Rumelia Eyalet

Eyalet-i Rumeli
Eyalet of the Ottoman Empire
← c. 1365–1867 →
Rumelia Eyalet in 1609
Capital		Edirne, Sofia, Monastir 41°1′N 21°20′E / 41.017°N 21.333°ECoordinates: 41°1′N 21°20′E / 41.017°N 21.333°E
History
•	Established	c. 1365
•	Disestablished	1867
Area
•	1844[1]	124,630 km^2 (48,120 sq mi)
Population
•	1844[1]	2,700,000
	Density	21.7 /km^2  (56.1 /sq mi)
Today part of		Albania  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Greece  Macedonia  Serbia  Kosovo  Turkey

The Eyalet of Rumeli or Rumelia (Ottoman Turkish: ایالت روم ایلی; Eyālet-i Rūm-ėli‎),^[2] also known as the Beylerbeylik of Rumeli, was a first-level province (beylerbeylik or eyalet) of the Ottoman Empire encompassing most of the Balkans ("Rumelia"). For most of its history it was also the largest and most important province of the Empire.

The capital was in Adrianople (Edirne), Sofia, and finally Monastir (Bitola). Its reported area in the 19th century was 48,119 square miles (124,630 km²).^[3]

History

The first beylerbey of Rumelia was Lala Shahin Pasha, who was awarded the title by Sultan Murad I as a reward for his capture of Adrianople (modern Edirne) in the 1360s, and given military authority over the Ottoman territories in Europe, which he governed effectively as the Sultan's deputy while the Sultan returned to Anatolia.^[4][5][6]

From its foundation, the province of Rumelia—initially termed beylerbeylik or generically vilayet ("province"), only after 1591 was the term eyalet used^[4]—encompassed the entirety of the Ottoman Empire's European possessions, including the trans-Danubian conquests like Akkerman, until the creation of further eyalets in the 16th century, beginning with the Archipelago (1533), Budin (1541) and Bosnia (1580).^[5][6]

The first capital of Rumelia was probably Edirne (Adrianople), which was also, until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottomans' capital city. It was followed by Sofia for a while and again by Edirne until 1520, when Sofia became the definite seat of the beylerbey.^[6] At the time, the beylerbey of Rumelia was the commander of the most important military force in the state in the form of the timariot sipahi cavalry, and his presence in the capital during this period made him a regular member of the Imperial Council (divan). For the same reason, powerful Grand Viziers like Mahmud Pasha Angelovic or Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha held the beylerbeylik in tandem with the grand vizierate.^[5]

In the 18th century, Monastir emerged as an alternate residence of the governor, and in 1836, it officially became the capital of the eyalet. At about the same time, the Tanzimat reforms, aimed at modernizing the Empire, split off the new eyalets of Üsküb, Yanya and Selanik and reduced the Rumelia Eyalet to a few provinces around Monastir. The rump eyalet survived until 1867, when, as part of the transition to the more uniform vilayet system, it became part of the Salonica Vilayet.^[5][7][8]

Governors

• Lala Shahin Pasha, the first beylerbey of Rumelia, the lala (tutor) of Murad I.^[9]
• Timurtaş Bey (1385–?)
• Süleyman Çelebi, son of Bayezid I^[10] (before 1411)
• Musa Çelebi, son of Bayezid I (after 1411)
• Mustafa Bey (1421)^[11]
• Hadım Şehabeddin (1439–42)^[12]
• Kasım Pasha (1443)^[13]
• Ömer Bey (fl. 1453)^[14]
• Turahan Bey (before 1456)
• Mahmud Pasha (before 1456)
• Ahmed (after 1456)
• Hadım Süleyman Pasha (c. 1475)^[15]
• Davud Pasha (c. 1478)^[16]
• Sinan Pasha (c. 1481)^[17]
• Mesih Pasha (after 1481)^[18]
• Hasan Pasha (fl. 1514)^[19]
• Ahmed Pasha (fl. 1521)^[20]
• Güzelce Kasım Pasha (c. 1527)^[21]
• Ibrahim (fl. 1537)^[22]
• Khusrow Pasha (June 1538–?)^[23]
• Ali Pasha (fl. 1546)^[24]
• Sokollu Mehmed Pasha (fl. 1551^[25])
• Doğancı Mehmed Pasha^[26]
• Osman Yeğen Pasha (1687)^[27]
• Sari Ahmed Pasha (1714^[28]–1715)^[29]
• Topal Osman Pasha (1721–27, 1729–30, 1731)^[30]
• Hadži Mustafa Pasha (summer of 1797^[31]–)
• Ali Pasha (1799^[32] and again in 1802^[33])
• Veli Pasha (1804)^[34]
• Hurshid Pasha (fl. 1808)^[35]

Administrative divisions

1475

A list dated to 1475 lists seventeen subordinate sanjakbeys, who controlled sub-provinces or sanjaks, which also functioned as military commands:^[5]

1. Constantinople
2. Gallipoli
3. Edirne
4. Nikebolu/Nigbolu
5. Vidin
6. Sofia
7. Serbia (Laz-ili)
8. Serbia (Despot-ili)
9. Vardar (under the Evrenosoğullari)
10. Üsküb
11. Arnawut-ili (under Iskender Bey, i.e. Skanderbeg)
12. Arnawut-ili (under the Arianiti family)
13. Bosnia
14. Bosnia (under Stephen)
15. Arta, Zituni and Athens
16. Morea
17. Monastir

1520s

Another list, dating to the early reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566), lists the sanjakbeys of that period, in approximate order of importance.:^[5]

1. Bey of the Pasha-sanjak
2. Bosnia
3. Morea
4. Semendire
5. Vidin
6. Hersek
7. Silistre
8. Ohri
9. Avlonya
10. Iskenderiyye
11. Yanya
12. Gelibolu
13. Köstendil
14. Nikebolu
15. Sofia
16. Inebahti
17. Tirhala
18. Alaca Hișar
19. Vulcetrin
20. Kefe
21. Prizren
22. Karli-eli
23. Ağriboz
24. Çirmen
25. Vize
26. Izvornik
27. Florina
28. Elbasan
29. Sanjakbey of the Çingene ("Gypsies")
30. Midilli
31. Karadağ (Montenegro)
32. Sanjakbey of the Müselleman-i Kirk Kilise ("Muslims of Kirk Kilise")
33. Sanjakbey of the Voynuks

The Çingene, Müselleman-i Kirk Kilise and Voynuks were not territorial circumscriptions, but rather represented merely a sanjakbey appointed to control these scattered and often nomadic groups, and who acted as the commander of the military forces recruited among them.^[5] The Pasha-sanjak in this period comprised a wide area in western Macedonia, including the towns of Üskub (Skopje), Pirlipe (Prilep), Manastir (Bitola) and Kesriye (Kastoria).^[5]

A similar list compiled c. 1534 gives the same sanjaks, except for the absence of Sofia, Florina and Inebahti (among the provinces transferred to the new Archipelago Eyalet in 1533), and the addition of Selanik (Salonica).^[5]

1644

Further sanjaks were removed with the progressive creation of new eyalets, and an official register c. 1644 records only fifteen sanjaks for the Rumelia Eyalet:^[5]

1. Köstendil
2. Tirhala
3. Prizren
4. Yanya
5. Delvine
6. Vulcetrin
7. Üskub
8. Elbasan
9. Avlonya
10. Dukagin
11. Iskenderiyye
12. Ohri
13. Alaca Hișar
14. Selanik
15. Voynuks

1700/1730

The administrative division of the beylerbeylik of Rumelia between 1700-1730 was as follows:^[36]

1. Pasha-sanjak, around Manastir
2. Köstendil
3. Tirhala
4. Yanya
5. Delvina
6. Elbasan
7. Iskenderiyye
8. Avlonya
9. Ohri
10. Alaca Hisar
11. Selanik
12. Dukagin
13. Prizren
14. Üsküb
15. Vulçıtrin
16. Voynuks
17. Çingene
18. Yoruks

Early 19th century

Sanjaks in the early 19th century:^[37]

1. Manastir
2. Selanik
3. Tirhala
4. Iskenderiyye
5. Ohri
6. Avlonya
7. Köstendil
8. Elbasan
9. Prizren
10. Dukagin
11. Üsküb
12. Delvina
13. Vulcetrin
14. Kavala
15. Alaca Hișar
16. Yanya

Mid-19th century

The reduced eyalet in the 1850s

According to the state yearbook (salname) of the year 1847, the reduced Rumelia Eyalet, centred at Manastir, encompassed also the sanjaks of Iskenderiyye (Scutari), Ohri (Ohrid) and Kesrye (Kastoria).^[5] In 1855, according to the French traveller A. Viquesnel, it comprised the sanjaks of Iskenderiyye, with 7 kazas or sub-provinces, Ohri with 8 kazas, Kesrye with 8 kazas and the pasha-sanjak of Manastir with 11 kazas.^[38]

Territorial evolution

Wholly or partly annexed to the Eyalet

• Byzantine Empire
• Second Bulgarian Empire, gradually conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century.
• Lordship of Prilep, annexed in 1395
• Serbian Despotate, conquered by the Ottomans in 1459
• Kingdom of Bosnia, annexed in 1463
• Despotate of Dobruja
• Gazaria (Genoese colonies), annexed in 1475
• Principality of Theodoro, annexed in 1475

Created from the Eyalet

• Eyalet of the Archipelago (in 1533)
• Kefe Eyalet (in 1568)
• Bosnia Eyalet (in 1580)
• Silistra Eyalet (in 1593)
• Ioannina Eyalet (in 1670)
• Principality of Serbia (in 1815)
• In 1836, Rumelia was partitioned between three new eyalets: Salonica, Edirne and the rump Rumelia Eyalet around Monastir.

References

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