THE QUESTION RELATING TO THE ORIGIN OF OTTOMAN TIMAR SYSTEM
Significant researches have been made recently with respect to the resource of timar, which underlied Ottoman land system and whose importance was understood by Ottoman bureaucrats and intellectuals centuries ago. The works published by M. F. Köprülü, Ö. L. Barkan and İ. H. Uzunçarşılı have illuminated many dark aspects of timar in terms of law and finance. The word timar used as a synonym of bread, fief and amity is being claimed to be borne by Greek by J. Löwenklau, M. Baudier and Ch. Du Cange, whereas L. Soranzo and J. V. Hammer argued the thesis of that since the term timar appears in Persian it derives from Persian. Etymologically, the term timar without a clear conclusion about the etymology had a long development cycle in terms of its meaning before coming to Ottomans and then it started to be used as a specific term later. Ottoman timar governance is claimed to be taken from Byzantine organizations, but this argument is not based on the reliable data due to restrictions resulting from insufficient resources. It is also suggested that Turks did not take this governance from Islamic governments or Byzantine civilizations but it is a product of their own culture. Ottoman organizations, which are actually under the great the influence of Seljuks, are founded on the material and spiritual heritage remaining from the Turkish-Islamic civilizations. It internalized and developed the organizations owned by this civilization. Ottomans took over timar system like as well as issues from these civilizations. However, it should be considered as well that different influences to a certain extent may be found on the Ottoman land system.

Keywords
Timar, ikta’, pronoya, Seljuks, Ottoman, Byzantine