Müskirat resmi was a tax onalcohol in theOttoman Empire.[1][2]
Strictly speaking, theIslamic law forbade alcohol, so there were no alcohol taxes in the early empire. However, the Ottoman Empire acquired increasingly large non-Muslim populations, and inherited the taxes and customs of conquered territories; so in the seventeenth century an alcohol tax for non-Muslims was inaugurated. There were, subsequently, complex changes to taxation of alcohol (and in some cases taxes were abolished or replaced with something else, only to be re-established later); but these different taxes were generally all known as müskirat resmi. Tax farming usually allowed tax collection to be done by a non-Muslim contractor, to avoid the need for a Muslim civil servant to be directly involved in the alcohol trade.
There was also azecriye resmi – a tax on "prohibited goods" – applied to alcohol sold in markets in the eighteenth century.[3]
Müskirat resmi persisted in thetanzimat era; the Ministry of Finance established a separate department (zecriye emaneti) to collect revenues from alcohol taxation. Tax reforms simplified the rate at 20%, and imported alcohol was subject to another müskirat charge (instead of customs), which ranged from 10% to 12%. In 1861, the general müskirat tax was reduced from 20% to 10% – but alcohol sellers were required to pay for additional permits (ruhsatname; the cost was a proportion of their rent). Shortly afterwards, the rate increased to 15%. Towards the very end of the empire, further tax changes favouredbeer production overwine orrakı.[1]
Only in 1926, were alcoholic drinks made legal for Muslims (in what was, by then,Turkey); manufacturing and distribution continued under governmentmonopoly.
Christian priests and monks were generally exempt from müskirat resmi on alcoholic drinks for their own personal use, and also for masses.
.svg)