Thetapu resmi was a feudal land tax in theOttoman Empire.[1]
Atapu was the equivalent of a title deed for farmland, in afeudal system where farmers were proprietors rather than outright owners; this would be recorded in atapu tahrir, a survey of land ownership and land grants which the Ottoman government used to update land-tax records, and which are now valuable to historians. Not all land was subject to the tapu system;iltizam tax-farming was more commonly applied to non-tapu land.[2] A prominent 16th-century legal theorist argued that tapu resmi was contrary to shari'ah law, and was effectively a bribe; however, tapu resmi continued to be used across the Ottoman Empire.[3]
Tapu resmi was adivani tax on these land titles, payable to thetimar holder.[4] Because land inherited land was subject to a change of title, tapu resmi could also be seen as aninheritance tax;[5] but the tapu resmi fee was payable on other transfers too, including when farmland fell vacant because a tenant farmer died or left.[6] After paying tapu resmi, a farmer would still have to payresm-i çift (or an equivalent tax) each year.
Land which was newly brought under cultivation, such as ifrazat, would be exempt from tapu resmi until the next tahrir (survey).
In 1716, a kanunname (tax code) for thevilayet of Morea set a sliding scale of tapuu resmi fees, from 20akçes for low-quality land to 60 akçes for high-quality land; this was categorised as a bad-i hava tax, along withadet-i deştbani.[7]
The tapu system was partially reformed during thetanzimat; including increased gender equality, so that women could work or rent out farmland;[8] the responsibility for collecting the tapu resmi passed to dedicated treasury officers rather than feudal lords, and documents were standardised in the 1840s.
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