Registration of the Residential and Defensive Towers in the Ottoman Cadastre Cover Image
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Статут на жилищно-отбранителните кули в османския кадастър
Registration of the Residential and Defensive Towers in the Ottoman Cadastre

Author(s): Radosveta Kirova
Subject(s): History, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Architecture
Published by: Институт за изследване на изкуствата, Българска академия на науките

Summary/Abstract: Tracing the pervasive usage of the word “kula” of Persian origin within the Balkan languages during the Ottoman rule reveals the absorption in the Ottoman Balkan periphery of the welded architectural and social model of residential and defensive towers, confrontational by concept to the centralized military Ottoman doctrine. The Ottoman Balkan peripheral territories - border areas, privileged mining settlements or semi-dependent monastic Athonite confederation - used to preserve due to various reasons different aspects of the existing pre-ottoman social structure such as hereditary aristocracy and land rights, clans and traditional blood vendettas. Diachronic analysis of the specific status of residential and defensive towers, including the status of the adjacent land and the landowners in social and religious aspect in the light of the available Ottoman tax and cadi documents discloses the heterogeneous character of the Ottoman periphery and includes some curious architectural clues, featuring the syncretic blending of the existing Orthodox with the later Sufi practices.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 253-262
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English, Bulgarian