Muqata'ah

Under the Ottoman Empire, Muqata'ah or Mukata'a were hass-ı hümayun, parcels of land owned by the Ottoman crown. These were distributed through the iltizam auction system; rights to collect revenue from the land were sold to the highest bidder, eventually for the life of the buyer. As the Ottoman Empire began to move into the early modern period, vacant timars, instead of being reassigned, were often added to the iltizam system, paving the way for a fundamental change in the Ottoman fiscal system into a monetized system, and allowing various power-brokers to involve themselves in the Ottoman bureaucracy, which had previously been limited to the kul.[1]

This both opened up the echelons of power to those previously excluded, and also served to move power away from the sultan and to a larger group of nobles who now had a more permanent grasp on power, and the ability to perpetuate their wealth.

  1. ^ Darling, Linda T. "Public finances: the role of the Ottoman centre." The Cambridge History of Turkey: 118-32.