Cashing in on land and privilege for the welfare of the shah: Monetisation of tiyūl in early Safavid Iran and eastern Anatolia

Ghereghlou, Kioumars (2015) Cashing in on land and privilege for the welfare of the shah: Monetisation of tiyūl in early Safavid Iran and eastern Anatolia. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 68 (1). pp. 87-141. ISSN 0001-6446

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Abstract

The assignment of land as tiyūl to early Safavid military and bureaucratic elites was conditional on their emoluments being subjected to direct taxation on annual basis. Between 914 and 918/1508 and 1512, the money-based disposal of tiyūl land assignments boosted Shah Ismā‘īl’s control over fiscal resources in Iran. In the province of Diyarbakir, however, the Safavid practice of tiyūl expedited dynastic transition, enabling the new regime to uproot the regional allies and partners of the Aqquyunlu. A glimpse at monetisation of tiyūl brings necessary torch into the dynamics of bureaucratic centralisation and its political implications in this early phase of territorial expansion and political absolutism in the Safavid history. The principal primary source this study explores is an unpublished fiscal statement, kept as document E. 1071 at the Topkapı Palace Museum Archives in Istanbul, that details the taxes paid to central treasury by early Safavid tiyūl-holders in Iran and eastern Anatolia over the course of four fiscal years (914–918/1508–1512).

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