The importance of property ownership and management system in the Ottoman Empire in point of today

Abstract

The properties in point of ownership in the Ottoman Empire, the only country dominating over three continents such as Europe, Asia and Africa after The Roman Empire, were evaluated in five groups. Forests and agricultural areas characterized as land together with areas such as pasture, summer pasture and winter quarters required for stockbreeding were determined as state property (“Miri Arazi” in Turkish). The use of state property was given to farmers and peasants in certain rules providing that ownership unaccompanied by usufructuary right of these lands was given to the State. It is seen that the Ottoman land management based on land processing in productive way when cadastral documents and records related to properties are investigated. The world population has risen rapidly recently, so the use of all earth resources particularly land and water in planned and efficient way without wasting is inevitable. For this reason, firstly land ownership and management system should be reviewed appropriate to scientific researches to meet requirements in future. During this review process, the investigating of successful systems in the past will be useful. The Ottoman land management system is also one of these successful systems. Indeed, some foreign researchers from countries directed by means of state system have continued their investigations on the Ottoman land management. Investigating of features and cadastral contents of this system in detail and evaluating of applications guiding today are important. In this paper, it is investigated how title records and cadastral applications in the Ottoman Period can be beneficial in today.