Abstract:

Our study has been presented so as to make a modest contribution to the studies that discuss the reflections of social life on Classical Turkish literature and it targets to establish which aspects of the concept of extortion are reflected in poetry within the Ottoman tax system through scanning the divans of poets of the centuries during which Classical Turkish poetry exists. Certain tax related words in divans, bâc, cizye, harâc, meks, ‘öşr were scanned and how these words reflect in detected verses was analyzed and classified. The study is composed of three main headings: Certain aspects of extortion, Goods mentioned regarding extortion and countries and cities mentioned regarding extortion. After all, a number of aspects of extortion appear in verses that it was extorted from non-muslims, that the emperor was entitled to collect it, that it was legal to extort in the Ottoman Empire, that the poor and the needy were not subjected to extortion. Kiss, spirit, grief, suffering, ruby stone, musk, amber, wine were goods of extortion. Certain cities and countries such as Iran, China, Hıta, Hoten, Maçin, Anatolia, Russia, Ethiopia, India, Hindû, Bengali, Firengistan, Cashmere, Kâbil, Zâbil, Egypt, Bagdad, and Bahrain are the cities where extortion was practised. We are of the opinion that in parallel with the increasing number of studies that dig into the elements of social life, the deep semantic world of the Classical Turkish literature can be brought to light in detail.

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