The Cerehors Around Ruse and Its Vicinity

Cerehor is the name given to the soldiers who were used by the Ottoman State for military services at the backside of the army in return for a price temporarily. The cerehors were usually laboured in some works like restoration of fortresses, construction of road, bridge, ship, bastion and stockade, mining, cleaning of swamps, trench diging and rowing on the ships. If the people carried out some state works they could be exempted from being cerehor. As the city of Ruse was located by the River Danube, the cerehors assured from here were usually used for rowing on the ships. During the period studied there were wars with Austria so the cerehors were employed in the ships carrying grain, cannons, soldiers, wounded soldiers, patients, various foods, important materials of mehterhane and the tent of the Ottoman Sultan. These cerehors were paid on an average two esedi kuru？ by the state and sometimes by the statesmen. The cerehors in Ruse seem to be a group choosed from among the muslims and non-muslims and laboured in the status of worker with a price of daily wage. These groups which were temporarily used at the backside of the army in return for a price almost ceased to appear in the registers after XVIIIth century