fine; 4 akçes for a cow, 1 akçe for a calf or sheep - plus 1 blow per 2 sheep.[3]

The adet-i deştbani was considered to be a bad-i hava tax along with fines from crimes, the tapu charge for registration of land ownership, and the resm-i arusane (bride tax). It was a relatively minor tax, accounting for a small proportion of revenue from the raya. Surviving tax records for the village of Sakal Dutan in 1550 show a total of 30 akçes for adet-i deştbani - far smaller than the 300 akçes paid on wheat and barley crops, or the 170 akçes of land-tax such as resm-i çift.[4]

One source even describes adet-i deştbani as a fee for the protection of crops; the fee being half a pinte of butter (worth 30 akçes).[5]

References

  1. 1 2 ÖZDEĞER, Mehtap. "PROTECTIVE INTERVENTION OF THE STATE IN GRAIN PRODUCTION IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE" (PDF). Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  2. TAŞKIN, Ünal (2007). "Tarihli Kanunnamelere Göre Musul, Amid ve Erzurum Sancaklarında Ziraî Gelirlerin Mukayeseli Tahlili" (PDF). Turkish Studies. 2 (2): 643–644. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  3. "A Historical and Economic Geography of Ottoman Greece". Hesperia Supplements. 34: 53. 2005. JSTOR 4150513.
  4. Jennings, Ronald (1979). "Limitations of the Judicial Powers of the Kadi in 17th C. Ottoman Kayseri". Studia Islamica (50): 151–184. JSTOR 1595562.
  5. Arch. orient. Orientální ústav. 54: 122. 1986.
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