Background

The Ottoman Empire under Sultan Mahmut II (1808-1839) was a time of foundational changes as the Sultan sought to modernize his empire. The Auspicious Incident of 1826 where the Sultan disbanded the Janissary Corps kicked off a series of foundational reforms that would become the Tanzimat (“Reorganization”). After disbanding the Jannisary Corps, the Sultan wanted a new formalized way to monitor the population in line with Europe for drafting soldiers and taxing the draft-exempt population (ahl al-kitab, dhimmi, the People of the Book, Jews and Christians). This census was intended to act as a register that would be periodically added to as males were born, moved away, or died and both act for military and tax purposes. These censuses were exclusively males as daughters and wives were not recorded until much later in the Hamidian period (1876-1909).

The first real census of the Ottoman Empire was completed in 1247 AH (11 June 1831-20 May 1832 CE). It mainly covered the heartland of the Empire and the format of them was not standardized beyond recording tax status, given name, father’s name (for the head of household or non-sons in the household), and age. Some of the census takers recorded occupations and other comments. 

In the Ottoman Empire, officially, there were no surnames even though much of the Jewish community and many of Christian communities of the Empire had stable surnames. The lack of surnames on most documents until much later in the 19th century is a consequence of this general rule, though, it was not always followed.

Over the next 20 years or so, these censuses were updated on an irregular basis but meant to track changes in the males of the community, including births, deaths and whether they left to another community. The survival of these early registers is not always guaranteed. The Sephardic Research Division is working on identifying which survive. A catalog is presented below. The work to identify and translate this is not easy. 

For further information, please contact: Michael Waas, Associate Director of the JewishGen Sephardic Research Division.

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