Çorum's Districts in the Late 19th Century According to the Yearbooks: İskilip, Osmancık, Sungurlu, Mecitözü

This page draws on Part I of 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 covers four of present-day Çorum’s largest districts — İskilip, Osmancık, Sungurlu and Mecitözü — using the population, administrative structure, institutional and production data given in the yearbooks. For the broader picture of provincial and sub-province affiliations in the period, see Çorum in the Ottoman Provincial Yearbooks. For each district’s own general history, see History of İskilip, History of Osmancık, History of Sungurlu and History of Mecitözü.

İskilip district

İskilip was first reduced, under the 1867 Provincial Regulation, to a sub-district attached to Tosya district of Kastamonu Province; yet according to the 1869 Kastamonu Provincial Yearbook, even as a sub-district it retained all the institutions typical of a full district at the time (a district administrative council, a court council, a municipal council and a Property Commission), and by 1870 it had been restored to a third-class district (p. 27). In 1869 the district had a government house, a municipal building, 38 mosques, 44 schools, one madrasa, three bathhouses, four caravanserais and 300 shops; by 1874, with the number of mosques unchanged, it had reached three libraries, eight madrasas, 50 schools, six caravanserais and 500 shops (p. 27).

Population figures held steady at 11,921 males across the district from 1869-1873, then rose to 37,819 in 1888, 43,511 in 1893, and to 48,788 district-wide by 1907 (12,914 in the center) (p. 28-29). According to the book, a non-Muslim population first appears in the early 1880s, initially Armenian, with a small Greek population appearing in the early 1890s (p. 29).

In education, İskilip had seven madrasas and 44 Qur’an schools in 1869; after being attached to Çorum sub-province in 1894, it reached five libraries, 14 madrasas, one Rüşdiye school, two preparatory schools and 97 Qur’an schools (p. 30). According to the book, İskilip’s religious and cultural life was especially marked by the fact that Şeyhülislam Ebussuud Efendi and his father, Şeyh Muhyiddin-i Yavsi Efendi, had lived in the region; the district recorded 38 mosques and small mosques and six dervish lodges (p. 30-31).

Its economy rested on agriculture, animal husbandry, salt and forestry; by the early 1900s cultivable land amounted to roughly 320,000 dönüm, with crops including wheat, barley, maize, cotton, rice, hemp and tobacco. The district had eighteen tanneries and five salt-pan sites; the high-quality salt produced there was used especially in the leather industry. An eight-day fair was held every year starting on 12 September, and exports went out through the ports of Sinop and İnebolu (p. 31-32).

Sungurlu (Budaközü) district

Sungurlu was a third-class district of the Yozgat sub-province of Ankara Province under the 1867 Provincial Regulation, then still known by its old name, Budaközü; it took the name Sungurlu around 1873 (p. 17). By the early 1890s the district had a government house, a municipal building, 156 mosques, 171 schools, three libraries, one madrasa, three schools for non-Muslim communities, 310 fountains, fourteen bridges, one prison, one bathhouse, three caravanserais, eight bakeries, 294 shops, a munitions store and a police post; before being attached to Çorum, the district had 160 villages (p. 18).

Population was 14,445 district-wide in 1881, 13,454 in 1882, and 38,388 in 1889; in 1893 the central town had 4,707 people and the district as a whole 29,670; by 1907 the center had 7,692 and the villages 29,392 (p. 19-20). According to the book, the district’s population averaged around thirty thousand in the early 1880s; its non-Muslim population was mostly Armenian, with some Greeks. The book links this growth to the intensifying exploitation of local mineral resources, salt works and forestry (p. 20-21). In education, the district began with three madrasas and three libraries; after being attached to Çorum in 1894 it reached 54 schools, six madrasas, one Rüşdiye school and three schools for non-Muslim communities (p. 21).

According to the book, the district had 156 mosques by the 1890s, five of them in the center; the most important was the Sunguroğlu Mosque, built in 1170 AH and given three domes in 1194 AH. The yearbooks also mention Hittite-era ruins within district boundaries: Tavium near Nefes village, Pterium (Yazılıkaya) east of Boğazköy, and the Höyük site between Çorum and Alaca (p. 22-23).

Its economy rested on agriculture, animal husbandry, salt mining and forestry; by the early 1900s cultivable land had reached 700,000 dönüm and pastureland 200,000 dönüm. In 1893 the district recorded 64,902 sheep, 29,133 hair goats, 5,831 Angora (mohair) goats, 18,244 cattle and 1,823 water buffalo. Salt produced at the Sekilü, Çoğul, Akçakoyunlu, Sarıkaya, Çayan, Alibaba and Boncuk salt pans was valued for its quality, especially in leather-making, and was shipped to Amasya, Çorum, Sivas and Merzifon (p. 23-24).

Osmancık district

According to the book, Osmancık — whose earlier name was Eflanos — came under Turkic rule from 1075 onward, and the Sorgun clan of the Oghuz Alayuntlu tribe gave the settlement its name; for a time, İskilip, Hacıhamza and the wider Çorum area were governed from here (p. 34-35). Its administrative affiliation changed repeatedly: attached to Amasya in 1423, to Çorum sub-province in 1596, back to Amasya in 1867, and again to Çorum in 1894 (p. 35). In the 1870s, when attached to the Amasya sub-province, the district had fourteen neighborhoods, two sub-districts (Zeytün and Hacıhamza) and 119 villages; from 1880 the number of sub-districts rose to five (Hacıhamza, Kızıltepe, Dodurga, Akviran and Karaviran) (p. 35).

Population rose from an average of around 11,500 males district-wide in the early 1870s to 14,575 in 1876, 32,021 in 1902, and 29,473 by 1907 (4,753 in the center) (p. 36). According to the book, there was no non-Muslim population at first; migrants arrived in 1876, most of whom later left the district; a small Armenian and Greek population appears by the early 1900s (p. 36). In education, the district had fourteen schools and two madrasas in the 1870s, rising by the early 1900s to 55 preparatory schools, one Rüşdiye school and eight madrasas (p. 37).

The district’s religious and cultural life includes traditions that Osman Bey (founder of the Ottoman dynasty) conquered the area and built a mosque there in 720 AH, and that the district’s name honors him. The mosque built by Grand Vizier Koca Mehmed Pasha in 830 AH, the fifteen-arched bridge built by Sultan Bayezid II over the Kızılırmak in 901 AH, and the tomb of Seyyid Ali Koyun Baba are the principal structures noted in the book (p. 37). Its economy rested on agriculture, animal husbandry and forestry; about half of the district’s roughly 214,000 dönüm of land was cultivable, with wheat, barley, cotton, rice and grapes among the crops grown; a market was held one day a week, on Thursdays (p. 38).

Mecitözü district

Mecitözü’s entry into the Seljuk and then Ottoman period is covered on the Mecitözü History page; the book confirms this and adds that, throughout the 1869-1907 period it examines, the district remained a third-class district attached to the Amasya sub-province of Sivas Province, only being attached to Çorum sub-province in 1916 (p. 38). In 1873 the district had four sub-districts (Hacı Kasabası, Veray, Zünnun and Gelengiras); from 1880 the number rose to six (Efgani, Elvan Çelebi, Tuğla/Doğla, Gök, Karahacib and Veray). The district comprised 2,170 households and 134 villages; by 1890 the number of villages had risen to 160 (p. 38).

Population rose from an average of around 12,000 males in the early 1870s to 35,998 district-wide by 1903; according to the book, the non-Muslim population included Greeks and Armenians as well as a Protestant community (p. 39-40). In education, the district began in the 1870s with a single madrasa and twenty students; from 1875 the number of madrasas rose to nine, and Qur’an and preparatory schools — which also admitted girls — reached roughly 3,000 students in total (about 2,000 boys and 1,000 girls); a Rüşdiye school opened in 1890 (p. 40-41).

The district’s center was Hacı Köyü; fifty mosques and eight small mosques were recorded, the most important being the Great Mosque (Büyük Cami) built in 1200 AH by Avukanlızade Süleyman Bey. The lodge and dervish house of Elvan Çelebi, a descendant of Aşık Paşa, was still active at the time the book was written (p. 41). Its economy rested on agriculture and animal husbandry; 364,383 dönüm of farmland produced wheat, barley, poppy, apples, pears, quinces, plums, cornelian cherries and grapes; local industry produced Persian-style woolen shawls, cotton cloth, goat-hair sacks and cord and rope made from hemp; a market was held on Fridays (p. 41).

Alaca and Kargı: from sub-district to district

Alaca and Kargı, both full districts of Çorum today, held sub-district (nahiye) status in the period covered here. Hüseyinabad sub-district (today’s Alaca) belonged, under the 1867 Provincial Regulation, to the center of the Yozgat sub-province and had seventy-four villages; it was attached to Çorum sub-province in 1894 (p. 24). According to the book, the sub-district center’s population was 2,338 in 1878 (p. 25). Kargı sub-district belonged to Tosya district of Kastamonu Province in 1869, and appears attached to Osmancık district by 1900; it had four mosques, one caravanserai and one bathhouse. When Çorum became a sub-province, Kargı’s attachment to Tosya continued; it was only joined to Çorum in 1957 (p. 32). See History of Alaca and History of Kargı for the districts’ general history.

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, Part I “Osmanlı Vilayet Salnamelerinde Çorum ve Bağlı Kazalarının Değerlendirilmesi” [An Assessment of Çorum and Its Districts in the Ottoman Provincial Yearbooks], p. 17-41. https://www.corum.bel.tr/public/uploads/2023/05/osmanli-vilayet-salnamelerinde-corum.pdf

Frequently asked questions

Which province was İskilip attached to in the Ottoman period?

According to Mehmet Çanlı's book, İskilip belonged to the Kastamonu sub-province of Kastamonu Province from the 1867 Provincial Regulation onward; it was attached to Çorum sub-province in 1894 (Salnamelerde Çorum, p. 27, 9).

When was Mecitözü attached to Çorum?

According to the book, Mecitözü remained attached to the Amasya sub-province of Sivas Province throughout 1869-1907, and was only attached to Çorum sub-province in 1916 (Salnamelerde Çorum, p. 38).

How did Osmancık's administrative affiliation change in the Ottoman period?

According to the book, Osmancık was attached to Amasya in 1423, to Çorum sub-province in 1596, back to Amasya in 1867, and again to Çorum in 1894 (Salnamelerde Çorum, p. 35).