Aleksandar Fotic

In the period of Ottoman rule Orthodox Christians in the Balkans followed economic trends and behaved according to existing laws. The elders from Hilandar monastery, as well as all Athonite monks acted accordingly. If the monks had some religious prejudices towards Jews, just like towards Muslims, it never refers to business relations. Ottoman documents from Hilandar monastery archive bear evidence to highly developed trade dealings, credit transactions, as well as the presence of Jewish merchants on Mount Athos itself. The monastic fraternity of Hilandar took out loans from Jewish creditors, usually those from Thessaloniki and Siderokavsia, especially in the case of large sums that were difficult to obtain from other sources. It seems that they pledged their estates (metochia) until the payment of their debts, if Jewish creditors who for a time governed the large Hilandar metochion in Üç Ev (Neochorion, Kalamaria) are to be believed. The largest loans were taken out during the period of the so-called “confiscation affair” (1568/69), when the monastic community of Hilandar (as all other monasteries in the Empire) was forced to purchase its own estates from the state. Jewish creditors sometimes took unlawful interest rates, as evidenced by disputes held at kadı courts. There are examples testifying that the hegoumens of Hilandar voluntarily took Jews for their legal representatives (vekils) in real estate transactions, which needed to be registered at the kadi court. They clearly trusted the Jews as financial experts. Their commercial expertise and ability to raise large funds in a short period of time made the Jews useful business partners of the Hilandar Monastery.

This paper analyses the first world classifications of Serbian wines based on André Jullien’s famous Topographie de tous les Vignobles connus… published as early as 1816 (18222, 18323). It points to the far-reaching importance of Jullien’s work, clarifies the circumstances of its creation, its methodology, the significance and types of data presented, and, which is particularly important, identifies most of the sources used by the author. Jullien’s Topographie is not a perfect book free of geographical and historical errors, nor does it cover all winegrowing regions in the world. However, it is the first general classification of all wines, both French and “foreign”, based on fairly clear criteria and written by an experienced and, as it seems, unprejudiced connoisseur. Its importance was recognized immediately after publication, and the global nature of its classification made it the basis for all similar undertakings. The analytical focus in the article is restricted to the territory of the present-day Serbia. In the Ottoman “province” of Serbia, he singled out the environs of Belgrade as the most important winegrowing region, adding to it the environs of Priština in the third edition. Wines produced in the eastern Srem (Karlovci) stand out in terms of quality. This overview also includes the winegrowing region of Banat with Vršac and Bela Crkva (Weisskirchen). In the wine world of that time wines from Srem and Banat were classified as the wines of the Austrian Empire or, more narrowly, as Hungarian wines. André Jullien obviously did not taste any of the mentioned Serbian wines personally. He relied above all on the information available in encyclopaedias, statistic records, geographies and travel accounts. The search for and identification of his sources has shown how thorough, consistent and honest he was in using such data. Undoubtedly, the best Serbian wines were made in and around Karlovci. A sweet red wine, Ausbruch, gained a high repute around the mid-18th century, retaining it into the 20th century. At first, Jullien classified it into the third and then into the exceptionally high second class of all world’s sweet red wines. For example, of all Hungarian wines, only Tokay was rated above it. Karlovci’s semi-sweet and dry wines received the same high second-class rating. Jullien’s classifications of Serbian wines confirmed the continued existence of high-quality winegrowing areas in what is now Serbia, from Roman times to the beginning of the 19th century.
KEYWORDS: André Jullien, 19th century, wine classification, wine growing regions, Srem, Banat, Serbia

The mechanism of the institution of credit in the Ottoman Balkans remains underresearched in scholarship. The legal basis for providing loans at an interest rate, the general social and economic views, the legality and level of interest rates, as well as the institutions and categories of individuals involved in this type of activity, have been outlined in the paper. The position of the Orthodox Church on interest rate and the involvement of both clergy and laity in financial transactions of this kind have been given particular attention.
In the period of Ottoman rule Orthodox Christians in the Balkans only followed economic trends and adapted to existing laws. The described examples show that there was no room for religious bias in business projects. Credit transactions – the act of giving loans at an interest or taking out such a loan – could also take place between members of different religions. The relevant fact was who had ready cash rather than the lender’s religious identity as a Muslim, Christian or Jew. In addition, these transactions were characterized by social and gender equality. The patriarch could lend money to Jews, priests took out loans from the kadı, monasteries lent money at an interest to Muslims…
The ruling elite of the Ottoman Empire never allowed credit transactions to become messy. There were clearly defined contract templates, and the interest rate was for centuries fixed at 15% by the sultans. It is unsurprising that wealthy subjects or institutions lent their funds to others. However, extensive Ottoman archival material has revealed that the majority of loans concerned smaller sums and moneylenders of an average wealth. Besides individuals, interest was used as a source of income by vakfs, monasteries, orphan assets, craft guilds, church communities, metropolitanates, patriarchates... – any institution that had ready cash money. Many subjects were familiar with the legal framework that determined the conditions for taking out and repaying debts at an interest. Therefore it is hardly surprising that many terms from contracts in the Ottoman Turkish language quickly made their way into local languages, although there were already adequate native expressions for most. Reasons for this certainly included the unambiguous meaning of these terms and fears of potential manipulations. Examples show that Ottoman Turkish terms with clearly defined meanings were ad litteram adopted from the legal and bureaucratic vocabulary of official Ottoman documents (primarily from fermans and hüccets), such as fajda, amanet, mumamele/mamele, vada, oni on bir bučuge etc. However, local terms were not forgotten and continued to be used alongside Ottoman ones, ultimately pushing out Turkish loanwords in the 19th century.

The Ottoman archival material kept in the practically inaccessible Archive of the Jerusalem Patriarchate includes a very important document which testifies to an act of banditry against the “Jašunja monastery” in 1782. The outcome was one lethally wounded monk. The most reasonable explanation for the document ending up in the Archive of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem is that it was found among the effects of monk Gavril who had obviously set out on a pilgrimage, but then died in Jerusalem. The analysis of the document is instructive of the legal procedure followed by the Ottoman authorities and their conduct towards the monasteries in the case of robberies. The document also substantiates the view that the Ottoman Empire‟s impoverished European provinces saw an increasing crime rate in the second half of the 18th century.
Key words: Monastery of Jašunja, banditry, 1782, Leskovac kadı court, Ottoman Empire.
Апстракт
На основу изузетно ретког османског документа из готово недоступног Aрхива Јерусалимске патријаршије, анализирани су подаци о разбојничком чину и смртном рањавању монаха у Јашуњском манастиру 1782. године. По свој прили-ци, документ се ту обрео као део заоставштине јашуњског монаха Гаврила, који је кренуо на хаџилук и преминуо у Јерусалиму. Указано је на правну процедуру и однос османских власти према манастирима у случајевима разбојничких провала. Потврђују се ставови о порасту криминала у осиромашеним османским европ-ским провинцијама током друге половине 18. века.

In the Ottoman Empire extortion on a local level was a frequent practice and it took diverse forms. The Ottoman documents preserved in the archive of the Monastery of Hilandar (Mount Athos) give us a picture of the ways in which its monks struggled to preserve their privileges and protect their large metochion at Zdravikion (about 700 dönüms). Their basic tax obligation to the "master of the land" (sahib-i arz) was paid annually in a lump sum (maktu') ever since 1481, when sultan Bayezid II exempted them from paying the tithe at the express request of the Wallachian voivode Basarab II Țepeluș. The annual lump sum of 600 akçes accounted for only a half of the total tax burden-they had been relieved of paying the other half by the sultan himself. This privilege was confirmed by all subsequent sultans, most likely until 1569. Local masters of the land (at first sipahis, then hass and finally vakıf authorities) persistently and in various ways sought to impose the payment of the tithe. This paper presents different arguments they used in the attempt to extort the payment of the tithe and the monks' firm attitude in defending their rights before the kadı' s court and the Imperial Divan. Monks were able to prove their rights because they conscientiously kept, sometimes for centuries, all the necessary documents relating to their land possessions, producing them as evidence in court proceedings.

It has been two centuries now since the importance of Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname, was recognized, but his monumental work is far from being fully explored and explained. Serbian and ex-Yugoslav historiography and Oriental studies became familiar with Evliya’s work at the very beginning of the 20th century and the data contained in his travel account has ever since been an unavoidable source. New examinations of the autograph have shown that Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname is for the most part a reliable and trustworthy source, revealing, on the other hand, major shortcomings resulting from the use of its 19th-century uncritical and faulty edition. The new Turkish edition brings very important, even quite surprising additions, but they have not yet been made available to the Serbian-speaking public. This paper points to the types of mistakes and oversights in the old Turkish edition and Hazim Šabanović’s Serbo-Croatian translation as well as to the possible amount of omitted text relating to the area of present-day Serbia, urging for a new, critical edition furnished with commentaries, facsimiles and accompanying studies.

The paper presents an edition of twenty two different 17th-century documents (tapunames, müraseles, mektups and a tezkire), relating to Mehmed Pasha Yahyapaşaoğlu’s vakıf villages in the vicinity of Belgrade (Mirijevo, Gornje Slance, Donje Slance and Višnjica). The documents are selected from the collection of Ottoman documents preserved in the Bologna University Library. They formed part of the personal archives of Kadı-zade Mustafa Çelebi, cabi (collector of the revenues) of the vakıf. The material is important for elucidating how the vakıf operated and, hence, for understanding the urban structure and economic life of Ottoman Belgrade, and the role of the vakıf’s suburban villages.
Keywords: Belgrade, Mirijevo, Višnjica, Gornje Slance, Donje Slance, Mehmed Pasha Yahyapaşaoğlu’s vakıf, 17th Century

Abstract: Apart from some transcripts in the kadı sicils, müraseles (the kadı’s orders)
are the type of documents originated by local authorities that have only exceptionally
been preserved as original archival material. They are of outstanding importance for
studying the kadı’s administrative role, an aspect of his office which has not received
much attention in historiography. By fortunate circumstance, Biblioteca Universitaria di
Bologna holds about a dozen müraseles issued by the kadı of Belgrade in 1683. All are
addressed to the mütevelli of Yahyapaşaoğlu Mehmed Paşa’s Belgrade vakıf and concern the duties of the inhabitants of his vakıf’s suburban villages: Mirijevo, Višnjica, Gornje Slance and Donje Slance. The villagers, being experienced as millers operating
characteristic floating mills on the Danube, are ordered to assist in building a pontoon
bridge, to tow boats to the city port, to transport timber, sand and the stone from the
nearby quarry at Kayaburunu for the construction of the Imperial Palace and the Palace of the Grand Vizier, to provide oxcarts and labourers... The müraseles testify to a lively building activity in preparation for the arrival of Ottoman armies and to the kadı’s role in making provisions for the construction.
Keywords: Belgrade, Mehmed Paşa Yahyapaşazade’s vakıf, 1683, kadı’s duties,
mürasele.

In the 16 th and 17 th centuries St Panteleimon (Rossikon) was a very poor monastery, frequently deep in debt. That is why its administration turned to Hilandar, a much wealthier and, moreover, Slavic monastery for help. Their motive were the long-standing friendly relations between the two communities. It has long been known that in the course of those two centuries Hilandar and St Panteleimon formed some kind of association, while remaining independent. The lack of sources makes it very difficult to pin down the nature of that relationship. In 1550 the hegumen of Hilandar, Prohor, defined it as " union " without any further clarification. This paper presents and examines the information that can be gleaned from Ottoman documents. Rossikon and its monks, or some toponyms associated with Russian presence on Mount Athos, are mentioned in no more than fifteen odd Ottoman documents.

Besides its usage with the primary meanings: 1) social status; 2) subjectship, the term re' āyā was used to denote, as many historians tend to claim, " only non-Muslim subjects " from " sometime " in the second half of the eighteenth and in the nineteenth century. The paper demonstrates that this meaning of the term re' āyā had already been in use since the first decades of the eighteenth century, and not to the exclusion of but along with other meanings. More frequent replacement of the neutral shari' a term zimmī(ler) and the usual official term kefere with the word re' āyā should be considered a consequence of structural social change taking place in the same century.

The millitary unit of the müstahafizes of Ilok in 1686 consisted of Muslims, mostly first-generation converts, and Christians with the patronym Abdullah. According to earlier research, Christians could not be recruited in the müstahafiz force. New data suggest a different conclusion. It is quite possible that the great need for soldiers led commanding officers not to insist on conversion as a prerequisite for recruitment. The most plausible explanation for the use of the patronym Abdullah by Christians may be the fact that men of unknown origin, vagrants and fugitives who did not even know the name of their father were accepted as volunteers on the border and in the time of war.

After submission to the Ottomans, the struggle of Hilandar monks for survival implied their joining forces with other monasteries in an effort to defend Athonite privileges, transformed according to the new circumstances. The monks seem to have adjusted very quickly to different social relations. They obviously made an effort to acquire good knowledge of new legal conditions and made use of their rights. Comparing with other monasteries, the history of Hilandar as a Serbian monastery had some peculiarities. With the fall of the Serbian Despotate in 1459 it was dispossessed of the metochia in its territory and the associated income, but it was not left without protectors and patrons. The forms of patronage and donations, however, changed completely. The institution of annual financial support was introduced, and other mighty Orthodox rulers and dignitaries were motivated (Wallachian, Moldavian, and, later on, Russian). The paper will examine how Hilandar succeeded to surpass all the temptations and even achieve some advantages in mentioned period.

The Mediterranean was always a meeting-place where knowledge was to be gained or exchanged. The story of the Holy Mount on the Ottoman portolan charts and isolarios books of islands served as a comparative survey of the development of Ottoman and Western European maritime cartography. Such an analysis confirmed that Ottoman society did not live an isolated existence and that scientific knowledge circulated in different ways. The survey of the development of Ottoman cartography encompasses the period from the appearance of a key figure, the most important Ottoman cartographer Piri Reis, at the beginning of the 16th century, right until the last important atlas by Bartinli Ibrahim Hamdi,
dating from the mid-18th century. Special attention is devoted to Piri Reis and the chapter about the Holy Mount in his famous Kitab-i Bahriye (Book of Navigation). The Kitab-i Bahriye, the second supplemented version of which was completed in 1525/26, is an original work combining the best traditions of cartography as a whole, up to that time. Moreover, on the basis of his vast experience, Piri Reis introduced greater precision in some maps, often correcting the accompanying texts and adding his observations. The description of the Holy Mount corresponds perfectly with the up-to-date approach of the then Mediterranean cartographers. The text provides the seafarer with additional information that can make navigation easier: about winds, the depth of harbours and moorings, safe passages, dangerous
reefs, and also about the sources of clean drinking water and the possibilities of obtaining food supplies. Besides that, the author mentioned several of the most important monasteries
and gave the basic information about the monks and their way of life. He enriched the interesting details from everyday life with a "moral characteristic" testifying to the effort by the monks of Athos to keep away from any games of espionage because they could only bring them trouble.

Çiçek Hatun, the mother of Prince Cem, by all accounts was a slave girl of noble origin who was captured by the Ottomans between 1454 and 1458 during their raids on the Serbian Despotate. She ended in the harem of Mehmed the Conqueror. She actively supported Cem's struggle for the throne and also helped him in his attempts to escape captivity. Analysed are the sources which offer evidence regarding her background, life and her influence on political events in the Mediterranean towards the end of the 15th century. She was greatly respected at the Court of the Mamluk Sultan Kait Bey, where she lived in exile. The Sultan even married his son to Cem's daughter. Çiçek Hatun was an unavoidable political factor in power battles fought amongst Sultan Bayezid II, knights of Rhodes, the Kings of France and Hungary, the Pope and the Mamluk Sultan for control over her son until his death in 1495.
Чичек-хатун (Çiçek Hatun), мајка принца Џема (Cem), по свему судећи била је робиња племенитог порекла коју су Османлије ухватиле између 1454. и 1458. године приликом похода на Српску деспотовину. Завршила је у харему Мехмеда Освајача. Активно је учествовала у Џемовој борби за престо, а потом у напорима да се он ослободи из заробљеништва. Анализирани су извори који сведоче о њеном пореклу, животу и утицају који је имала на политичке прилике на Медитерану с краја 15. века. Уживала је велики углед на двору мамелучког султана Кајит-беја (Kait Bey), где је живела у егзилу. Кајит-беј је чак свог сина оженио Џемовом кћерком. Чичек-хатун је била незаобилазан политички чинилац у борби између османског султана Бајазита II, витезова с Родоса, француског и угарског краља, папе и мамелучког султана за контролу над њеним сином све до његове смрти 1495. године.

Based on many sources, the paper makes an attempt to identify the social effects produced by the rising use of coffee and tobacco in the Balkans, and to mark out similarities and differences with respect to associated developments in other parts of the Ottoman state and in the European countries. The Balkans was a very interesting contact zone where influences of two civilizations intermingled and where all developments were largely dependent on the attitude of the majority population, the non-Muslim Ottoman subjects.

Group of Ottoman documents from Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna (MS 3574) confirm that grand vizier Rüstem Pasha (1544–1553, 1555–1561) endowed shops, lots assigned for shops and a hammam called Orta Hammam. The income was spent for the benefit of the vakıf of Enlightened Medine. Documents cover the period from 1603 to 1684. They also give us more light on the “double leasing” (icāreteyn) of shops and vakıf lots. Although it is not on the line with Sharia, this special way of leasing was aloud as its advantages for the city economy were obvious. It was crucial for recovering of town endowments especially in 17th century. This kind of long time (lifetime, even hereditary) lease on ninety years motivated leaseholder to repair and improve the shop on his own. For the first time we have the proof that “double lease” was accepted at the beginning of the 17th century in one Balkan town. The double lease for Rüstem Pasha’s vakıf lots on which private shops were built, consisted of 1000–5000 akçes paid at the moment when contract was concluded (icāre-i mu‘accele) and of one akçe a day periodical rent (icāre-i mü’eccele).

Either individually, or on behalf of the entire Athonite community, monasteries would muster smaller or larger groups of travelling monks and send them to various parts within and without the Ottoman Empire. Such a monk was usually referred to as taxidiotis in Greek, or as putnik in Serbian, meaning the same. The alms were monastery property. Travelling monks from among the priesthood were entitled to offer up prayers for the sick, to confess and grant absolution from sins, or even to display famed relics for public veneration. On receiving alms they would take up the obligation that the donor's name would be mentioned at monastic services. Contributors were registered in special monastic books, depending on the kind of mention they wanted and the amount they donated.
It was recorded by the contemporaries that after the mid-17th century some 2,000 monks, which would make between one third and one half of all the Athonite monks, were constantly on the road.
There is no doubt that the Ottoman authorities allowed alms collecting and even levied certain taxes on alms, gifts and bequests. The travelling monks requested certificates and fermans from the Ottoman authorities permitting an unimpeded collection of charity. The experience of the travellers coming from the Serbian monastery of Hilandar will be dealt with in this paper. The Ottoman state took good care that the influx of its revenues be kept steady at all times. A number of Ottoman documents referring to the problem of alms collecting show us terminology and the degree of privileges granted to “travellers”.

The rich archive of the Athonite Monastery of Hilandar contains a group of Ottoman documents relating to the promontory of Kassandra. Hilandar did not begin to acquire land in Kassandra until the very end of the sixteenth century. No link has been found between the newly-acquired landed property and the metochia Hilandar had held under Byzantine rule. Bits of information gleaned from the documentary material on Hilandar’s metochia within the village boundaries of Kalandra and Mavrokolo, of the now non-existent village of Plastara, and of Valta, modern Kassandria, have been used to look at the ways of land acquisition, the composition of estates, forms of tenure, relations with the “master of the land”, taxes, and disputes in the course of the two centuries.

Although the Ottomans held the Fortress of Belgrade for more then three centuries, few inscriptions and images carved on its walls have survived into our times, partly because of the tremendous destruction the Fortress sustained during Habsburg-Ottoman and later wars, and the resulting renovations, alterations and new construction. Some carvings were removed deliberately, to obliterate traces of former Ottoman presence, which goes especially for Ottoman state symbols at the time of Austrian rule (1717–1739). Those of a personal nature, ineptly and shallowly carved on stone, have for the most part succumbed to the passage of time. The few surviving inscriptions include those carved by prisoners confined in the Tower of the Fortress in the 16th and 17th centuries.
After years of extensive restoration works on the southwest front of the Fortress, in 2007 there came to light, on the walls of the Dark Gate (Mračna kapija), the inscriptions which have not hitherto attracted scholarly attention. Most had been engraved by Ottoman soldiers, but there also are a few Latin letters and a twentieth-century dates. Special interest is aroused by janissary emblems, which constitute the focus of this paper.
The Dark Gate is one of more recent gates of Belgrade Fortress. It was built after 1740, along with six other gates, as part of a new system of bastions and demi-bastions intended to strengthen the existing fortifications that defended the Lower and the Upper Town. The Ottomans, having regained control over the Fortress from the Austrians in 1740, had trouble securing money and manpower for its repair and further construction, and the works took more than twenty years. Even so, by 1754 most of the work had been completed. Like the other gates, the Dark Gate had at either side two rooms with fireplaces for the sentry unit, which, according to intelligence reports, numbered five to eight men.
Before the current name of the Dark Gate has become widely accepted in the 20th century, the gate had been known as Savska (Sava Kapusı), Šabačka (of Šabac), Bosanska (Bosnian), and Mračna (Dark) (Karanlık Kapusı).
Most Ottoman inscriptions are years carved in Arabic script. Many numbers are still visible, but not clearly enough for us to be able to know whether they stand for years, dates, numerical designations of bölüks or something else. There also seem to be purposely carved parallel lines, possibly suggesting the counting of days. The only surviving textual inscription is found below the year 1212/1797–98 (fig. 1, drawing 1).
By far the most interesting of the inscriptions on the Dark Gate are the emblems or nişāns of janissary bölüks. Janissary emblems in the Balkans have not been discussed or analyzed in scholarly publications. Historical sources offer scanty information about such emblems. Virtually all that is known is based on the drawings contained in a Count L. F. Marsigli’s Stato Militare dell’ Imperio Ottomano. Figures 2, 3 and 4, and the correspondingly numbered drawings show the images from the Dark Gate that may be identified as emblems of janissary bölüks. A few of the symbols found in Marsigli’s book appear to be comparable with those on the Dark Gate, namely the slightly differing drawings of the water gourd (kavak), the emblems of the 49th, 69th and 91st bölüks (bölük of the ocak of cema‘at). The carvings are rough and damaged and it is difficult to recognize which corresponds to which of Marsigli’s drawings. From Uzunçarşιlι’s manuscript we learn that the emblems also differed in colour: the nişān of the 69th bölük was a red gourd, and that of the 91st a black gourd (he did not specify the colour of the gourd for the 49th bölük).
The emblems of janissary bölüks on the Dark Gate of Belgrade Fortress are a valuable historical testimony. Whether such inscriptions have survived on the walls of other fortresses held by the Ottomans during their long presence in the Balkans is unknown. Had the Dark Gate not for so long been neglected and out of the public eye, it is questionable whether the inscriptions and images on it would have survived into the 21st century.

The Ottoman documents from the 18th and the 19th century preserved in Hilandar Monastery could provide answers to the following questions: was there continuity in the possession of certain estates, where were they situated and what was their connection to the Hilandar metochion and the little church dedicated to St Sava (Nemanjić) well known from the end of 19th century? The metochion and the little church still exist in 1, Kamvounion Street, but not in the same building. In earlier times the beginning of Yassı Yol or Wide Road was at this very spot. It is possible that the present metochion grew exactly in the area of the estate bought in 1622 or in its immediate vicinity. Although there is no mention of the church in the documents, it probably existed at least in a modest form. Bearing in mind that the Hilandar’s medieval metochion could have been in the immediate vicinity, it is very likely that monks, if they had lost the metochion at some stage (between mid 14th century and 1590/1622), kept the vivid memory of it and its location. So vivid that they bought an estate in the same location and finally, after perhaps more than two centuries, returned there. If this is so, it can truly be said, as had already been assumed before the discovery of Ottoman documents, that, even though with a long interruption, the core of the metochion has stayed in the same place from its foundation to the present day.

Amān (mercy) could be granted to individuals or groups in a variety of occasions and under different conditions. A distinct type of amānnāme guaranteed mercy and protection to the non-Muslim inhabitants of newly-conquered territories. During the War of the Holy League, between 1693 and 1696, a few monasteries in the region of Srem repeatedly pleaded with the Ottoman authorities for amān. Documents known as amānnāmes are central to understanding the legal status of non-Muslims in the Ottoman territory that had been temporarily held by the enemy during a war. In legal terms, there was no distinction between such territories, and their inhabitants, and those newly-conquered. Amān covered only those portions of the population who had accepted to “submit to Muslims” (ehl-i İslāma mütāba‘at), i.e. had accepted the status of zimmīs (zimmet kabul ėdüb) thereby officially becoming “subjects”, i.e. “re‘āyā” (ra‘iyyeti kabul ėdüb) of the Ottoman state. Therefore the meaning and use of all terms relevant to understanding the legal status of such populations has been analyzed in the context of the Shari’ah. In order to clarify the ways in which the term amān was used by the Ottomans and to remove some possible uncertainties, the text has pointed to a few of its specific meanings such as the “letter of protection” or a sense almost synonymous to that of a peace treaty. Attention has also been drawn to the little studied use of the term re‘āyā to denote a population’s citizenship or allegiance to a state.

There is no doubt that there was a cultural life in Belgrade in the first period of Ottoman rule (1521–1688), and that its course was set by the intellectual elites of each religious/ethnic community. The main characteristic of the cultural life in Belgrade is the lack of intellectual communication between different religious communities. The cultural life of members of a community was limited exclusively to that community. But divisions within a single religious community were not uncommon. In the Catholic one, for example, there was a harsh and unbridgeable divide between two groups based on their different territories of origin and their sympathies for different, and competing, religious orders. Except to some extent for the shared participation of all communities in a city’s general economic liveliness, nothing, not even such a civilization-shaping invention as the printing press effected a change towards their joint cultural advance. Their cultural lives followed their own separate courses.

Having adapted themselves to the new, Sharia, terms and Ottoman institutions, the Christians resumed the earlier tradition of making donations to monasteries. Although Christian bequests and donations were registered by the kadi, only few such documents have survived. That the practice was not that infrequent is indirectly evidenced by other documents. That fact raises the question of the possible concealment of donations under unmistakable sales contracts. It is obvious why the assets classified as the state-owned land were not donated – it was forbidden to turn the latter into a vakıf. Tapunāme had to be issued, but there is no answer to the question as to why the hüccet covered the sale of the entire mülk part of the property. The “purchase-and-sale” action seems to have been generally accepted as a form of expressing a donation. Such form was considered, with or without reason, as being legally safer, both from the authorities and from subsequent claims by the donor’s heirs. When studying monastic archives, we must always bear in mind that many Shariah contracts for realty transactions actually conceal donations.

Research paper with comments and bibliography has been published in somewhat shorter version under the title: А. Фотић, „Андре Жилијен и прве светске класификације српских вина 1816, 1822. и 1832. године“, Зборник Матице српске за друштвене науке 176/4 (2020) 519-541.