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This effort to estimate the amount of wine production in the Southern Crimea in the sixteenth
century opens a window into the ways of accommodation of viticulture, wine production and
wine commerce by the Ottoman Empire in a province with a predominantly Christian popu-
lation. The terminology invented by the Ottomans to denote the taxes levied on viticulture
reveals their highly sophisticated rationalistic approach, by which they settled the contradic-
tion between the Islamic prohibition of wine and their practical interest in such a lucrative
business, while tax rates developed on this basis granted a significant tax break to Muslim
viticulturers. The data of two extant Ottoman tax-registers for the Crimea show that such
ingenious fiscal policy stimulated both Muslim investment in this business and conversion of
local Christian peasants to Islam. Also, through data on the taxation of wine commerce, esti-
mations of prices and tax rates for marketed wine were suggested.

Cet essai destimer la quantit de vin produit en Crime du sud au XVIe sicle ouvre en fait
des perspectives sur ladaptation de la viticulture, de la production et du commerce du vin
par les Ottomans dans une province ayant une population principalement chretienne. La ter-
minologie utilise par les Ottomans pour la leve de taxe sur la viticulture rvle une
approche rationnelle trs sofistique, grace laquelle avaint t rsolue la contradiction exis-
tant entre la prohibition islamique du vin et lintrt pratique pour une occupation lucrative.
Limposition qui sest dveloppe sur cette base accordait aux viticulteurs musulmans des
allgements fiscaux significatifs. Les donnes des deux registres de taxe existants montrent
quune telle politique fiscale ingenieuse a apparement stimul la fois les investissements
musulmans dans ce domaine et la conversion des paisans chrtiens locaux a lislam. tra-
vers les informations sur limposition du commerce du vin, des estimations de prix et de
niveax dimposition sur le vin mis en vente sont galem,ent suggers.

Keywords: viticulture, wine production, taxation, Ottoman Empire, wine commerce

* Oleksander Halenko, Institute for Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy
of Sciences of Ukraine, 8, vul. M. Kutuzova, Kiev 01011 Ukraine, ohalenko@zeos.net
The ideas and preliminary results of this study were investigated at the seminars and con-
ferences arranged by Kate Fleet (Cambridge University), Gilles Veinstein (E.H.E.S.S.) and
Cemal Kafadar (Harvard University). However, this by-product of viticulture has reached
its full maturation in the climate of the highest expertise and patience provided by Heath
Lowry during my stay at Princeton University as visiting researcher at the Program in
Hellenic Studies (director Dimitri Gondicas) in 2003. I am sincerely indebted to all of these
scholars. But, of course, with none of them do I share responsibility for whatever blunder is
found in the recipe.

Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2004 JESHO 47,4

Also available online www.brill.nl
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The Quran ambivalently treated wine both as an intoxicant and as good

food. What it did not do was explicitly prohibit its usage. It was later Islamic
analytic and narrative discourses (in particular the hadith or sayings attributed
to the Prophet Mohammad) that prohibited the consumption of wine in order to
strengthen Muslim identity and provide the leadership with the means of con-
trolling human behavior. Poetry and mystic literature, however, permitted the
vicarious consumption of wine for limited purposes by those who deserved
such a privilege (Kueny 2001). But why such a breach with Islamic doctrine was
needed, even tolerated, and what was the real policy of Islamic states vis--vis
viticulture, wine production and wine commerce still remain open questions.
This stems from a lack of sources in which such relationships could be traced.
In an attempt to fill these gaps, wine production and usage in the Ottoman
Empire seems to be a promising object of study. It is not only because of the
well-known fact that many Ottomans, including the sultans themselves, drank
wine, but also because the wine they consumed was produced within the
Ottoman realm.1 The Ottoman state even derived considerable tax income from
viticulture and its related trades. The survival of a large corpus of fifteenth- and
sixteenth-century tax-registers, which were working fiscal documents, provide us
a window into the workings of the Ottoman state in this ideologically sensitive
Ottoman fiscal policy, however, was not uniform throughout the empire, nor
was wine produced everywhere. The sancak (province) of Kefe, situated in the
Southern Crimea, was one such wine-producing area. The presence of a size-
able and growing Muslim population in this area offers a chance to compare
engagement in wine production between Muslims and Christians, by which one
can estimate the limits of tolerance of the Islamic state towards wine and its
origins (Veinstein 1980). Therefore, an examination of the contents of the extant
tax-registers for this province, relevant to viticulture, wine making and trade in
wine provides an interesting case study, which is the focus of this article.
Grapes and wine were introduced in the Crimea at the very beginning of the
Greek colonization in the seventh century B.C. The production of wine, appar-
ently due to demand among the regions northern Steppe neighbors (at that time
Scythians) who readily exchanged it for slaves, furs and grain, very soon turned
into a lucrative business. Even the eastern region of the Crimean peninsula pro-
duced a fair amount of wine, although because of severe frosts the vines needed

Relevant material evidence along with frequent references from written sources is gath-
ered in Lowry (2003: 26-29; cf. Oberling and Smith 2001: 159).
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to be turfed every winter.2 Throughout antiquity, significant amounts of wine

were also exported from Anatolia and the Archipelago.3 In the medieval period
both the Byzantines and the Genoese, who were deeply involved in Steppe pol-
itics, continued to engage in this business. However, very little is known to date
about the wine trade in the Crimea prior to the end of the eighteenth century
when the region was annexed to the Russian Empire. Even the relatively rich
Genoese documentation from the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries does not
shed adequate light on the regions rural economy. The fact that the Genoese
documents refer to wine imports has led to the common misconception that
even in pre-Ottoman times wine production in the Crimea was unable to meet
the needs of the local market so wine was imported into the region from other
places.4 This would be tantamount to arguing that because much of the table
wine served in Italy and France today is imported from countries such as
Turkey that these countries are not major wine producers. The fate of viticul-
ture during the Ottoman period, which lasted in the Crimea for nearly three cen-
turies, is heretofore unknown. This gap in knowledge still underlies the belief,
very popular in Eastern Europe, that the appearance of Islamic states, such as
the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate, and the Ottoman Empire, brought
about the decline of viticulture in the Crimea, a situation which was to be
reversed only following the Russian annexation.5 This attempt to analyze wine
production in the Ottoman Crimea may also shed important light for both
Byzantinists and specialists in Russian studies.

Strabo VII, 3, 18. See also the studies by Blavatski (1953: 86-87), Vinokurov (1999: 91-
110), Gaydukevich (1955: 91), and Savvonidi (1991: 227-235).
A catalogue of ancient Greek amphoras provides a glimpse of the areas that supplied
wine to Eastern Europe. See Abramov 1993: 4-136.
See Heyd 1967: 177. Russian scholar S. Karpov (1990: 127), referring to the studies of
the Genoese colonies in the Black Sea by M. Balard, claimed that wine was chronically in
need in the Crimea. It should be noted, however, that M. Balard (1978: 844) did not apply
his arguments to the territory beyond the city of Caffa, although indeed he drew attention to
the live export of wine from Chios and Southern Italy.
Compare a typical statement made in an otherwise serious scholarly article by
Viacheslav Rybintsev (1995: 35-48; cf. Gnilovskaya 2000: 12): The annexation of the penin-
sula by the Tatars led once again to a decline in viticulture as a result of Islamic prohibi-
tions on alcohol consumption.
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The data
There are only two extant Ottoman tax-registers pertaining to the province of
Kefe. The first is of the type known as icmal (summary) and was drawn up
around 1520.6 As such it only lists the names of settlements and the total of the
taxes that were assessed. Totals of the income received from the vineyards of
Muslims and non-Muslims are only detailed for five towns. The second tax-reg-
ister, drawn up in 1542, is of the detailed type (mufassal),7 which provides both
the names of the individual tax-payers as well as specific data about the income
deriving from the regions taxable products, including viticulture. It was based
upon a survey, carried out on the ground, and is the only surviving detailed
tax register for the region. According to a recent study of the province of Kefe,
a similar survey carried out in 1568 did not result in the compilation of another
tax-register due to complaints by the local population (ztrk 2000: xxv, n. 18).
When, at the end of the sixteenth century, the region saw the implementation
of the iltizam (tax-farming) system, based on contracting out the sources of rev-
enue (muqataa) to private bidders through the auctions, and no longer required
land surveying for revenue assessment, the process of compiling periodic tahrir
defters (tax registers) came to an end. As in other provinces of the empire,
account registers (muqata-i iltizam defters, muhasebe defters and others) listing
incomes from various sources of revenues that were farmed out to private per-
sons were introduced.8 However, three such registers known for the province of
Kefe lumped together the tax on marketed wine (tamga-i hamr), which affected
both local and imported products as well as the tax on saloons (meyhanes) in
the city of Kefe,9 but they provide no information on viticulture per se. There-
fore, the tax register of 1542 is a unique source for studying the actual taxes
collected from the provinces vineyards.
This province comprised the narrow strip of the peninsulas southern coast,
naturally bordered on the north by the abrupt ridge of the Yayla mountain
range, along with the adjoining mountainous district in the southwest corner of
the peninsula around the city of Mangub. To this were attached three small dis-

Istanbul: Babakanlk Archives: Tapu-Tahrir Defter #370. I accept the dating of this
defter suggested by Berindei and Veinstein (1979: 389).
Istanbul: Babakanlk Archives: Tapu-Tahrir Defter #214 (hereafter TTD #214).
A comprehensive list of financial documents pertaining to the province of Kefe demon-
strates the increasing number of such registers since the middle of the sixteenth century
(Fisher 1978: 191-205).
For these data, see ztrk 2000: 423, 433, 446.
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tricts around the fortresses of Ker, Taman and Azak. All of these places had
been conquered in 1475, that is sixty-seven years before the survey of 1542 was
compiled. A comparison of place names given in this register with the place
names listed in the earlier icmal register, drawn up around 1520, as well as with
contemporary maps of the region, shows only minor discrepancies, which can
be overlooked for the purpose of the present study.
Tapu-Tahrir Defter #214 of 1542 includes data relevant to two taxes per-
taining to viticulture. The first was levied exclusively on Muslim cultivators,
and even though its revenues are listed in the register, they were leased out to
tax-farmers under the heading mukataa-i krum der dest-i mslmanan (the farmed-
out shares of revenue from vineyards in the hands of Muslims).10 The tax was
collected from thirty-nine towns and villages, including the provincial capital
of Kefe.
The second levy was the tithe on all forms of agricultural produce (10% of
the crop),11 which was also collected from the grape juice (r-i ra) produced
by non-Muslim cultivators, mostly Greek Orthodox Christians. In the defter the
amount of this tax, exacted from each taxable unit (town or village), was
entered both in kind (total medres = a unit of liquid measurement equal to
10,256 liters)12 and in its cash value (6 akes [a small Ottoman silver coin] per
medre). The tithe on ra was collected in sixty-six villages and towns, as well
as in the provincial capital of Kefe, all situated in the south and southeast of
the peninsula. In keeping with the more common Ottoman practice, the revenues
provided by the tithe on ra went to the local timariots (fief-holders). No addi-
tional viticulture-related taxes in favor of fief-holders, known in other regions
of the empire under the names of salariye (Ycel and Pulaha 1995: 51-52)13 or
hisse (cf. Lowry 1992: 175), appear in the register.

Leasing out the agrarian taxes as muqataa to private persons was a common practice
among holders of large hass benefices (see nalck and Quataert 1994: 65-66). This was the
case in the province of Kefe where taxes levied on agricultural products were collected for
the hass of the local sancakbey (mirliva). However, the tradition of farming-out taxes on
vineyards in the Crimea goes back to the Byzantine practice, which continued into the time
of the Genoese domination. In 1381, a certain Abram Gentile appears in the register of the
financial office (Massaria) of the Genoese Caffa as a farmer of ambelli apatici fructus vin-
earum de Locorso et Lobochdocho (Balard 1995: 28).
While the kanunname of Kefe does not specify the actual amount of the tithe in
Ottoman practice of the sixteenth century (unless specified otherwise), the r really was a
tithe (i.e., 10% of production).
nalck 1996: 178 (cf. 7 or 8 okka equal to 10-11.5 kilograms cited in nalck and
Quataert 1994: 991).
For a case in the Mardin province, see Akgndz 1991: 101, and in the province of
Arboz (Euboea), see Akgndz 1993: 395.
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Viticulture-related taxes were not registered for the eastern districts (kazas)
of the province of Kefe, areas such as the fortress towns of Ker, Taman and
Azak. Given the care with which the Ottomans collected taxes we may assume
that had these regions possessed vineyards they too would have been taxed.
Clearly, vineyards in the province of Kefe were located exclusively in the
southern Crimea. The data showing the tax revenues derived from viticulture are
shown in Figure 1.
Grapes were the single most valuable tax source in the agriculture of the province.
They provided the treasury with one-fifth (21.4%) of the taxes paid by the local
population (108,672 akes out of 505,963 akes), being second only to personal
tax ispence only (140,195 akes or 27.7%). By way of contrast, the tithe
exacted from cereal crops such as wheat, barley and rye combined accounted
for just one-eighth (12.5%) of the total revenues, that is 63,436 akes out of
505,963 akes in total taxes. The shares of viticulture related taxes in the total
tax load assessed on villages and towns of the Southern Crimea can be adduced
from the map (fig. 2). This map helps to evaluate the relative economic impor-
tance of viticulture in various places of this area. The next question posed by
this data is what can such figures actually tell us about the overall wine pro-
duction in the region?

The rhetoric of fiscal interest: Terminology and rates, used for taxation of
viticulture and wine production
None of the taxes mentioned above, contain any specific indication that they
were levied on wine. Rather, they refer in the case of Muslims to a tax on vine-
yards, and in that of Christians to a tax on grape juice (ra). The customs taxes
on marketed wine, mentioned earlier, could affect both local and imported pro-
duce and in no way can serve as a conclusive argument that wine was produced
in the Crimea. This poses a question as to the extent to which the aforemen-
tioned data on acreage tax and the tithe on grape juice may be utilized in a
study of wine production.
The ambiguity and controversy that surround the judiciary and literary dis-
course about wine in Islamic society warns against taking the aforementioned
taxes at their face value. It is necessary to establish the real content of the
terms, by which these taxes are referred to, and the purpose of their usage. It
is crucial to understand the reasons for the controversy and incongruity between
the taxes levied on Muslims and non-Muslims. Moreover, as neither of the two
extant copies of the kanunname of the province of Kefe provides details per-
taining to the exact nature of the aforementioned two taxes, it necessitates a
broad look at the Ottoman taxation of viticulture.
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Fig. 1. Taxes, derived from viticulture, in the villages and towns of the Southern Crimea (1542)
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Fig. 2. Taxes, derived from viticulture, in the overall tax revenue, assessed on population of towns and villages in the Southern
Crimea (1542).
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r-i raThe very meaning of the term ra remained unclear for a long
time. Recently Heath Lowry presented the evidence that explained the meaning
of the term ra as unfermented grape juice (Lowry 2002: 99-100).14 But choos-
ing ra for the assessment of taxes due from viticulture hardly means that
Ottoman subjects in the Crimea did not consume grapes, fresh or dry.
Moreover, even the waste left after the extraction of juice was processed into
spirit (arak).15 So, ra did not represent the total produce of the vineyards. In
order to find out the reason ra was used in this manner and to estimate what
part of the crop it actually represented, we must examine the products derived
from viticulture.
The fruit of the vine, that is fresh grapes, are the direct product of viticul-
ture. Grapes can be consumed fresh, but because of natural fermentation, fresh
grapes cannot be preserved for a long time. Grapes that are not consumed fresh
could be processed as other products. They can be dried into raisins or
processed into a variety of liquid products. A syrup or pekmez, produced by
boiling the juice, was considered a valuable sweetener that could be stored for
a long time, although it too was subject to fermentation.16 If the fermentation
was allowed to continue, the grape juice is transformed into wine. This does not
stop the fermentation process as long as the wine contains the natural sugar of
the grape. However, stored in caves, wine undergoes a sufficiently long period
of ageing, during which it can be consumed in its partially fermented form. If
the fermentation of the wine continues until all the sugar is neutralized, it turns
into the non-fermented product of vinegar.

The key argument in Lowrys conclusions is based on the following observation from
the book The Present State of Morea by an Englishmen Bernard Randolph, who lived in
the Morea in the 1670s: Though Turks drink no Wine, yet they take New Wine and boyl it
up to a Syrrup (which they call Bekmez, and we call Cute), putting it into small Jarrs, they
drink it mingled with water, for this they account no Wine. They call New Wine Shira, and
Old Wine Shirab.
Both versions of kanunname (TTD #370 and TTD #214) contain frequent references to
arak, rak, which is neatly distinguished from other alcoholic beverages, such as boza and
mead, the latter being referred to as assel, Tatar honey (tatar bal). Although tax regula-
tions deal only with arak, which was imported (mainly from Trapezund), local production
of arak existed as well, as references to experts in this craft (arakyeci) point. TTD #214
contains references to Lefter Arakyeci, registered in the community of Greek Orthodox Christians,
deported from Trabzon to Kefe (cemaat-i Trabzoniyanp. 87), and Arakyeci Mustafa, a
freed slave of a certain Edigen Tatar, registered in the Muslim community of the village
Nihora, also known as Kad (p. 147).
This is why Bernard Randolph distanced himself from Turks on the issue, whether
pekmez contained alcohol or not, as he wrote about pekmez (cute), that this they account no
Wine. Islamic tradition preserves the memory of a man who was punished on the order of
khalif Umar for getting drunk on pekmez (til in Arabic; see Wensink and Sadan 1978).
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Raisins Syrup (Pekmez)

Vineyards Fresh grapes Juice (ra) (Wine) Wine (Hamr)


Liquor (Arak) Vinegar (Sirke)

Fig. 3.

Thus, as it is shown in the above schema (fig. 3), other than the grapes them-
selves, all other products of viticulture represent consecutive stages in the pro-
cessing of the fruit. Juice or ra was the necessary first-step for making all of
these liquid by-products, and its production most certainly accounted for the
main part of the crop collected in vineyards. Moreover, liquids stored in large
casks or other vessels were easy to take into account for purposes of taxation,
whereas the assessment of the quantity of fresh grapes, which were consumed
or sold before fully ripening, was simply impossible. That portion of the grapes
that was brought to the market was taxed there, but otherwise this product was
of no interest even to the pragmatic Ottoman tax collectors. Thus, by singling
out ra as the only tithed by-product of the vineyards, the Ottomans excluded
from their accounting that part of the crop that was consumed in the form of
fresh grapes (and dry raisins), and clearly indicated that the main by-product of
viticulture was the grape juice and its other liquid by-products.
However, grape juice is a very unstable substance. Muslim jurists were aware
that the ongoing fermentation of the liquid by-products of viticulture, except for
vinegar, blurred the difference between the unfermented grape juice (ra), syrup
(pekmez), and fermented wine. Actually, vinegar too could be confused with
wine.17 The Hadith cautiously instructed that any beverage, even one prepared
from raisins or dates, becomes a fermented intoxicant within just one day.18

According to one Hadith, the Prophet was asked about the wine that takes the form of
vinegar, and his answer was No (Kueny 2001: 35).
According to two Hadiths, quoted by Kueny (2001: 72-73), a drink prepared from
raisins should steep no longer than several hours either between breakfast and dinner or
overnight between dinner and breakfast.
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From this point of view, the legalization of ra alone was a de facto permis-
sion for wine production by non-Muslims. Indeed, the absence of ra among
the marketed products mentioned in the kanunnames,19 is vivid proof that it was
in fact an unstable substance. Thus, the r-i ra was levied on the by-prod-
uct, which was not consumed or marketed in its pure form and was rather
processed into one of three other liquid products, i.e., wine, syrup and vinegar.
The reference in the kanunname of Selim I to taxes levied on marketed vine-
gar and (syrup) pekmez,20 indicate that some portion of what had originally been
taxed as ira was subsequently processed into these by-products. However, the
evaporation of two-thirds of the volume of the juice during the preparation of
pekmez required both a significant outlay of effort (manpower) and resources
(wood) within a very short time. It could hardly have tempted Christians to pro-
duce large quantities of pekmez because they, unlike their Muslim counterparts,
could consume wine. Pekmez was not even mentioned in the law code of Kefe.
As for vinegar, its production was limited by the demand, which was not to be
compared to that for wine. After all, vinegar was a by-product of wine and in
the kanunname of Kefe it was referred to only in connection with the customs
and market taxes levied on wine.21 This attests to the fact that the production
of vinegar and pekmez could not account for a significant portion of the ra
shown as taxed in the registers.
In contrast to this, the tax regulations concerning wine are a very pronounced
feature in the Ottoman legislation. In the law code of Kefe, the relevant cases
are treated in four chapters, which will be discussed in the last part of this arti-
cle. This allows us to infer that in Kefe, like in many other places, the pro-
duction of pekmez and vinegar among the non-Muslims was not important, and
that the majority of the ra being taxed was subsequently being processed into
wine. Since the Crimea is our major concern, it is noteworthy that a similar
profile is presented in several other sources, including the register of arrears of
customs dues for the port of Kefe in 1487-1490, in which wine appears as the

As marketed product, ra was mentioned once in the kanunname of the island of Imroz
(TTD #75 [1519]), but in this case it was implied that the produce was purchased directly
from the peasants (cmle kylerinde satlan ralardan medre bana bir ake virrler
[a tax] one ake per each medre is levied on the grape juce, sold in all villages). How-
ever, given the short-living nature of ra, this term most probably stood for wine (Akgndz
1991: 398).
See also the Imperial law code (Ycel and Pulaha 1995: 57-58, 191-92).
One reference mentions vinegar that was transported through the port of Kefe, and
another does this only in connection with wine when the tax rates levied on wine were
extended to include vinegar. The latter was clearly to prevent smuggling wine under the name
of vinegar.
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only local by-product of viticulture visible on the market (nalck 1996). This
interpretation is supported by the testimony of the extant tahrirs for the Aegean
island of Limnos, where a detailed listing of the products subject to customs
and market levies mentions neither syrup nor vinegar, and therefore evidently
all of the islands ra was being fermented into wine.
Thus, by way of deduction, it becomes clear that what the scribes compiling
the registers called ra was in fact wine.22 For example, as the aforementioned
census of Limnos from 1490 was carried out in January of that year (Lowry
2001: 9, 173), that is two or three months after the grapes were harvested and
juiced, the census takers could not have encountered unfermented grape juice.
What they did was refer to the wine they encountered as grape juice, that is,
ra. A close reading of the kanunnames of Limnos actually proves this assump-
tion. In the clause dealing with the taxes levied on marketed wine, that part of
the wine (hamr) that was taken for the treasury was referred to as juice (ra)!23
This leaves no doubt that the term ra expressed only a learned abstraction that
served as a legal euphemism for wine.
A brief survey of the introduction of the term ra in Ottoman tax registers
helps to understand the intention of such usage. The census-takers from the
fifteenth century reveal their confusion when it came to naming the taxable
product of vineyards. In the earliest surviving registers the tithe levied on vine-
yards was called just the tithe from vineyards (r-i baat), while its produce
was given in a liquid measurement (medre), which in fact pointed to the for-
bidden product.24 With the passage of time, during which even personal drink-
ing habits of sultans themselves became the target for ulema criticism,25 the
logic called for the removal of this ambiguity. The product should have either
been properly defined or prohibited. So, by choosing the virtual product of
unfermented grape juice or ra as the primary taxable by-product of viticulture,
a workable solution to this legal quandary was found.

According to the study of Mehdi lhan, the census-taking campaign in most cases took
about one year (lhan 1987: 19).
Cezirede olan kurada satlan hamrden yirmi medreden yz medreye dah zyadeye
varnca iki medre ra alnp hassa-i hmayun iin zabt alnur (From the wine, which is sold
in the villages of the island, from twenty up to one hundred medre at the most two medre
of grape juice is to be taken for the Treasury). For the transcription and facsimile, see
Lowry 1990.
r-i bt 1600 medre fi 5 yekn 8000 (nalck 1954: 89, fol. 108b).
Lowry (2003) refers to two such cases that took place during the reign of sultan
Murad II.
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The earliest tahrirs known to me, where the terms ra and r-i ra were
used, were the tahrirs of Trabzon (Trapezund) of 148726 and Limnos of 1490.27
Perhaps it was not accidental that the populations of both these provinces were
overwhelmingly Christian, and that both were major wine producing areas. In
Limnos, the tithe from ra was levied together with yet another tax that was
assessed according to the acreage of vineyards (resm-i dnm). The ultimate
adoption of this term took several decades, during which the creativity of the
Ottoman bureaucrats still produced such terms as resm-i ba, ba akesi or ba
harac for the same kind of tax (Akgndz 1991: 253, 255). The appearance of
the term ra in the Imperial Kanunname (law code), issued during the reign of
Selim I (1512-1520) suggests that by the opening decades of the sixteenth cen-
tury it was being used throughout the empire.28 Such tax policy of the Ottomans
with regard to viticulture and wine production may be regarded as a good
example of its istimalet (accommodation) policy toward its subjects, who
remained predominantly Christian and for whom wine was an important com-
ponent in their diet and religious practices.
This analysis proves that the introduction of the term ra sought to provide
the Islamic state of the Ottoman Empire with a legal basis, allowing it on the
one hand to preserve viticulture for the sake of internal stability of the expand-
ing state, and on the other to exploit this important fiscal source. Stated differ-
ently, the appearance of the tax levied on vineyards in the form of r-i ra
did not reflect the Ottoman interest in levying tax on grape juice, but rather
manifested the sustained effort on the part of the Ottoman state to legalize col-
lecting taxes from the wine produced by its non-Muslim subjects.
Also, the introduction of the term ra fully complied with the logic of
Islamic law, which completely forbade the production of wine but allowed tax-
ation of commerce in wine. This made it appear as if ra was processed in
products other than wine, while marketed wines were all imported. This is the
case in Kefe, where significant amounts of marketed wine were brought from
other territories. But the case of Limnos serves as an excellent illustration of the

The tahrir defters of the province of Selanik (Thessaloniki) from 1465 and 1478 still
refer to r-i ba (tithe on vineyards), but in the tahrir of Trabzon (Trapezond) from 1486/7,
the produce of vineyards, accounted for taxation, is termed ra (see Lowry 1992a: 158-59;
1992b: 175).
See the text of kanunname stipulating the levy of the tithe from the grape juice in
Lowry (2002: 182-83). This term is also used in the kanunname of the islands of Imroz (now
Gkeada) and Taoz (Thasos) (Akgndz 1991: 398, 404).
balarn hasl olan ralar . . . (ra due from the vineyards) (Ycel and Pulaha 1995:
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opposite reality in another important wine-producing area. The tax and customs
regulations of the port from the 1519 kanunname of Limnos clearly deal only
with the export of locally-produced wine (cf. Lowry 2002: 9, 173). This is in
keeping with the fact that in many places of the Ottoman Empire and beyond,
Limnos was famous for its red wine, produced from small grapes of the local
sort (kalambaki), known since antiquity.29 This parallel example strengthens the
argument that in the Crimea ra was mainly, if not exclusively, fermented into
wine, and the amount of ra can be considered equivalent to that of the amount
of wine,30 rather than any other substance.
Resmi-i dnm and other taxes, levied on vineyards in possession of
MuslimsThe Prophets message instructed those wine-producers who con-
verted to Islam to conserve their grapes only in the form of dry raisins (Kueny
2001: 72). Juice from grapes, prepared by pressing them, was considered to be
wine and was prohibited to Muslims by the authority of Hadith (Wensink and
Sadan 1978: 995b). Therefore, even though the jurists of the Hanafi school
(ma!hab) allowed moderate consumption of wine, particularly for medicinal
purposes (Wensink and Sadan 1978: 996a), the explicit prohibition of wine
along with other liquid by-products of grapes, limited Muslims engagement in
viticulture. Thus, the tithe on ra (r-i ra) was inappropriate for Muslim
cultivators. It was therefore necessary to invent another tax for them.
If Muslims, according to their creed, could enjoy vineyards for the pleasure
of tasting grapes and raisins only, elementary fairness required that Muslims
would pay less tax, because grapes and the raisins they produced were cheaper
than wine, pekmez or vinegar. Therefore, the tithe levied on grapes and raisins
had to be lower than the tithe levied on ra. But the accounting of these two
products for taxation was problematic, and therefore they were entirely disre-
garded in the assessment of the r-i ra as was indicated earlier. The intro-
duction of the tithe on pekmez31 or vinegar, permissible in the opinion of Hanafi
jurists, could be neither universal nor fully inclusive of all products. The tithe
on the vineyards of Muslims should have been formulated in such a way that

It was called limon in the Crimea around 1490 (nalck 1996: 135-137). This term did
not denote the lemon juice, as suggested nalck. In Moldavia and the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth, where Greek merchants brought it, it was known under the name limonya
(Podgradskaya 1991: 205). Nowadays it is still called, at least in Greece, limnio. (Dimi-
triadis 1995: 52; I thank H. Lowry for this reference).
The ageing of wine, which entails the evaporation of the product, was not a common
process until the late seventeenth century, when Madeira wine was introduced. Therefore,
most wine was consumed during the first year of its life before it would completely ferment
into vinegar.
The tithe on pekmez was levied at the rate of 1/15 of the produce (Kazc 1977: 93).
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it would refer to the grapes and allow effective assessment of the tax, but at the
same time include all products of viticulture. It was not an easy task. A num-
ber of propositions were advanced.
In the imperial law code of Selim I, three kinds of taxes were enumerated on
vineyards whose owners were Muslims.
If according to the current tax register the acreage tax (resm-i dnm) is levied on the
given vineyard the dnm resmi is to be taken. The vineyard is measured by the rope,
the length and the width of it are to be fifty-five zira (if taylor aruns are used), or
forty-five aa (if construction aruns are used). Then resm-i dnm is taken.
But if (according to the current register) the fixed amount of money (maktu) (is
assigned to a given vineyard), then an amount matching to the tithe is to be taken.
If the fixed sum of the tax is not assigned, as if the tithe were to be taken, then after
the grape ripens, reaches its perfection, in the places, where it is consumable the tithe
is to be taken. But r-i ra is to be taken, (if it was prescribed) in the register.
If (according to) the old register (tahrir) vineyards are shown as belonging to infidels
and paying the tithe from ra (r-i ra), and if these (vineyards) pass into the hands
of Muslims r-i ra is not to be collected, rather the tithe is to be collected from their

The first tax was termed resm-i dnm, and it was assessed on the size of
vineyards, though the law failed to explain at what rate. The second tax was
levied as a fixed share of the revenues equal to the tithe, but without specify-
ing which product it would be levied on. From these passages it becomes clear
that this tithe was to be assessed on the fresh grapes and not on ra. So, this
was the third tax, which should have been called *r-i zm (tithe of grapes),
but as in fact it was left unnamed, it apparently existed only in theory. So, all
three taxes were unspecified with a vague reference to the grapes and no
instruction as to the rate of taxation.
Fortunately the kanunname for the Morea (Mora) in southern Greece, another
wine producing area, provides evidence that in fact this tithe substitute (bedel-i
r) of r-i ra levied on Muslim owned vineyards was assessed in cash at
the rate of 4 to 5 akes per dnm of vineyard. Although the grape was not

Ve ba ahvali defterde resm-i dnm yazlm ise dnm resmi alnur. Ba lsn
ipi vardr, derzi arunyla elli be ziradr, ki bina arunyla krk be aa olur resm-i dnm
ile alnur.
Amma balar maktu ise, re muaddil maktu alnur. Eer maktu kayd olmayub, r
yazlm ise, zm irib, kemalin bulub, ekl-i kabil oldu mahalde r alnur. Amma def-
terde r-i ra alnur. Hin tahrirde kefere ellerinde bulunan balardan r-i ira yazlmdr
badehu ol balar mslman eline girse r-i ra virmez hasl olan zmlerinden r virr
(Ycel and Pulaha 1995: 72). In Morea Muslims were still obliged to pay the tithe from the
vineyards owned by non-Muslims but this was an exception to the rule (Akgndz 1993:
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directly mentioned in the text, it was clearly implied, because the law prescribed
to collect the tithe from ra if Muslim owners of vineyards produced it. The
only way to account for all the grapes received from vineyards, no matter how
they were used, was by determining the size of the vineyards and their esti-
mated average productivity. By estimating the average productivity of grapes
per dnm in the fixed range between 40 and 50 akes (that is the tithe multi-
plied by 10), the tax could be easily assessed. That is how the land unit dnm
appeared as the object of taxation. It also reveals that all three taxes, outlined
in the kanunname of Selim I, were in fact one and the same tax, equivalent to
resm-i dnm. The following passage contains this key information.
Throughout the province on the vines owned by Muslims, if they are indeed planted by
themselves and not purchased from the infidels, the tax is to be levied in substitution of
the tithe (bedel-i r) in the amount of 4 akes per dnm in some places or 5 akes
per dnm (in the others). This should be entered in the defter in the appropriate place.
But if so happens, that they (i.e., Muslims) press juice (ra) and sell it, then they have
to pay the tithe. Also if the vineyard is purchased from infidels, they have to pay the

It was a remarkable solution for the problem of how to adjust the fiscal inter-
est of the Islamic state to the prescriptions of Islamic law. The terms dnm
and kyrum, just like ra, did not reflect the true object for taxation. A true
tithe on grapes (as one might expect: *r-i zm) has not been formulated as
such; rather it was replaced by the resm-i dnm, assessed in cash. The deci-
sion not to mention the taxable product is indicative of its purpose, which was
to leave Muslim producers the freedom to choose what to produce from their
The object of taxation was completely blurred by the permission for Muslims
to produce ra, which required them in this case to pay r-i ra.34 However,
the enforcement of this regulation would require the census-takers to define
which part of every Muslim-owned vineyard yielded grapes that were subse-
quently processed in ra and which yielded grapes that were consumed fresh
and dry. Otherwise, two taxes would be levied on the grapes harvested from
one vineyard, which would have been unfair with regard to Muslims. Only if
the entire vineyard was used for producing ra, as one might expect to be the

Ve cmle vilayetde mslmanlar elinde olan balar, eer kendiler dikmiler ise ki,
kfirden alnmam ola, bedel-i r her dnmne drder ake ve baz mahalde beer ake
verrler. Defterde mahallinde mesturdur. Amma ylek ra edb satarlar, r verler. Ve
eer kefereden alnm ba ise rn verrler (Akgndz 1993: 624).
Amma ylek ra edb satarlar, r verler (But if it so happens, that they [Muslims]
press juice [ra] and sell it, then they have to pay the tithe) (Akgndz 1993: 624).
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case with vineyards of non-Muslims which passed into the hands of Muslims,
could census-takers safely levy the tax on ra. Actually, the Ottomans were
interested in maintaining this revenue source and the law prescribed this as the
means of doing so.35 But Muslims could avoid such tax adjustment if they
developed new vineyards or worked the abandoned ones, whose previous own-
ers were unknown.
More important was the permission de jure to produce ra by Muslims. This
allows the data on resm-i dnm to be used for the estimation of production of
viticulture and winemaking. However, it would be untrue to claim that by this
permission the prohibition was rendered completely irrelevant. On the contrary,
the latter was reiterated in the imperial law code,36 thus providing the state with
means of deliberate control over viticulture and related industries. The concrete
policy regarding viticulture and wine production depended on the real conditions
on the ground and the political objectives of the Ottomans in different places
and at different times. It was up to the central government to decide what to
permit and what to forbid in a particular area at a particular time. This was an
important variable that this current study reveals. It is with this in mind that I
would like to use the data on the tax, levied on the vineyards of Muslims, in
estimating wine production in the Crimea.

Production of wine by non-Muslims

The previous analysis showed that the amount of r-i ira was one-tenth of
the total amount of ra, which was assessed on all of the vineyards of non-
Muslims and possibly on some of the vineyards of Muslims (those formerly in
the hands of Christians) who used them for making ra. The census-takers in
the Ottoman province of Kefe in 1542 determined the amount of the tithe as
16,499 medre of ra. Consequently, by multiplying this amount by 10, the total
output of ra from the vineyards of non-Muslims can be estimated as 164,990
medre. This amount corresponds to the amount of wine into which the grape
juice was processed.

Amma defterde r-i ra alnur (But r-i ra is to be taken, [if it was prescribed] in
the defter) (Ycel and Pulaha 1995: 72).; Ve eer kefereden alnm ba ise rn verrler
(Also if the vineyard is purchased from infidels, they have to pay the tithe) (Akgndz 1993:
If any Muslim sells or presses wine . . . (Eer Mslim hamr satsa yahud sksa . . .) (cf.
Ycel and Pulaha 1995: 34, n. 14; Tveritinova 1969: 35).
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Wine production by Muslims (the first estimate)

Although the kanunname of Kefe does not specify the basis for computing
the amount of the tax mukataa-i kyrum der dest-i mslmanan, the previous
analysis showed that it could be equal to 4 or 5 akes per dnm of vineyards.
The data on this tax assessed on villages contain more totals that can be
roundly divided by 4 than those that can be divided by 5. This leads to the
assumption that this tax was fixed at the rate of 4 akes per dnm. The total
amount of mukataa-i kyrum der dest-i mslmanan (share of revenue from
vineyards in the hands of Muslims) in the Ottoman Crimea in 1542 was 9,678
Through the previous analysis of mukataa-i kyrum der dest-i mslmanan
it was demonstrated that, despite its vague definition, it reflected the tithe from
the estimated value of grapes produced on each dnm. On the basis of this tax,
the following inferences are possible: 1) the size of the vineyards, 2) the value
of fresh grapes on which tax was assessed, and 3) the productivity of the
Muslim-owned vineyards.
1) The size of the vineyards is calculated by dividing the total 9,678 akes by
4 akes/dnm, which yields 2,419.5 dnms of vineyards.
2) If the total 9,678 akes is the tithe from fresh grapes, the total produce of
Muslim owned vineyards equaled 96,780 akes.
3) If the tax rate of 4 akes/dnm was essentially the tithe (10%), the average
cash value per dnm of fresh grapes, on which this tax was assessed, would
be 40 akes/dnm.
None of the results specify the amount of ra received from the Muslim
owned vineyards, even if we assume, for estimation purposes only, that all
grapes yielded from these vineyards were processed into ra and subsequently
into wine. However, knowing the official cash value of ra, which was 6 akes
per medre, it is possible to determine how much ra could be produced from
the fresh grapes yielded from one dnm of Muslim owned vineyards, which
would thus lead to the estimation of the total ra/wine production. So, 40 akes
of the fresh grapes corresponded to the cash value of 6.67 medre of ra/wine
(= 40 akes: 6 akes/medre). Thus, the average productivity of the vineyards
owned by Muslims, as it was fixed by the tax rate, corresponded to 6.67 medre
of ra/wine per dnm.
Before proceeding to the estimation of the total produce, one should ask how
realistic is the estimate of vineyard productivity thus obtained? There are no
data on the productivity of vineyards in the Ottoman Crimea. The only point
for comparison is provided by modern statistics for the region. But first, the
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quantity of fresh grapes that could be processed into ra should be established.

Given that juice corresponded to about 70% of the weight of fresh grapes, while
30% was lost to waste, the initial amount of fresh grapes, necessary for pro-
duction of 6.67 medre of ra, must have been approximately 100 kilograms.
Thus, 40 akes was the price of approximately 100 kilograms of fresh grapes
produced per dnm.
By modern standards 100 kilograms per dnm is quite a modest crop. Yet
it was not unusual in the Crimea even as late as the first half of the twentieth
century, to see similar yields. For example, the statistical survey by the Russian
general governor of Tavricheskaya guberniya (province) for the year 190537 pro-
vides the data on vineyard productivity by districts, which can serve as a point
for comparison (see Table 1). The data from three districts that cover the terri-
tory of the former Ottoman province were selected. To better serve the purpose
of comparison, they were converted into the production units and taxes accord-
ing to the Ottoman system of measures.

Table 1. Production of the vineyards in the Southern Crimea according to the statistic survey
of 1905.

District Yield of *Yield of *Yield of *Hypothetical

fresh grapes fresh grapes ra amount of
(puds/desiatina)38 (kilograms/dnm) (medre/dnm)39 r-i ra (ake)

Yalta 88.5 118 8 4.8

Theodosia 45.5 60.7 4 2.5
Simferopol 101.2 135 9.2 5.5

1905 (The survey of Tavricheskaya
gubernia for 1905). Simferopol: 1906, chapter (vedomost) 3 (no pagination).
Russian pud = 16 kilograms, Russian desiatina = 1.0925 hectares. Calculated on the
basis of data reported in 1905 . Compare
the average capacity of the vineyards in the Crimea in 1920 (80 pud per desiatina, would
correspond 107 kilograms per dnm). See Dayneko 2000: 8. The same figure for the dis-
trict of Soudak in 1939 was given in the volume on Krimska oblast from the serial edi-
tion The History of Cities and Villages of Ukrayinian Soviet Socialist Republic (Icmopi
icm i ci pa PCP: ua am) (Kiev, 1974), 668. The propagandist
book (The twenty years of the Soviet Krym)
(Simferopol, 1940) reports two to five times higher figures (pp. 96, 154) for the years 1936
and 1939.
A loss of 30% of weight of fresh grape in juicing was taken into account.
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The data are strikingly close to the estimated level of production chosen by
the Ottoman tax officers in 1542 for their assessment of the average vineyard
productivity in the Crimea.
Since it was established that the yield 6.67 medres/dnm is a realistic esti-
mate, the total product of ra, which could have been obtained from all Muslim
owned vineyards can be estimated at 2,419.5 dnms 6.67 medres per dnm
yielding a total of 16,138.065 medres.

Wine production by Muslims (the second estimate)

Since the quantity 16,138 medres of ra/wine is true only for the average
productivity of 100 kilograms of fresh grapes or 6.67 medres of ra from each
dnm of vineyard, there is a need to provide another estimate, which would
take into account different levels in the productivity. Such an estimate too can
be made only by the way of comparison between the taxes, paid by Muslims
and non-Muslims, which makes it possible to translate the amount of acreage
tax into the amount of produce possible. Therefore it is necessary to analyze,
how the proportion between the tax loads of Muslims and non-Muslims would
change with the differential of the productivity. For this purpose, the functions
of both taxes in their relation to the productivity of vineyards are graphically
represented in figure 4.
This graph shows that if the productivity of vineyards dropped below the
level of 100 kilograms/dnm, as was the case in the Theodosia district in 1905
(see Table 1), non-Muslims would have to pay at the rate 2.5 akes/dnm,
whereas Muslims would pay 4 akes/dnm. However, once the capacity of
vineyards reached 200 or 300 kilograms per dnm, or 13.3 or 20 medres of
ra per dnm, Muslims would have paid correspondingly two or three times
less than non-Muslims.
What was the reality in the Crimea for the sixteenth century? The optimal
yield in the 1920s would be 5-30 medres per dnm,40 while the average figures,
could be much lower (as we have seen from the data, presented above in Table
1). The data from the tahrir of the island of Limnos in 1490 suggest, that the
census takers made their assessment of r-i ra on the basis of the fixed esti-
mated average yield of ra as 20 medres per dnm (Lowry 2002: 102-106,
table 14). Although the capacity of the medre used in Limnos remains an open
question it could be close to or even higher than the medre of Kefe. Therefore,
judging by the example of Limnos, 20 medres per dnm was likely to reflect

150-300 Russian vedros of wine per desiatina of vineyard was equal to 15-30 medres
per dnm. This was reported to be an optimal yield in the 1920s (Bogdanov 1910: 244).
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Fig. 4. Taxes, due from Muslim and non-Muslim viticulturers depending on productivity of their vineyards
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 528


a standard productivity. Had the same been true for the Crimea, the tax load of
Muslims would have been three times less that that of Christians (20 medre per
dnm: 6.67 medre per dnm). In this regard it is worth noting that the kanun-
name of the foundation (vakf ) of sultan Murad II in Edirne (1557), while
overtly allowing Muslims to pay three times less than infidels even under the
same tax on vineyards (resm-i ba traditional vineyard tax), maintained this
Resm-i ba is levied on Muslims on all kinds (of vineyards) at four and on unbelivers
at twelve akes.41

Thus, the translation of the amount of mukataa-i kyrum der dest-i msl-
manan (share of revenue from vineyards in the hands of Muslims) into the
amount of ra/wine on the basis of the value of 1 medre of ra, requires the
use of the co-efficient, which would take into account the actual productivity of
vineyards. For example, if the actual productivity of vineyards was 20 medre/dnm,
this is three times more than 6.67 medre/dnm, which was the basis of the first
estimate. Thus, the actual amount of ra/wine produced by Muslims would be
three times more than was first estimated as 16,138 medres and would make
48,414 medres.
However, in view of the data available for the Crimea in the late nineteenth
century and early twentieth century, the co-efficient 2, which corresponds to the
yield of 200 kilograms of fresh grapes or 13.3 medres of ra/wine per dnm,
seems to be more realistic. Using this co-efficient, the amount of ra/wine
annually produced by Muslims in the Ottoman Crimea can be estimated as
16,138 2 totaling 32,276 medres.

The Muslim expansion in viticulture

The previous analysis demonstrated that the low tax rate of mukataa-i
kyrum der dest-i mslmanan (share of revenue from vineyards in the hands
of Muslims) granted to Muslims a significant tax break in the case of high yield
vineyards. This raises the question of whether such a tax break indeed stimu-
lated Muslims engagement in the viticulture? The answer, if positive, would
provide an argument in favor of either the co-efficient 2 or 3, discussed above.
It is fair to assume that Muslims, if they were interested in taking advantage
of favorable taxes in viticulture, would attempt to own better and more produc-
tive vineyards. While it is impossible to estimate the quality of every vineyard

Ve resm-i ba mslmanlardan beher nevi drt ve gebrandan on ikier ake alnur
(Akgndz 1993: 535).
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in the hands of Muslims, the tahrir defter allows us to recognize those areas
that were better suited for growing vines. The share of the tax revenues, derived
from viticulture, helps to define such areas.
Areas of viticulture in the Southern CrimeaAs it was established earlier,
the revenues derived from viticulture accounted for 21.4% of the total tax rev-
enues assessed on the products of agriculture in the province of Kefe. In thirty-
two villages and towns of the southern Crimea viticulture accounted for more
than a quarter of the total taxes entered in the defter. The map (fig. 2) provides
a clue to regional differences in viticulture. However, such a traditional way of
visual presentation, as was used in this map, hampers accurate accounting for
the share of particular taxes in the overall composition of the tax loads assessed
on different tax units. It is difficult to abstract from the impression that a nar-
row wedge on the oversized pie would naturally look bigger, than even a half
of a smaller pie. To eliminate such interference, I would suggest using the
ranges of the same color in order to reflect the total share of viticulture-related
taxes in the overall tax revenues assessed on the towns and villages. This color
will be applied to conjecturally defined economic areas of each town or vil-
lage.42 This way the same data (see the map in figure 5) help to recognize four
specific regions in which viticulture was the most lucrative branch of agricul-
ture. Such were the valleys around Soudak (area I), In-Kerman and Mangub
(area II). The area near Balklau is another such region (area III), although the
level of production seen in its surrounding villages was rather uneven. On the
coast between Yalta and Aluta (area IV), which now produces the most famous
fine wines in the Crimea, viticulture appears to have been an important branch
of activities for local peasants in the sixteenth century, although much less so
than in previously mentioned areas.
The expansion of Muslims in the main areas of viticulture and wine produc-
tionThe detailed register does not indicate the owners or tenants of the vine-
yards or their size.43 Therefore it is difficult to establish with precision who

To date, such methods of mappingapparently because of difficulties in defining
administrative, economic or other areashave only rarely been used in Ottoman studies (see
Gyn and Htteroth 1997: 94, 100, 104). But the present study demonstrates that the risk
of abstraction from the geographic reality in defining the economic areas for each town or
village is rewarded by the possibility of more subtle observation.
The rentable vineyard of the Imperial Palace in Kefe, once mentioned in the synoptic
tax-register from around 1520, possibly had a Muslim tenant: Mukataa-i icare-i Saray-i Hassa
ma ba ve bae der kurb-i Kefefi sene 1500 [aka] (TTD #370, p. 483). However, a sep-
arate vineyard yielding the tax revenue 100 aka, entered in the defter of 1542, was rented
by a Christian Greek named Borani son of Baba son of Kiryakoz: Ba-i Baba veled-i
Kiryakoz, hasl-i bedel-i r, haliyan der tasarruf-i Boran veled-i Baba mezbur (TTD #214,
p. 114).
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Fig. 5. Taxes, derived from viticulture, in the overall tax revenue, assessed on population of towns and villages in the Southern
Crimea (1542).
(Note: the economic areas of towns and villages are purely conjectural and serve only to the purpose of the present study)
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 531


actually owned the vineyards, let alone who worked them. And yet the data
contain several indications of the growing engagement of Muslims in viticulture.
First, tax revenues from the Muslim-owned vineyards increased. Although the
summary tahrir defter TTD #370 from around 1520 contains mainly the totals
of the tax revenues, levied on the villages and towns, in five cases it also pro-
vides the break down of the totals by the sources of revenue, comparable to
that, provided by TTD #214 of 1542. The matching data, presented in Table 2,
help to trace the changes in taxation of viticulture during the period of two cen-
suses, when the extant defters were compiled. The data reveals the growth of
tax revenues derived from the Muslim owned vineyards in all five cities. At the
same time, the amount of r-i ra levied on non-Muslims increased only in
Mangup, while it remained stable in Kefe and Baliklau and even shrunk in
Soudak and In-Kerman, which were centers of the most important areas of

Table 2. Tax revenues derived from the Muslim owned vineyards in the cities of the sancak
of Kefe in ca. 1520 and 1542 (ake).

Towns Non- Non- Non- Muslims Muslims Muslims

Muslims Muslims Muslims (1520) (1542)
(1520) (1542)

Kefe 3,600 3,600 0 600 1,964 +1,364

Baliklau 2,700 2,700 0 388 550 +1,72
Soudak 31,878 23,640 -8,238 3,798 3,996 +198
In-Kerman 8,400 8,208 -192 666 788 +122
Mangup 1,200 2,100 +900 8 48 +40

The growing engagement in viticulture on the part of Muslims, however, can

be partly explained by the growth of Muslim population in the aforementioned
Second, there was an increase in the number of absentee landlords. More
convincing evidence is provided by the case of four villages, where the tax was
assessed on Muslim owned vineyards, but no Muslim population was registered.
This raises the likelihood that these vineyards were in the hands of absentee
landlords. Three villages (Kapshor, Tokluk and Uskt) belonged to the area I
(in the vicinity of Soudak) and one village (erkes Kerman) belonged to the
area II (in the vicinity of n-Kerman). Thus all four villages, where Muslims
purchased vineyards, were situated in the areas, where viticulture was the major
single source of revenue.
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Third, the size of Muslim-owned vineyards expanded in the major vine-grow-

ing areas. The average size of vineyards, belonging to households in different
areas of the province, also indicates the active interest of Muslims in deriving
profit from viticulture and related businesses. Table 3 demonstrates that Mus-
lims held larger vineyard plots in those villages where viticulture accounted for
a larger part of the revenues levied on those villages. The top of the list
represents exclusively the villages of the two most developed areas around
Soudak and n-Kerman. It points to the fact that the prospective Muslim
investors specifically chose to purchase the most productive vineyards. In other
words, Ottoman practice on the ground seemingly encouraged Muslims to
develop an interest in viticulture by allowing Muslim-owned vineyards to be
taxed at a lower rate than that paid in the same villages on those plots still in
Christian hands.
This observation also strengthens the assumption that the productivity of
vineyards owned by Muslims should have been well above the level of 100
kilograms of fresh grapes, or 6.67 medres of ra/wine per dnm, fixed by the
tax rate. This justifies the use of the coefficient 2 in estimating the ra/wine
production on the basis of mukataa-i kyrum der dest-i mslmanan (share of
revenue from vineyards in the hands of Muslims).
Fourth, viticulture increased in importance among Muslims. The case of the
absentee landlords, clearly detected in four villages because no Muslim was reg-
istered in them, points to the possibility that absentee landlords could acquire
vineyard plots in the villages where Muslim population was registered. From
Table 3 it may be inferred that the average size of vineyards owned by Muslims
was in the range between 0.25 and 100 dnms, which hints at the possible
presence of absentee landlords in the villages where Muslims owned larger
In any case, the large size of the vineyards owned by Muslims indicates the
concentration of vineyards in the hands of certain industrious Muslims. Where
this was the case can be observed through the comparison between the shares
of Muslims in the total make up of the population in any village or town and
the estimated shares of ra produced by Muslims. It is logical to expect that
these shares should normally coincide if Muslim and non-Muslim cultivators owned
vineyards of the same size and quality. Should Muslims acquire more vineyards
and produce more, their share in production would be disproportionate com-
pared to their share in the population. In Table 4, where the relevant data is
presented, one can notice that the proportion of Muslim population matches or
comes close to the proportion of ra/wine estimated for Muslim-owned vine-
yards in the cities of Kefe and In-Kerman, as well as in the villages of Nihora,
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 533


Table 3. Dependence between the importance of viticulture and the average size of Muslim owned
vineyards. In order to determine the size of the vineyards, the amount of the average tax per
household should be divided by 4.

Town, Village Mukataa-i Muslim Average tax % of revenue, derived

kerm households per household from viticulture

Soudak 3996 10 400 59.25%

Kapshor 256 0 max 256 29.51%
ul 592 4 148 46.84%
Obi 130 1 130 29.53%
Tokluk 88 0 max 88 24.64%
Kutlak 160 3 53 32.90%
Vorin 260 5 52 62.78%
Kozlar 204 4 51 35.24%
In-Kerman 788 38 21 33.84%
erkes Kerman 20 0 max 20 30.26%
Kuri Uzen 20 1 20 26.87%
Uskt 16 0 max 16 21.26%
Duvak 32 2 16 20.92%
Yalta 14 1 14 22.81%
Bartenit with Gurgulat 76 6 13 21.02%
Mskomya Kck 32 3 11 23.39%
Mishor 52 5 10 24.09%
ima 10 1 10 11.83%
Yanco 30 3 10 6.12%
Sotire 40 4 10 5.53%
Faros with Sahtk 84 9 9 37.75%
Lanbad Buzurg and Kck 24 3 8 24.25%
Alubka 20 3 7 16.47%
Limena 36 6 6 26.12%
Aluta 68 12 6 15.24%
Kamra 20 4 5 10.18%
Nihora (Kad) 400 80 5 6.50%
Karano 40 8 5 30.56%
Gurbakl 22 5 4 10.69%
Gavri 32 8 4 32.17%
Bocagan (lmekci) 12 3 4 25.08%
Ugri Kosta 24 6 4 15.68%
Mskomya Buzurg 4 1 4 26.33%
irgona 24 8 3 8.64%
Vikne (Papa Balkez) 6 2 3 21.46%
Ta Iskele 8 3 3 11.49%
Kurzuf 8 3 3 27.25%
Koca Salas 14 7 2 27.45%
Mangub 48 31 2 38.29%
Kefe 1964 1790 1 5.80%
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Vorin, Kamra, Mishor, Alubka, ima, Mskomya Kk, Kuri Uzen (without
application of the co-efficient there would have been not a single match!). At
the same time, in the Soudak, as well as in the villages Kozlar, Obi, Kutlak
and Yano, Muslims accounted for an even larger share in the production of
ra than was their share among the population. These four villages and the
town Soudak are situated in those two zones that were best suited to viticul-
ture. Thus, Muslims not only demonstrated more activity in the main wine-pro-
ducing areas of the province, but also achieved a much greater economic effect
in their vineyards compared to the vineyards of non-Muslims in the same areas.
Taxation, conversion and continuityThe above-formulated analysis,
although justifying the application of the co-efficient, raises another question.
Namely, how did Muslims, less than 70 years after the Ottoman conquest, man-
age to adopt the experience and skills of viticulture to such an extent that they
could achieve similar results to those obtained by local Greek Christians? Of
course, one might assume that Muslims were relying on slaves. But slaves, with
some exceptions, were not included in the registered population and therefore
not reflected in the number of Muslims who were engaged in viticulture. But if
we could show that they were in possession of better land, this would provide
an alternative explanation. Finally, we may not disregard the possibility that the
individuals listed as Muslims were in fact converted Greek Christians. In an
effort to base these possible explanations on available data it is necessary to
engage in a closer examination of the overall Muslim population.
Muslims constituted the majority of residents in such villages as ul,
Sotire,44 Yano and Nihora,45 and accounted for close to half of the inhabitants
of the city of Kefe. Further comparison establishes that in most villages of the
Crimea the Muslim share in wine production was lower than their percentage
of the population. Hence, this data does not challenge the expectation that
Greek Orthodox Christians should have been more skillful and experienced viti-
culturalists than Muslims. Moreover, converts were common among the
Muslims registered in those villages where they constituted the majority popu-
lation. The pre-Islamic experience of converts might have served to equalise the
Muslim share of wine production to that of the overall population.

The headings of the entries concerning both villages contain the same remark: The
unbelievers have been dispersed throughout neighboring villages. Nowadays they are regis-
tered according to the imperial order in their actual residing places, but they work on their
(former) lands (kefere etrafnda olan karyelere perakende olmular dr. Halyan sakin olan
olduklar yerlerde ber mcib-i emr-i ali amma yerleri ziraat olunur; TTD #214, p. 172).
This village experienced a large influx of Muslims, most probably from the Crimean
Khanate between 1520 and 1542.
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Table 4. Comparison of Muslims shares in population and wine production

Village, town Share of the wine, Share of Muslim

Produced by Muslims population

ul 100% 100%
Sotire 100% 100%
Kozlar 89% 29%
Nihora nam diger Kad 70% 75%
Yanco 59% 50%
Kefe 52% 45%
Obi 50% 14%
Tokluk 42% 0%
Kapshor 27% 0%
Soudak 25% 3%
Kutlak 18% 4%
Vorin 17% 17%
In-Kerman 16% 17%
Duvak 12% 22%
Limena 11% 23%
irgona 11% 22%
Kamra 10% 12%
Mishor 10% 9%
Faros with Sahtik 9% 17%
Alubka 8% 9%
Uri Kosta 8% 13%
Karano 7% 32%
Gurbakly 7% 15%
Gavri 7% 33%
ima 6% 6%
Mskomya Kck 6% 7%
Ta skele 6% 15%
Bartenit wth Gurgulat 5% 10%
Mangub 4% 33%
Aluta 4% 8%
Bocagan (lmekci) 3% 14%
Lanbad Buzurg ve Kk 2% 4%
Yalta 2% 2%
Uskt 2% 0%
erkes Kerman 2% 0%
Kuri Uzen 1% 1%
Koca Salas 1% 10%
Demurci 1% 10%
Vikne (Papa Balkez) 1% 2%
Mskomya Buzurg 1% 3%
Kurzuf 0% 2%
Sren 0% 9%
Balklau 0% 18%
Albati wth Ay-Todor 0% 33%
Markur 0% 25%
Kokolos 0% 100%
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 536


At the same time, there were sixteen villages and towns in which Muslims
accounted for a greater percentage of wine production than their numbers indi-
cated. Four of them were those with the absentee Muslim landlords possessing
vineyards. For the rest of cases, the presence of the Muslim converts among the
population may serve as a plausible explanation.
For example, in the village of Obi, there was only one Muslim household
that was recorded as paying 130 akes levied on his vineyards, the size of those
vineyards reached 43 dnms (over 10 acres). This vineyard seems too big for
the labor force of a single family, which suggests either the presense of absen-
tee landlords, or that the family in question used hired man power or slaves to
actually work the vineyards. Perhaps this was also the case in the town of
Soudak where the figure of 100 dnms (25 acres) looks unrealistically high
for the average size of a vineyard for one Muslim household.
Upon closer examination, the list of taxpayers provides one more possible
explanation to account for the predominant role played by Muslims in the viti-
culture of the region. In all the villages where Muslims produced a significant
percentage of the wine, we may trace the presence of converts or their descen-
dants. As a case in point, in the city of Kefe converts to Islam accounted for
17% of the Muslim population. One Muslim, registered in the village of Obi,
was a certain Murad bin Abdullah, who, judging by his patronymic Abdullah
(slave of God), most likely was a convert. Likewise, in Soudak four out of
the registered ten heads of households were listed as sons of Abdullah. In the
village of Vorin, five out of five Muslim heads of households were listed as
sons of Abdullah; whereas in the village of Kozlar, two out of four Muslim
households were headed by individuals bearing this patronymic, which was
commonly adopted by converts to Islam in the sixteenth century (cf. Lowry
1998: 119-40). The Muslim community of In-Kerman comprised thirty-five
households, whose five patriarchs were sons of Abdullah. In addition, eight of
them were freed slaves (mutaks), who were probably also converts. Finally,
two Muslims of In-Kerman did not even bother to adopt an Islamic patronymic
and retained for that purpose the Christian names of their fathers, such as Yoki
(diminutive of Joseph) and Yuvan (Ivan).
By way of contrast, we may cite the village of Nihora whose population was
75% Muslim. Among those eighty Muslim households who produced 70% of
the villages wine, there were eight households headed by individuals bearing
the patronymic Abdullah. A similar situation may be seen in the village
Karano, where there were only two identifiable converts among the seven
Muslim heads of households. A comparison of the data for the same villages
from the 1520 register, with that preserved in the register TTD #214 of 1542,
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 537


attests to the significant influx of Muslim populations in those two villages. This
fact suggests that local Muslims engaged in viticulture were not primarily con-
verts and that their role in the total production was lower than their share in the
These examples speak in favor of the strong correlation between the expan-
sion of Muslims in viticulture and presence of converts, who thus ensured the
transfer of skills and techniques of viticulture to the Muslim community. The
same can be said with regards to wine production as well, because of the pre-
Islamic experience of many Muslim cultivators in the Crimea.

Total wine production

The total of mukataa-i kyrum der dest-i mslmanan (share of revenue
from vineyards in the hands of Muslims) paid by Muslims for the vineyards
was 9,678 akes or 8.9% of the total revenue derived from wine production. If
the ratio between the taxes levied on Muslims and non-Muslim was 2, which
seems to be the case, the total of the taxes translated into the production units
would correspond to 32,260 medre of ra/wine, that is, 16.4% of the total of
197,250 medres produced in the Crimea. Were we to use the coefficient of 3,
the production would be 48,390 medres, and the share of wine produced from
Muslim owned vineyards would reach 22.7% of the total of 213,380 medres.

Are the results thus obtained applicable to other periods?

It is tempting to compare these totals with those seen in the Southern Crimea
under Russian rule. For this purpose the Ottoman medre (10.256 liters) should
be converted into Russian capacity unit vedro (bucket 12.3 liters) used in the
wine trade. This would make 164,471 or 177,920 buckets (with the coefficient
2 and 3 respectively), which is comparable with the total 299,073 buckets of
the amount of wine received in 1905 in the districts of Yalta and Soudak. As
the level of agriculture should not have changed significantly before the large-
scale introduction of mechanical power and agricultural technologies in the
twentieth century, the augmentation of the output in comparison with the
Ottoman time most probably was achieved at the expense of cultivating new
vineyards, perhaps in the vicinity of Yalta and Gurzuf, which have remained
major centers of wine production until the present day.
Two conclusions may be drawn from this comparison:
1) The tax registers contain quite realistic data, which are comparable to those
reported by modern statistical sources. This also confirms our assumption
about good coverage of the province by the tax-register.
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 538


2) The production of wine should not have suffered any severe crisis that one
might expect for the period following the Ottoman conquest of the Crimea.
If there was a certain slow down, detected by previous researchers of the
Ottoman tax-registers of the Crimea (Berindei and Veinstein 1979: 435-441;
nalck 1996: 109), it could not have been too grave in the area of viticulture.
A less obvious, but no less important, observation can be made with regard
to the sufficiency of the local wine for consumption. The level of wine produc-
tion of the sixteenth century most probably reflects the pre-existing status quo
in the region, and it continued well into the nineteenth or even the twentieth
century, when the Crimea turned into a major supplier of wine throughout
Eastern Europe. Taking into account that the population in the Crimea as well
as local consumption should have increased since the sixteenth century, it seems
highly unlikely that the Crimean population did not produce wine in sufficient
quantity for local consumption. The average output of wine per household for
all the province of Kefe was 220 to 240 liters (depending on the coefficient 2
or 3), which was quite enough for consumption and trade. In the most impor-
tant wine producing areas, the level of production went well beyond 1000 liters
per household. These data are represented on the following map (figure 6).
Therefore, other arguments should be advanced to explain the import of wine
to the Crimea in pre-Ottoman times. For example, the Genoese population may
have created a market for fine wines, such as the wine from Chios and Southern
Italy. Another explanation could be found in the re-exporting of imported wine
farther into Eastern Europe, for which Caffa was the major commercial gate
before another route through Moldavia assumed this role in the middle of the
sixteenth century.46

All taxes on commercial operations with wine broke down into two cate-
gories. The first were custom dues on import and export. The second category
was comprised of market dues.

Custom duties on export and import of wine

Below are quoted the stipulations concerning the custom duties for imported
and exported wine enforced by the kanun-name of the province.

As suggested by Berindei and Veinstein (1979: 436-441).
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Fig. 6. Estimated wine production per household (in liters) in towns and villages of the Southern Crimea (1542).
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 540


When fu of wine passes inside [the city] from the outside, one takes 16 akes, but
when from inside towards outside, one takes 12 akes, per karatil one takes 8 akes,
per baril 4 akes.47
. . . per each coming or leaving fu 2 akes, per karatil and baril 1 ake are to be
On various kinds of merchandise and other items, arriving in or taken from the port of
Kefe, carried by Muslims or unbelievers per 1000 akes of value 42 akes are to be
taken . . . Per one fu of wine 27 akes, per one karatil 13 akes, and per one baril 6
akes are to be levied.49
Per each fu of wine, arriving [in the port] by sea, 6 akes of Kefe50 are to be levied
under the name of astazane, per one karatil 4 akes and per one baril 3 akes are to
be levied. Fu is the name for the cask of wine with capacity of more, than 40 medre,
the capacity of karatil is 20 to 40 medre, and that of baril is 1 to 20 medre.
When one fu arrives by land in the cart, per each fu 9 akes should be taken as the
tax called astazane, 6 akes are to be taken on one karatil, 4 akesper one baril.51

The regulation concerning the Tatar gate (Kanunname-i Bab-i Tataran; TTD #214, p.
16): ve bir fuc hamrdan taradan ier gelse on alt ake alnur, ve eer ierden dara
ksa on iki ake alnur, ve bir karatilden sekiz ake alnur ve bir varldan drt ake alnur.
The regulation concerning the Tower gate (Kanunname-i Kule Kap; TTD #214, p. 16):
ierden dara ve taradan ier gelseginin hamr fusna iki ake ve karatil ve varil olsa
bir ake alnur.
The regulation concerning the port of Kefe (Kanunname-i Iskele-i Kefe; TTD #214,
p. 17): Gemi ile Kefe iskele sine gelen ve giden mslmanlardan ve kafirlerden gtrdkleri
emtia kiymetten ve sar esbablarindan kiymete dutulub her binde krk iki ake alnur . . . ve
bir fuc hamrdan yigirmi yedi ake ve karatilden on ake ve varilden alt ake alnur.
As pointed nalck on the basis of TTD #214, the ratio between aka-i Osmani and
aka-i Kefevi was either 1 to 2 or 1 to 5, depending on the case. The principle was to use
a higher rate when money was collected for the treasury, while the lower was used when
money was disbursed (nalck 1996: 185). At the same time in TTD #214 one can find the
ratio 1 to 1.5, which was enforced for the conversion of taxes from the peasants living in
Taman district: the official price of 1 keylce of wheat (hnta) was fixed at 9 aka-i Kefevi,
while in the rest of the province it was priced as 6 aka-i Kefevi. The same ratio was adopted
for barley 6 Kefevi to 4 Osmani (air) and 8 Kefevi to 5 Osmani for the millet (erzen). This
floating exchange rate was in the in the interest of the treasury and of the officers who
could apply it deliberately. Since the tax astazane was imposed on merchants who arrived in
Kefe from other provinces of the empire or from abroad and could not have Kefevi ake
available, they might have been forced to pay in Ottoman aka, in which case the low rate
1 to 1.5 was in the interest of the tax collector. Since in other cases the Ottoman state gave
preference to the interest of the treasury over that of the subject, I suggest that in this case
Kefevi aka should be converted into Ottoman aka at the rate 1.5 to 1. For local merchants
paying in Kefevi ake, this rate could be close to the real exchange rate 5 Kefevi to 1 Osmani.
The regulation concerning the wine (Kanunname-i hamr: TTD #214, p. 17): ve deniz-
den gelen hamrn her fudan astazane diyu altar kefev [ake] alnur, karatilden drt ake
varildan ake alnur. Krk medreden ziyade hamr koyuldan fu dirler, yigirmi medreden
krk medreye varlca karatil dirler, bir medreden yigirmi medreye varlca varil dirler. Ve
karadan arabayla hamr fu gelse her fucdan astazane diyu dokuz kefevi ake alnur,
karatilden alt ake alnur, varilden drt ake alnur.
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The provincial capital Kefe was the center of a vast customs zone that
included ports across the Northen Black Sea area where similar customs rates
were enforced (nalck 1996: 91-98). As we can see, the province of Kefe both
imported and exported wine. Thus, it appears as the center of transit commerce
in wine. Indeed, on one hand it was surrounded by such wine producing areas
as Trapezund and the Mediterranean (across the Black Sea), Moldavia (via the
sea and the land), and the Crimean Khanate, on the other it had vast markets
in the Eastern Europe and in the Northern Caucasus. Therefore, it would be cru-
cial for understanding the principles and rates of customs dues to sort out which
roads led where. This question should be addressed within the framework of the
historical topography of Kefe.
Through the Tower Gate (Kule Kap), the city was linked to its northern sub-
urbs and with the town of Kerch lying on the Bosporos Cimmerian. The wine,
which could be brought to Kefe this way, should have been produced only in
the nearby suburbs, that is inside the customs zone. Considered as an item of
local commerce, it was thus subjected to very modest customs. The road that
passed through the Tatar Gate (Bab-i Tataran) connected the city with the
Crimean Khanate, which did not belong to the Ottoman customs zone of Kefe
and thus merchandise imported from there were subjected to customs dues at
higher rates, a fact vividly demonstrated by the levies assessed in the Kanun-
name-i Bab-i Tataran.
The wine, like any other merchandise imported by sea and arriving in the
port was subjected to the highest custom at the rate 4.2% ad valorem. The
reduced rate, applicable to Muslim merchants in other cases, was to pay cus-
toms on wine at the same rate. Moreover, it looks as if the local Crimean wine,
for example, produced in Soudak, was subject to this custom as well, when it
arrived at Kefe.
An additional custom, called astazane, was levied on all wine imported from
the outside the province. Ottomans inherited this custom together with its name
from the Genoese. They collected the identical tax, imposed according to the
quantity of the wine and called it stazia vini (Balard 1978: 411). It is interest-
ing to note that this custom was higher when the wine was transported by land
from the Crimean Khanate or Moldavia, compared to wine brought by sea from
the localities of the Ottoman Empire, such as Trapezund or the Greek Archi-
pelago. This was contrary to the Ottoman practice that favored overland trans-
port (nalck 1996: 92).
The key point for the calculation of various customs rates is the clause in the
regulation concerning wine that gives the equivalent of the custom 42 akes per
1000 akes ad valorem for the wine, stipulating that 4.2% custom would make
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 542


27 akes per fu for the wine imported by sea. Knowing the amount of tax in
each other case, it is easy to establish the rates for other customs and the
official price of each kind of cask used for transportation. The data about con-
tent and rates are arranged in the following table (Table 5).

Table 5. Custom duties on wine in Kefe

# Regulation Content, Rate Conditions

amount (%)
(akes per

1 Kanunname-i Bab-i Import 2.5 Overland import through the

Tataran 16 Crimean Khanate
2 Kanunname-i Bab-i Export 1.9 Overland export to the Crimean
Tataran 12 Khanate, Caucasus and Eastern
Europe by land
3 Kanunname-i Kule Kap Export/import 0.3 Commerce by land with the suburbs
2 of Kefe
4 Kanunname-i iskele-i Kefe Export/import 4.2 Export and import by sea for local
27 and imported wine
5 Kanunname-i hamr Import by sea 0.3/ Astazane: 2 akes for local
2 to 652 0.9 merchants, 6 akes for the import
from Anatolia and the Mediterranean
6 Kanunname-i hamr Import by land 0.5/ Astazane: 3 akes for local
3 to 953 1.4 merchants, 9 akes for import
through the Crimean Khanate

The total amount of customs for the transportation of local wine, depending
on the particular case, could reach 0.8% (case 3 + astazane 0.5%), 3.6% (case
1 + astazane 0.5%), and 4.5% (case 4 + astazane 0.3%). The customs on over-
land transportation of wine from the Crimean Khanate or Moldavia to Kefe
would cost the owner 3.9% (2.5% + astazane 1.4%) of its value. In shipping
the wine from Trapezund, Chios or other overseas territories of the Ottoman
Empire, it could be subjected to customs reaching up to 5.1% (case 4 +
astazane 0.9%).

See above fn. 19.
See above fn. 19.
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Market Taxes
In the province of Kefe a unique tax was established for wine and vinegar,
which would be sold on the market. It consisted of two parts. First, 3.5 ake-i
Kefevi were levied per each medre. Then, 122 ake-i Kefevi were to be taken
on each 1000 ake-i Kefevi of the total value, that is, 12.2%. This last part was
called a tithe (r).54
The question arises as to the price of one medre of wine. The estimated price
of one fu of wine can be calculated on the basis of the 4.2% customs due on
all merchandise imported by sea, which equaled in the case of one fu of wine
to 27 akes. It makes the price 643 akes for one fu.
Now we have to establish the capacity of fu, for which it is only known
that it should exceed 40 medre. The ratio of capacities between two other kinds
of casks, namely baril and karatil, explained in the Regulations concerning the
wine, as 1 to 2 (1-20 medre against 20-40 medre), requires that the ratio
between karatil and fu should be the same, making the maximum of fu
capacity as 80 medre. However it should have been much lower. Firstly, a cask
of 820 liters was rather large to produce or transport. Secondly, the ratios
between taxes levied on all three kinds of casks were 1 to 1.5. In three cases,
when Kanun reports on taxes due from all three types of casks, the ratio was
1: 1.5 (4: 6; 6: 9; 8: 12), and only in one case was it set approximately at 1: 2
(13: 27). Of course, it would be in the interest of treasure to levy a two times
heavier tax of 27 akes per fu, in comparison with 13 akes per karatil, while
in reality fu could not be two times larger. Therefore, it was hardly possible
that fu could be more than 60 medre what was still too big for a cooper of
the sixteenth century to construct.55 But what could be the average size? To
answer this question one has to estimate the size of two other casks.
The taxation ratio between baril and karatil as 2 to 1 more or less corre-
sponded to the ratio in their capacities1/20 medre to 20/40 medre. The aver-
age size could not be less than 10 medre, as it would have been against the
interest of the merchants to pay the doubled custom duties compared with the
case when they would carry their merchandise in casks with the capacity of 20
medre. However, it would be safe to use the casks under 20 medre, as there
might be a risk that the custom officer would guestimate baril equal to and
double the custom payment. Thus, the capacity of baril might be established

TTD #214, Kanun-name-i hamr.
Even now in the wine cellars of the Crimea the most common capacity of oak casks is
within the range of 300-500 liters.
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 544


between 10 and 20 medre, but close to 20, that is 15-17 medre. The capacity
of karatil would then be about 30-35 medre, which put fu (according to the
proportion in the amount of taxes, levied on karatil and fu 1: 1.5) in the range
45-52 medre (461-533 liters). The regulation concerning the fisheries in the area
of Azak, which is one chapter of the kanun-name for the province of Kefe, put
fu as precisely 52 medre.56 It should have been the maximum capacity of fu.
Thus, the average fu could be somewhere between 45 and 52 medre, that is
48 medre. An additional argument in favor of this estimate would be that casks
of this capacity survived in Russia until the twentieth century. The Russian term
denoting it was boka, which exhibits Turkish influence.
The value of one medre of wine would be 643 / 48 = 13.4 akes per medre.
Depending on the ratio between Ottoman ake and ake of Kefe, the tax in
question (3.5 akes of Kefe) would be from 5.22% (under the rate 1 to 5) to
17.3% (under the rate 1 to 1.5). When this tax is added to r (12.2% ad val-
orem), the total tax on the marketed wine would be 17.4% to 29.5% of the
value of the wine. Thus, the total tax burden on the wine brought to the mar-
ket in the province of Kefe (customs and market dues) would be between 18.2%
and 34.6% of the value of the wine.
With these assessments at hand, it becomes possible to estimate the total
amount of wine sold in the markets of the Ottoman Crimea, although because
of the nature of the data (see fn. 8) such estimates cannot be made with a high
degree of precision. Only TTD #370 contains relatively pure data, namely the
amount of income derived from the market tax on wine in Kefe and Ker,
which totaled 280,000 akes a year. Knowing the range of market tax (17.4%
to 29.5% of the value of the wine) and estimated price of one medre of wine
(13.4 akes), one can estimate that the amount of wine from which such income
could be derived falls into a range between 60,391 and 120,081 medres.
However, it is impossible to assess which part of this amount was locally pro-
duced, which was imported, and which was exported and where.

This analysis of the taxation of viticulture, wine production and wine com-
merce leads to many conclusions and prompts some reevaluations. In my view
the most important are the following:

TTD #214, Kanun-name-i mukataa-i mahi-i Azak (cf. Berindei and Veinstein DATE:
JESHO_642-Halenko_507-547 11/5/04 6:03 PM Page 545


1) Viticulture and related businesses constituted a major aspect of the economy

of the southern Crimea in the Ottoman period. Thus, rather than represent-
ing a break in the practice of viticulture, the Ottoman period establishes an
important link of continuity between earlier Byzantine/Genoese and later Russian
2) The extent of the importance of winemaking is reflected in the fact that
throughout the period under study we are able to trace an ever-increasing
number of Muslims who opt to engage in viticulture. While on the one hand,
this may reflect nothing more than the post-conquest influx of Muslim set-
tlers finding a niche in the areas pre-existing economy, on the other it cer-
tainly indicates that this was an area considered worthy of investment.
3) The Ottoman bureaucracy demonstrated a highly sophisticated approach in
settling the contradiction between the prohibition of wine required by Islamic
law and the interest of the State in the exploitation of such rich sources of
revenue. This case points to the strong rationalistic foundations of Ottoman
policy, without which its correct representations in terms of tolerance, prag-
matism, or even plunder, tend to be over simplistic.
4) The potential of the tahrir defters as a source of reliable information, espe-
cially for local history, is far from exhausted. But in order to be useful they
must be properly decoded. As the present study illustrates this is not an easy
task either for the author or his readership.

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