Ihtisab, orihtisap was a type of tax on markets in theOttoman Empire;[1] the muhtasib or ihtisap ağasi - the ihtisab collector - had a broader role in regulating and taxing markets under the authority of thekadı.[2]
The ihtisab seems to mainly have been a "daily opening tax", where Shopkeepers would pay each day their shop was open (paying nothing if their shop was closed).[3] It was seen as a source of substantial income; people would "buy" the position of ihtisap ağasi from the bey, in order to collect the market tax. This was a form oftax farming, parallel toiltizam and the earlier establishment of feudal monopolies to collect revenue from other economic activity, such assalt production. Hence the only people who becamemuhtasibs were those who could afford to buy their way into the sinecure.[4]
In the later empire,damga resmi (a charge on hallmarks, and stamp duty) was considered to be part of ihtisab. In the early 19th century, before thetanzimat reforms, the difficulty of enforcing ihtisab led the Ottoman government to establish a series of monopolies, calledved-i vahit, to ease collection[5]
Ihtisab was eventually replaced bytemettu vergisi, a tax on merchants' profits, which was introduced as part of thetanzimat-era tax reforms in 1839.Mahmut II aimed to create a fairer system of taxes based on ability to pay, and which was based on an extensive census across the empire in the 1830s. The new taxes were first introduced in Bursa and Gallipoli before rollout across the rest of the empire; temettu vergisi was enforced bymuhassils,[6] who were salaried government officers rather than feudal lords, although the title ihtisap ağasi was retained; their role in the regulation of commerce evolved into that of a municipal official.
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