Peasants Providing Butter to the Pious Foundation of Sultan Murad II in Rumelia at the end of the XVIth Century

Approximately two thousand peasants living in twenty-two locations in the Balkans and bound to the pious foundation of Murat II’s imaret in Edirne were obliged to provide butter to the foundation. In the two account books of the foundation, the number of the peasants under this obligation; their habitation and the quantity of butter they had to produce are recorded separately. The account book numbered TT. d. 597 (H.989/1581-2) and the second one numbered 7108 (H.1002/1593-4) provide detailed information about these peasants. Both account books have not been examined previously and exhibit substantial differences essential to understand the transition of the said obligation upon the peasants. While in the first account book, peasants obliged to provide butter to the foundation, live mostly in rural areas, within ten or so years, in the second account book, some of the peasants have adopted a sedentary life, some have moved to areas in Eastern Rumelia, whereas others have traded their obligation to provide butter to the foundation to other duties. Therefore, based on these observations, this study will seek answers to the reasons behind the migration of peasants and their opting to other obligations, in an effort to discuss the functioning of pious foundations in the last part of the XVIth century