239

THE TAESCHNER COLLECTION (Or. 12.412, cont.)

A considerable number of letters discuss money and the financial administration of the Ottoman Empire (which makes it likely that the owner/compiler of the manuscript was an official at a financial department of the Porte): lb (a sender mentions that he had been busy sorting out his paperwork at his office in Istanbul, but had left and still needed 5000 kurus; it is followed by a rhymed beyt; the legend ‘plinuy’ or ‘plivuy', also found in Cod.Or. 12.410, above, occurs twice here, see plate); 6b (a letter expressing relief by the sender at having been freed from the clutches of accountancy, dated 15 Muharrem [1]244, 18 July 1828); 7a (a letter urging the addressee to send him the required monthly tribute of 500 kurus destined for the Imperial Harem, in dire straits, from Erzurum, dated [1)244/1828-9); 7b (another urgent request to have a debt of 500 kurus paid from the estate of Bekir Aga, 15 Muharrem [12]44, 18 July 1828); 14a (a letter confirming the reception of six orders (emr-i serif) regarding the levying of various taxes from Hiiseyn Aga; the sender informs the addressee that he had conveyed the temessiik in question to the treasury (hazine-i ‘amire) and would register the sums in his defter-i mas&nfat, dated 1244/1828-9); 15a (a letter stating that the gokadar of ‘our department’ (sikkamiz), Mustafa Aga, had brought only 1000 kurus); 19a (a temessiik, headed by an account plus signature stating that the sarrüf Ohanes of the Kamen Han has paid the treasury 117,742 kurus in all, levied from his mukata 'a, through the kethiida el-Hacc fjayrullah Efendi and to be transferred to six departments (the hazine-i kadim, tersane-i ‘amire, darbhüne, etc.), dated 25 §a‘ban [1)242/23 March 1827; a similar temessiik stating that Hoca Kirkur and Hoca Aghob, merchants of the Yefii (Jan, have paid their due to the mukata'a of Bolayir; the sums are registred in our defter dated [1)242/1826, signed Seyyid Hiiseyn, ser-bevvab of the Porte, see plate); 19b (a temessiik regarding the reception of bedel-i zecriye (excise duty) of the kdza of Varna, in all 22,500 kurus, from the sarrüf Hoca Ohan, merchant of the Kamen Han at Istanbul, dated 15 §a‘ban [1)242/13 March 1827; a similar receipt for excise tax, 32,000 kurus, levied in the kazü of Mihalic (modem Karacabey) and received from the deputee, kefil, of the miiltezim Hiiseyn Pa§a, mutasamf of Hudavendigar and Kocaeli, dated 15 Safer [1)242/18 September 1826 and signed by the sarraf Ohannes at the Han-i Cedfd [Yeni Han]); 24a (a reminder that over the period 1 Cemaii l-ewel - 1 Cem&ii l-aiftr ’42/ December 1826 39,584 kurus should have been received and registred in the defter-i miifredat, whereas only 15,684 kurus had been received); and 26a (a temessiik concerning a debt of 3000 kurus owed by a murdered Haccf ibrahim Agazade Mehmed Emin Aga to the sarraf Hoca dated 19 Receb [1)243/5 February 1828). More fragmentary texts are found on ff. 11a (preambles to, among other