Özet:

According to Ottoman law, non-Muslim people living within the borders of the country were identified as zimmî and a tax called jizyah was taken from them in exchange for the security and protection provided to them. The group of registries, where the Jizyah taxpayers are registered according to the neighborhood, village, juridical district and province in which they live, was called jizyah registries. Thanks to the data obtained from these registries, it is possible to be informed about the population and economic status of non-Muslims in the settlements. The present research is based on the data obtained from the 3 jizyah registries belonging to the Province of Diyarbekir, which are preserved in the Ottoman Archive reserve of Registers of Circulars from the Finance Office (MAD.d). These registries belonging to the end of the 17th century contain data on the city center of Diyarbekir and juridical districts within the province however this research focuses only on the data of the city center. As a matter of fact, the Amid juridical district, which is the center of the Diyarbekir Province, was also the province's largest city and qualified also as the sanjak of pasha in the mentioned period. The information regarding how much non-Muslim population existed in the Diyarbekir city center, where the non-Muslim population was known to live commonly until the late 19th century, the impact of political, administrative and economic changes on the demographic structure, and in which neighborhoods the non-Muslims resided can be reached from the data obtained from these registries. With the present study, the class statuses of the non-Muslims were aimed to be determined based on their demographic structure and spatial positioning in Diyarbekir at the end of the 17th century and the categories of the taxes they paid.