An Evaluation of the Abrogated Foundations and Their Real Estates in the Bolu Sanjak during the reign of Mehmed II

Abstract

This article deals with the state intervention throughout the empire to some foundation lands at the end of the reign of Sultan Mehmed II. The main purpose of the article is to determine the situation in the Bolu Sanjak of this kind of intervention, which was carried out by the "abrogation" (annulment) of the aforesaid foundations and the nationalization of the lands they saved in various ways. In addition, evaluations will be made about the establishment periods of these foundations, the origins of ownership of their real estates, the reasons for abrogation and their relations with the timar system. In this way, a summary answer will be sought on whether the changes in the origin, function and disposition of the abrogated foundations have a common ground that may cause state intervention. The main source of this article is the Bolu Evkaf Book dated 1519, registered with the number B/15 of Muallim Cevdet Manuscripts in the Istanbul Atatürk Library.