TEKIRDA？ DISTRICT IN THE MüSELLEM DOCUMENT OF 1532 – PART I

During the foundation of the Ottoman state at the time of Orhan Gazi, the first infantry organization yaya and müsellem was established in order to participate in war time expeditions, to deal with agriculture in peace period. Yaya consisting of Muslim Turks were exempted from extraordinary taxes in exchange for their duties. In order to express these exemptions of yaya, the word müsellem was used. After the interregnum/fetret period the word müsellem has been used for horsmen than the pedestrians in this organization. The role of müsellem in the early conqest regions by Ottomans was quite important. The müsellem register of Tekirda？ District, which is the subject of the present study, were obtained from the müsellem records of ？irmen liva from 1532. The pages between 224-364 of the register were divided into Tekirda？ district, named Tekfurda？？, which was the biggest district of ？irmen müsellem province. Because of the relevant part of register is sizable, in this study we prefer to transcript into only the pages between from 224 to 299. The aim of this study to enlighten the history of the Tekirda？ city and to reveal the organization of müsellem troops in Tekirda？ thanks to the müsellem registers, one the most important sources of the period