İspençe was a land tax levied on non-Muslims in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. İspençe was a land-tax on non-Muslims in parts of the Ottoman Empire; its counterpart, for Muslim taxpayers, was the

resm-i çift The Resm-i Çift (''Çift Akçesi'' or ''Çift resmi'') was a tax in the Ottoman Empire. It was a tax on farmland, assessed at a fixed annual rate per çift, and paid by land-owning Muslims. Some Imams and some civil servants were exempted from the ...

- which was set at slightly lower rate. The treasury was well aware of the difference in tax takes, and the incentive to convert; the legal reforms of

Bayezid II Bayezid II (; ; 3 December 1447 – 26 May 1512) was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, Bayezid consolidated the Ottoman Empire, thwarted a pro-Safavid dynasty, Safavid rebellion and finally abdicated his throne ...

halved some criminal penalties on non-Muslim taxpayers "''so that the taxpayers shall not vanish''"; this rule was reconfirmed a century later, in 1587. In other cases, local taxes were imposed on non-Muslims specifically to encourage conversion. İspençe had existed in the Balkans before the Ottoman conquest; the Ottoman Empire typically adapted local taxes and institutions in each conquered area, leading to a patchwork of different taxes and rates. The concept of İspençe, theoretically a payment in lieu of corvee labour, was derived from the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

"zeugaratikion", a land tax based on the zeugarion - the area of farmland which could be ploughed by a pair of oxen. The zeugarion itself was taken up as the Ottoman " çift", a word meaning "pair".

Variation

Despite taxes being set centrally, by the Porte, there was some local variance; around 1718. the

kadı A kadi (, ) was an official in the Ottoman Empire. In Arabic, the term () typically refers to judges who preside over matters in accordance with sharia Islamic law; under Ottoman rule, however, the kadi also became a crucial part of the imperi ...

Janjevo Janjevo () or Janjevë (in Albanian) is a village or small town in the Lipjan municipality in eastern Kosovo. The settlement has a long history, having been mentioned for the first time in 1303 as a Catholic parish. The town was prior to the Ko ...

complained to Istanbul that the local lord set ispençe at 80

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (anglicized as ''akche'', ''akcheh'' or ''aqcha''; ; , , in Europe known as '' asper'') was a silver coin mainly known for being the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. It was also used in other states includi ...

s per year rather than official rate of 32. As with other Ottoman taxes, there were various exemptions and loopholes; royal hunters, who provided birds-of-prey to the court, had an exemption from ispençe (and other taxes); they could pass on their job, and the tax exemption, to their sons. There were also some exemptions for those unable to work their land through disability, although it was expected that the elderly would have children able to work and therefore to pay ispençe. The tax was paid by adult male heads of households; in the

Morea Morea ( or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used by the Principality of Achaea, the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the O ...

it increased to 25 akces (from 20) between 1480 and 1512, and stayed at a similar level after that, (for most), confirmed by the tahrir of 1583; but widows may have paid a reduced rate, and Jews may have paid 125 akces.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ispence Taxation in the Ottoman Empire History of taxation Disabilities (Jewish) Religion in the Ottoman Empire Zakat

Variation

See also

References