118 | Becoming Ottoman in Sixteenth-Century Aintab
process recognize that their success resulted in part from the Ottoman regime’s
tightening of the whole revenue assessment and collection enterprise? If they
were anything like us, they probably complained about higher taxes.
Another development that softened the transition to Ottoman rule was the
preponderance of local personnel holding positions of authority. As spokesper-
sons for the sultanate or linked to it fiscally, these individuals acquired a stake
in the success of the empire. The opportunities offered by tax farming cre-
ated an economic web that linked local investors to the imperial treasury. The
military-administrative networks of the state were another linkage. Aintab pre-
sents a somewhat different picture from the typical view of provincial govern-
ment in which the state-appointed governor (sancakbey) and holders of military
fiefs (timars) exerted authority over the city and rural districts respectively. The
Aintab governor in 1540 appeared to lack power, although the governor-general
in Maraş was an imposing figure.
Far more important in the life of the province than the governor was the su-
perintendent of crown lands (hass emini) Mustafa Çelebi. His local prominence
derived from his authority over the extensive sultanic holdings in Aintab. He was
married to a local woman, Aynishah, a wealthy woman who bailed her husband
out when his sizable arrears to the state grew to 20,000 akçes. As for timar lands,
there were, of course, state-appointed timariots (timar holders) in Aintab, but sig-
nificant rural property was in the hands of locals—for example, Dulkadir chiefs,
loyalists of the former regime who had been pacified by the grand vizier Ibrahim
Pasha with land grants. Even though these lands were eventually transformed by
state authorities into crown land, the transition period gave stature to the former
local notables.
These stories of growth and the benefits that local people gained from them
are the positive side of provincial integration into Ottoman systems of adminis-
tration. But while Aintab benefited from revitalized communication networks, it
was at the same time subordinated to a set of larger imperial interests. Now we
turn to two aspects of the limits to provincial autonomy, one in governance, the
other in belief.
Already by 1540, it was clear to Aintabans that Istanbul was prepared to take
over some functions that had traditionally been locally managed. A crisis erupted
when the state appointed its own candidate to an important office—that of city
treasurer (sarraf). The tax farm to the office of Aintab sarraf had been purchased
by one Matuk ibn Sadullah, “the Jew.” However, the Aintab community refused
to let Matuk take up his duties, and so he appealed to Ali Pasha, governor-general
in Maraş:
I am the sarraf of Aintab, which position I hold as tax farmer from the head of
the Aleppo Mint. But they do not permit me to act as sarraf over the revenues