Sanjak of Siroz
| Sanjak of Siroz Ottoman Turkish: Liva-i Siroz | |||||
| Sanjak of the Ottoman Empire | |||||
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| Capital | Serres (Siroz) | ||||
| History | |||||
| • | Established | ca. 1846 | |||
| • | First Balkan War | 1912 | |||
| Today part of |  Bulgaria Greece | ||||
The Sanjak of Siroz or Serres (Ottoman Turkish: Sancak-i/Liva-i Siroz; Greek: λιβάς/σαντζάκι Σερρών, Bulgarian: Серски Санджак) was a second-level Ottoman province (sanjak or liva) encompassing the region around the town of Serres (Turkish: Siroz, now in Greece) in central Macedonia.
Serres fell to the Ottoman Empire on 19 September 1383, and initially formed a fief of Evrenos Beg, who brought in Yörük settlers from Sarukhan. Althougn never rising to particular prominence within the Ottoman Empire, Serres became also the site of a mint from 1413/14 on.[1] In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Serres was an autonomous beylik under a succession of derebeys, within the Sanjak of Salonica.[1][2]
Siroz became a regular province by 1846, during the Tanzimat reforms, as a sanjak of the Salonica Eyalet (later Salonica Vilayet), encompassing the towns of Drama, Melnik, Timurhisar (Sidirokastro), Nevrekop (Gotse Delchev) and Lissa. Drama was created as a separate sanjak centre shortly after, and by 1912, the last year of its existence, the sanjak of Serres encompassed the kazas of Serres proper, Zihne (Nea Zichni), Melnik, Razlik (Razlog), Petrich, Timurhisar, Djuma-i Bala (Blagoevgrad) and Nevrekop.[2] The province was dissolved when occupied by Bulgarian troops in the First Balkan War, and in 1913, after the Second Balkan War, the town of Serres and the southern half of the sanjak became part of Greece.
References
- 1 2 Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor, ed. (1987). "Serres". E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, Volume VII: S–Ṭaiba. Leiden: BRILL. p. 234. ISBN 90-04-08265-4.
- 1 2 Birken, Andreas (1976). Die Provinzen des Osmanischen Reiches. Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients (in German). 13. Reichert. p. 77. ISBN 9783920153568.
