Çorum in the Ottoman Provincial Yearbooks (1869-1908)

This page draws on historian Mehmet Çanlı’s book Ankara, Kastamonu, Sivas Osmanlı Vilayet Salnamelerinde Çorum (1869-1908) [Çorum in the Ottoman Provincial Yearbooks of Ankara, Kastamonu and Sivas (1869-1908)] (referred to here in short as Salnamelerde Çorum), and summarizes what these official annual yearbooks (salname) recorded about present-day Çorum province in that period. For Çorum’s general history, see the History page; for each district’s own history, see the relevant district history articles. For district-by-district population, institution and production data, see Çorum’s Districts According to the Yearbooks.

What is a salname?

Salname is a term of Persian origin used for annual works that present a year’s events collectively and chronologically; it entered Turkish after the Tanzimat reforms. According to the definition given in the 1321 AH (1903) Sivas Provincial Yearbook, a salname is “a reliable guide kept to learn a place’s climate, transport, geography, soil, agriculture, trade and industry, customs, and the names, ranks and trades of officials” (Salnamelerde Çorum, p. 1). The first official Ottoman yearbook, encouraged by Grand Vizier Koca Reşit Pasha and compiled jointly by historian Hayrullah Efendi, Ahmet Vefik Efendi and Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, was published in 1847 as the “State Yearbook of the Ottoman Sublime State” (Salname-i Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye); state yearbooks appeared regularly until 1912, growing from under 100 pages at first to 700-800 pages in later editions (p. 2).

The first provincial (vilayet) yearbook was the 1283 AH (1866) Bosnia Provincial Yearbook; the last was the 1337-38 AH (1919-20) Bolu Sub-province Yearbook. Provincial yearbooks increased sharply after the 1867 Provincial Regulation (Vilayet Nizamnamesi) was issued (p. 2-3). Because the territory of present-day Çorum province was split among three different provinces at the time, the book surveys the yearbooks of Ankara, Kastamonu and Sivas provinces together: thirteen yearbooks from Ankara Province, nineteen from Kastamonu Province and fourteen from Sivas Province (p. 4-6).

Provincial and sub-province affiliations of Çorum and its districts

When the 1867 Provincial Regulation began to be applied, each of the districts that make up present-day Çorum province belonged to a different administrative unit: Çorum, Sungurlu and Alaca (then called Hüseyinabad) belonged to the Yozgat sub-province of Ankara Province; İskilip and Kargı belonged to the Kastamonu sub-province of Kastamonu Province; and Osmancık and Mecitözü belonged to the Amasya sub-province of Sivas Province (Foreword).

In 1894, Çorum district was made a sub-province (sancak/liva) again. With this change, the districts of İskilip, Osmancık and Sungurlu, together with the sub-district of Hüseyinabad (Alaca), were attached to Çorum sub-province because of their geographic position, but the new administrative structure was not set up at once. As a result, information on İskilip and Osmancık continued to appear in the Kastamonu and Sivas provincial yearbooks for some time after 1894 (p. 9); in the Kastamonu yearbooks specifically, information on İskilip district is still found in the 1893, 1894 and 1896 editions because of this transition (p. 5). Although Osmancık was attached to Çorum sub-province in 1894, Mecitözü district remained attached to Amasya until 1916 (this change is also described on the Mecitözü History page); the book notes that, for this reason, it continued to draw on the Sivas provincial yearbooks for information about Mecitözü after 1892 (p. 6).

Kargı sub-district, meanwhile, belonged to Tosya district of Kastamonu Province in 1869, and appears attached to Osmancık district by 1900. When Çorum became a sub-province, Kargı’s attachment to Tosya continued; it was only joined to Çorum in 1957 (p. 32).

Administrative institutions and urban structure

According to the yearbooks, Çorum district had a district administrative council, a court council, a Property Commission and a telegraph office by 1871; the center had a government house, a prison and a stable for twenty-five animals (p. 9). Institutions multiplied quickly afterward: a Public Benefit Fund (Menafi-i Umumiye Sandığı) in 1873; a Court of First Instance, a Tithe Office and an Agriculture Chamber in 1881; a Customs Administration in 1882; and a Population Office and a Public Debt Administration in 1889 (p. 9). When Çorum was made a sub-province in 1894, its center had 47 neighborhoods and 175 attached villages; as a sub-province, the number of neighborhoods in the center rose to 48 (p. 9-10). According to the book, the first person who can properly be called mayor — as distinct from earlier heads of the municipal council — was Halil Hilmi Efendi, from 1881; the municipality in central Çorum was probably established around 1880 (p. 11).

Population

According to the tables in the book, the population of Çorum district was 6,534 in the central town in 1878, 21,915 across the district in 1881 and 21,886 in 1882; the book notes that these figures reflect only the male population liable for military service and taxation, and that women were not included in the count until 1889 (p. 11-12). In 1893 the total population of central Çorum was 16,629, and 34,024 across the district. After Çorum became a sub-province, the population of the central district was recorded as 56,267 in 1900, 56,342 in 1902 and 59,609 in 1907 (p. 12); according to the book, by the early 20th century the central district and its villages had, on average, around 59,000 Muslim inhabitants against roughly 850 non-Muslims (mostly Armenians, with a small number of Greeks; the Protestant and Catholic population consisted mostly of foreigners who had settled in the center for trade) (p. 13).

According to the book’s conclusion, the wider region had an average population of around 160,000 in the mid-1870s, rising to around 200,000 by the early 20th century; this growth owed much to migrant movement into the districts of central Çorum, Sungurlu, Osmancık, İskilip and Mecitözü in particular. The yearbooks do not state where these migrants came from or their ethnic background, but note that immigration commissions were set up in these districts and that marshland was drained to provide land for the newcomers (p. 42).

Education, religion and cultural life

According to the book, Çorum district’s Rüşdiye school had four grades and 81 students in 1872; the district’s village Qur’an schools (sıbyan mektebi) and madrasas together had 2,165 students, and the center had two libraries (p. 13). After Çorum became a sub-province, schooling expanded markedly: the center alone had ten madrasas out of eleven in the district, plus various primary, preparatory, Qur’an and Rüşdiye schools, and one more school for the Greek community (p. 13-14).

According to the 1895 Ankara Provincial Yearbook, Çorum and its surroundings had 165 mosques and small mosques (mescit); of these, 26 were mosques in the center (23 with minarets, 3 without) and 21 were small mosques; there was also one Armenian church, 11 madrasas, two libraries, four bathhouses, twenty coffeehouses, fifty fountains and ten wooden bridges. According to the book, the most important mosque in the center is the one known today as the Ulu Mosque (Great Mosque), built in the Seljuk period and rebuilt under Sultan Murad IV (p. 15). In the 1890s, central Çorum had lodges (tekke) belonging to the Mevlevi, Khalidi, Rifa’i and Qadiri Sufi orders (p. 16).

A similar richness is seen in the other districts: according to the book, İskilip stood out for its religious and scholarly life in particular because Şeyhülislam Ebussuud Efendi and his family had lived in the area (p. 30-31); in Sungurlu, the yearbooks also mention Hittite-era ruins found within the district (Tavium, Pterium/Yazılıkaya and the Höyük site) (p. 22-23). For detailed district-by-district population and institutional data, see Çorum’s Districts According to the Yearbooks.

Economy and production

According to the book, Çorum district’s economy rested on agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry; in 1872 the cultivated land totaled 152,490 dönüm, and crops included wheat, barley, vetch, millet, chickpeas, lentils, broad beans, hemp, buckthorn (cehri), grapes, apples, pears, plums, cherries, walnuts and mulberries. Pastureland covered 47,500 dönüm and supported around three hundred sheepfolds; in 1872 the district had 99,703 sheep and 7,025 goats, while by 1893 the sheep count had fallen to 28,186 but goats had risen to 39,469 and Angora (mohair) goats to 12,098; there were also 6,850 cattle and 800 water buffalo (p. 16-17). The district had five large forests, from which an average of 34,000-35,000 trees were felled each year; local industry produced shawls from wool, cloth from cotton thread, felted wool coats (aba) and iron farm tools; a market was held twice a week, on Sundays and Mondays (p. 17).

According to the book’s assessment, the wider region’s economy rested mainly on agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and mining, with limited crop diversity. The shift after the 1890s from traditional sheep and hair-goat herding to Angora (mohair) goat herding was not, in the author’s view, unique to Çorum but part of a broader trend driven by European industry’s demand for raw materials; alongside this shift, the leather industry (tanneries) developed especially in central Çorum and İskilip (p. 43).

The book’s assessment of the yearbooks

Author Mehmet Çanlı questions how soundly the Ankara, Kastamonu and Sivas provincial yearbooks he examined were actually prepared by local administrators, noting that all three provinces’ yearbooks were initially quite superficial and narrow in scope, with information only becoming more detailed in later editions. According to the author, a common feature of the yearbooks is excessive praise of the central government and local administrators; in describing their regions, this praise was sometimes accompanied by inaccurate information. He also notes that information was generally gathered using oral-history methods (p. 3).

According to the book’s conclusion, because the region consisted of districts attached to different provinces, and because a proper road connection between the districts was not established until relatively recently, the formation of a shared regional culture was delayed: İskilip and Kargı, once attached to Kastamonu, drew on Kastamonu’s culture, while Osmancık and Mecitözü, attached to Amasya, drew on Amasya’s culture; according to the author, this differentiation persisted to some extent even at the time the book was written (p. 43).

Sources

• Mehmet Çanlı, Ankara, Kastamonu, Sivas Osmanlı Vilayet Salnamelerinde Çorum (1869-1908) [Çorum in the Ottoman Provincial Yearbooks of Ankara, Kastamonu and Sivas (1869-1908)], Çorum Belediyesi Kültür Yayını, Çorum 2013, Foreword and Introduction, p. 1-3; Part I “Osmanlı Vilayet Salnamelerinde Çorum ve Bağlı Kazalarının Değerlendirilmesi” [An Assessment of Çorum and Its Districts in the Ottoman Provincial Yearbooks] and Conclusion, p. 8-43. https://www.corum.bel.tr/public/uploads/2023/05/osmanli-vilayet-salnamelerinde-corum.pdf

Frequently asked questions

What is a salname (Ottoman provincial yearbook)?

A salname was an official annual publication of the Ottoman period that recorded a year's events, administrative structure, institutions and statistics. The word entered Turkish after the Tanzimat reforms; the first one, the State Yearbook (Salname-i Devlet-i Aliye-i Osmaniye), was printed in 1847 (Salnamelerde Çorum, p. 1-2).

Which provinces was Çorum and its districts attached to between 1869 and 1908?

According to Mehmet Çanlı's book, Çorum, Sungurlu and Alaca (then Hüseyinabad) belonged to the Yozgat sub-province of Ankara Province; İskilip and Kargı belonged to the Kastamonu sub-province of Kastamonu Province; and Osmancık and Mecitözü belonged to the Amasya sub-province of Sivas Province (Salnamelerde Çorum, Foreword).

When did Çorum become an independent sub-province (sancak)?

According to the book, Çorum district was made a sub-province (liva) again in 1894; İskilip, Osmancık and Sungurlu districts and the sub-district of Hüseyinabad (Alaca) were attached to it, though the new administrative structure was not set up immediately (Salnamelerde Çorum, p. 9).