O terminu taksit: Nesklad izvora i literature
On the Term Taxit: Discrepancies Between Sources and Literature

Summary/Abstract: In the historiography of the South Slavic linguistic area the word “taksit” is predominantly used as a synonym for the imdad-i hazariyye tax; moreover, it implies several dozens of taxes and levies contained in tevzi defteri, which was interpreted by alleged expansion of the term “taksit” to all other taxes that were imposed at later stages. This view is not in line with the official Ottoman sources. Ottoman administrative officials implied, in their official documents, under taksit only the instalment of imdad-i hazariyye tax, while, in tevzi defteri, all other levies had their individual names and purposes so that the term “taksit” was not applied on them. The imdad-i hazariyye tax appears also in the shortened form “hazariyye”. In colloquial administrative communication, the Ottoman administration often omitted the term “hazariyye” in its documents and referred only to the collection of “taksit” etc., yet, they knew exactly what they meant by each specific tax given the generally known nature of their job. The annals of Bosnian Franciscans give a certain ground to apply the term “taksit” also on levies that were collected together with hazariyye; however, they are far from being accurate in terms of this issue and are, therefore, interesting for our understanding of the manner in which people understood the Ottoman system of taxation, but not the functioning of the system itself, for which a look from within is needed alongside a thorough analysis of the official ottoman documents. In addition to this, the term “taksit” was used in the general meaning of “instalment” in various fields of finances, while the type of instalment was closer defined by the context in which the term was used.

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