Towns, Villages, Depopulated Settlements — Population Movements In Ottoman Hungary

Dávid, Géza (2013) Towns, Villages, Depopulated Settlements — Population Movements In Ottoman Hungary. Hungarian Studies, 27 (2). pp. 251-261. ISSN 0236-6568

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Abstract

The demographic history of Hungary is full with question marks, mainly due to the lack of reliable sources until the end of the 18^th century. Especially, the number of the population throughout the Ottoman period (1521–1718) constituted a ‘black hole’ for a long period of time and related issues were characterized by a great number of unfounded clichés and prejudices. Identifying the best Turkish and Habsburg archival documents containing more or less detailed data on tax-payers or houses and using estimations for Transylvania where such material is missing, one can establish the total number of the population of the country at the end of the 16^th century with considerable accuracy, give details about the ratios of town and village people, characterize the average number of inhabitants in rural settlements and as a whole on one km², the proportion of depopulated villages, the ethnic composition of certain areas and occasionally even follow migration patterns between the 1540s and 1590. Unfortunately, almost no usable registers were prepared during the 17^th century; therefore this time span will always remain a terra incognita, only estimations can be ventured regarding the number of inhabitants around 1700.

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