Караванџије Нахије Петруш из Левча 1502. године
Caravanners of Petruš Nâhiyе from Levač in 1502

Summary/Abstract: Caravan traffic in the Balkans in the Middle Ages, and later during the time of the Ottoman Empire, was in the hands of Vlachs – ponosnik, ponesar or kiridžija. For the transport of commercial goods, caravanners were engaged from the villages in the vicinity of the most frequent traffic roads. The Ottoman defter of caravanners, prepared according to the location of their residence, enables the reconstruction of the network of trade routes. In a fragment of the defter of caravanners from 1502, a part of which is quoted in the article, caravanners’ groups were registered, mostly from the region of Braničevo, but also from the nâhiyе of Omolј, Rudnik, Levač, Petruš, Lepenica, Jasenica, Kruševac, Vidin. At the head of every registered caravanners’ group there was the caravan leader – kervânbaşı, serkârbân. In case of caravanners from the Petruš nâhiyе, which we have selected as an example, two caravan leaders represented a group of 322 caravanners from 40 villages. Almost all villages are located outside the medieval Petruš district, i.e. the Ottoman nâhiyе of Petruš in the Sandjak of Kruševac. At the end of a certain caravanners’ group, the total number of bags was recorded, in case of Petruš – 7552. In addition to this number, they always specify the tax (ʻādet), which amounted to 1% of the total number of bags (75), i.e. 2% of horse carried cargo. In addition to the data on the number of horses and the travel route, the caravan registers also bring other information related to the organization of freight traffic at the time of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the socio-economic status of the caravanners themselves, due to which they should be subject to greater scientific attention.

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