Ottoman jizya (head) tax – examples from Gjakova's 1750 book

From: Agron Islami

The jizya was an annual tax levied by non-Muslim men, subjects of the Ottoman Empire. This tax – which covered the best part of the Ottoman state budget until 1856 – was collected under the name jizyah, while from 1856-1909 under the appointment bedelat-i askerijje (military service tax) and in 1909, after the approval of the law on military service of all male citizens regardless of religion, it was removed as a tax.

The practice of collecting the jizya belongs to empires and civilizations much earlier than the Ottoman state itself, as - the word goes - the Romans took the tax called "gezîd" from the residents of Goths of France, on the principle of saving their lives, just as in today's Hungary, one gold per capita was taken by the rulers of the time. Meanwhile, the system of land registration in ledgers - for the purpose of identification for the collection of land tax - is also found in the tradition of the pre-Ottoman state of the Seljuks.

After the Ottomans took control of a territory, the qadi was obliged to register all the inhabitants who would be charged with the payment of the jizya tax. The ledger prepared by the qadi was called "Defter-i Cizye-i Geberan" and was prepared in duplicate. One copy went to the people in charge of the empire's budget, while the other copy was handed over to the people in charge of the Beylerbeylik. In order to verify the dead and other residents who, for various reasons, were not included in the previous census (such as the case of minors), once every three years the registers were compared with the number of jizya payers.

The collection of the jizya tax among the Ottomans was regulated by the Ottoman law (canunams) and, according to this, the tax collector had to take into account the conditions stipulated in the Ottoman canons. In one of the Ottoman canons it is said:

"In order to fulfill the condition for collecting the jizya, the annual wealth of the non-Muslim resident (citizen) must reach the value of 300 akce (grosh), from the value of the house, garden crops, sheep, goats, alcoholic beverages, etc., and in if the resident does not reach the amount of 300 akce (grosh), the jizya tax cannot be collected from him".

According to the laws of the Ottoman period, religious leaders (priests, rabbis, etc.), children, families of state employees, the elderly, women, the physically handicapped, the poor, the unemployed, etc. were exempted from the jizya. However, in recent centuries we see that even religious personalities had become part of the raja who paid the jizya or head tax.

According to the Ottoman jurisdiction, the jizya was divided into two groups: the tax which was collected once a year from the vassalized Christian principalities; and, the tax which was collected by non-Muslim Ottoman rajas which was also annual and was collected per capita. There were cases when the state was obliged to collect taxes in certain amounts, as a result of uprisings or the change of residence by the villagers in order to escape from the collector (xijedari). We have such a case in the areas of the villages of Kurvelesh in Albania, which, in 1695, to escape the jizya tax, had continuously changed their residence. As a result, the Ottoman officials, in order for the inhabitants of Kurvelesi to stay in their settlements and work the land which brought benefits to the state, made an agreement with the religious leaders of the area and according to this agreement the villagers would not pay the poll tax ( jizjen), but they would give an annual amount which reached the figure of 3031 groshas.

The value of the jizya changed according to the rate of the Ottoman currency - akce - and as a result we see that in different periods, when the Ottoman currency devalued, the increase of the jizya was also very large. P. sh. while in the period of Sultan Sylejman - the Lawgiver (1520-1566) the value of jizya was between 60-75 akçes, in the period of the rule of Murat IV (1648-1687) it was raised to 333 akçes. It should be noted that until 1690, regardless of the economic condition of the raja, the jizya was received in equal value by all the owners of the houses (digit). However, with the initiative of the sadraazam of Albanian origin, Köprülüzâde Mustafa Pasha (1689-1691), there was a reform in the collection of this tax, where the jizya was collected based on the principle of the raja's economic condition. Thus, the raja would be classified into wealthy residents; middle income residents and low income third class. According to this division, the upper class (the rich) would receive four gold coins, the middle class three, and the lower class one coin.

In the Gjakova census register from 1750, we see that in the Old Quarter of Gjakova there were 50 houses of the Albanian Christian raja, with 180 inhabitants. Of them, only three heads of households belonged to the rich class, 12 others were of average income, 63 were of low income, 37 were minors and three were sick who were not obliged to pay the jizya tax. In the same year, in the village of Deçan, only two Christian houses with seven inhabitants were registered who paid the jizya tax according to the low rate, since they were from low-income families. Meanwhile, the village of Zym at this time had 23 Christian houses with 107 inhabitants. Of them, 14 belonged to the middle class, 74 to the lower class and 19 were minors who did not pay the tax.

In this registration of Gjakova, with its surroundings, 21 residents who came from Shkodra and Manastir were included, from whom the jizya tax was collected, and in the said register they were registered as Jabanxinj. As for their economic status, we see that 10 of them are registered in the middle category, nine in the low category and one released due to health conditions. /Telegraph/

Note: The complete ledger of the raja of Gjakova has been published in the magazine Kosova no. 41, Pristina p. 53-67