Non-Muslims In Tokat According To The Jizya Registries In The Tanzimat Era

Jizya registries have a rich content to be basis for the studies about non-muslim population in a region. Tokat jizya registries have been evaluated for the reason of having more information about life conditions, socio economical statuses, some cultural features of non-muslims who lived in Tokat. In the 19 th century Tokat was one of the Ottoman cities which draws attraction with the potential of non-muslim population. Studies around the taxation classes which point out the economical statuses of the taxpayers who take part in the registries, very interesting family names added to the personal names,etnical and religious distributions, occupational configurations are qualified enough to contribute the studies which are on the base of Tokat’s socio-economical history. In this study, besides the jizya registries some temettuat registries has been also reviewed;the lifes of non muslims who were settled in Tokat in the middle of the 19 th century has been analyzed.In the view of Jizyah registries non muslim population of Tokat can be qualified as being consist of middle class and a little over the middle class.It is also possible to support this assessment with temettuat registries. Especially Armenians are both crowded non-muslim population and some Armenian families are amongst the wealthiest part of the city. In the middle of the 19 th century who were settled in Tokat were almost active and productive in every section of economical life. Generally they were showing off a crowded familiy configuration and sharing a mutual area of life with Muslims.