TRENDEFRAtlas of the Sultans · Glossary
Term · Provinces and land
Also known as: tax survey, tahrir register
A survey recording the taxable population and sources of revenue of a region.
The Ottomans usually carried out the first tahrir right after conquering a place, entering households, crops and taxes in the registers village by village. These registers were the basis for distributing timars. At the end of the 16th century Ferhad Pasha introduced the rule that a survey should be made once every thirty years. Today the tahrir registers are among the main sources for Ottoman population and urban history.
Source: TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, article “TAHRİR” (in Turkish); text condensed for the atlas.