dr. sc. Anđelko Vlašić
Hrvatski institut za povijest
Podružnica za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje
Slavonski Brod
Past, current and future research on the environmental history of Ottoman Slavonia
Past research
As regards past research on the environmental history of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia during Ottoman rule (i.e., in the 16th and 17th centuries; 1526-1699) was scarce and included few works of the eminent Ottomanist historian Nenad Moačanin, as well as some of the works written within the International Project "Triplex Confinium" – which was focused, however, on the area more to the west and south, so Slavonia was a bit out of its focus; but it had an eco-historical aspect.
Nenad Moačanin in his paper “Pristup ekohistoriji Podravine prema osmanskim izvorima” (Approaching the ecohistory of the region of Podravina according to Ottoman sources), gave numerous valuable insights not only on Podravina, but also on Slavonia, because his paper included the lower Podravina, that is, the Drava river basin all the way to its mouth into the Danube. Moačanin emphasized the expansion of forest areas and at the same time forest exploitation; and his other findings were related to agriculture in the region.
With regard to the broader field of Ottoman Studies, Ottomanist research of different topics from the eco-historical perspective is still in its infancy. Generally speaking, Ottomanist historians have been slow to adopt ecological approaches into their methodological frameworks. There is still a small number of researchers and works, with works by Selçuk Dursun (on the history of forests of the Ottoman Empire); Alan Mikhail (on irrigation in Ottoman Egypt), and Sam White (on the relation between climate and rebellion in the early modern Ottoman Empire – a period of global cooling during the early modern period known as the Little Ice Age – which had an overall negative impact on agricultural production in Europe – produced agrarian crises that the Empire was unable to overcome),as well as a thought-provoking book chapter by Gábor Ágoston on the relation between environmental and frontier studies, that is, on rivers, forests, marshes and forts along the Ottoman-Habsburg frontier in Hungary, which offers new insights.
Current research
As for the current research on this topic, a research project entitled “From Virgin Forests to Ploughlands: History of Anthropization of Forests in Slavonia from the Middle Ages to the Beginning of the 20th Century“ is part of research conducted at the Branch for the History of Slavonia, Syrmia and Baranya of the Croatian Institute of History located in Slavonski Brod. Within the mentioned project, the author of this exposé researches the state of the forest fund of Slavonia during Ottoman rule, the scope of deforestation/reforestation in the area, etc.
The state of forests of the Ottoman Empire during the 16th and 17th centuries is a sparsely researched topic because Ottoman sources are generally silent regarding the state of forests in the mentioned period.
In order to give my contribution to this research, I had to come up with new readings of the existing and already investigated and well known sources, such as Ottoman detailed tax registers and the sources known as Mühimme defters, as well as propose new ideas for future research in this field. For example:
a) one can find data on forests in the detailed tax surveys by looking for the tax on pigs and their grazing in the forests, at least in the provinces with considerable Christian population practicing pig farming. Pigs needed to be reared by letting them graze in oak and beech forests and eat fallen acorns. The presumption is that the surroundings of the settlements with huge number of pigs were heavily covered with oak and beech forests. Thus, the spatial distribution of pig farming settlements of Ottoman Slavonia is presumed to be correlated with the distribution of Slavonian forests;
b) the other idea isto search thoroughly Western sources, that is, Catholic missionaries’ reports on the conditions of the Catholic flock in Ottoman Slavonia, and look for their comments on the state of forests; for example, Bartol Kašić in the period 1618-1622 describes vast forested areas, rebels and bandits residing in the forests, etc.;
c)another idea for future research is to compare Ottoman and Christian sources, that is, the travelogue of Evliya Çelebi and the 1698 and 1702 Habsburg censuses of Slavonia;
d)one could also search for toponomastic data related to forests in the mentioned Ottoman tax registers (meadows, forests, etc.);
e)one could research forests as natural boundaries (the Garavica forest onthe western border of Ottoman Slavonia, etc.);
f) forests providing refuge, protection, shelter in times of war and insecurity, as well as hideout places for bandits, rebels, etc.;
g) woodland as a source of construction material for the fortresses in the region (fortresses of Gradiška, Gorjani, etc.);
h) another idea, outside of the research of forests in the strict sense of the topic, is the research of wine production (viticulture) in Ottoman Slavonia.
Future research
My opinion is that all eco-historical projects seem to be promising for the future, especially because of the trends ruling scientific research, which are connected with the European Union’s funding institutions and programs. One other path historians could follow is to extensively publish archival sources which are crucial for understanding the period in question. This way, historians would (hopefully) attract attention from other scientific fields that are in need of the results of the historians’ archival work: linguists, sociologists, economists, etc.
Bibliography
Ágoston, Gábor. „Where environmental and frontier studies meet: rivers, forests, marshes and forts along the Ottoman-Hapsburg frontier in Hungary.”, u: A.C.S. Peacock (ed.), The Frontiers of the Ottoman World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009: 57-79.
Čaušević, Ekrem (prir.). Autobiografija Osman-age Temišvarskog. Zagreb: Srednja Europa, 2004.
Dursun, Selçuk. “Forest and the State: History of Forestry and Forest Administration in the Ottoman Empire.” doctoral dissertation, Sabancı University, Istanbul, 2007.
Evlija Čelebi. Putopis. Odlomci o jugoslovenskim zemljama. Sarajevo: Sarajevo-Publishing, 1996.
Evliyâ Çelebi bin Derviş Mehemmed Zillî. Evliyâ Çelebi Seyahatnâmesi Topkapı Sarayı Kütüphanesi Bağdat 307 Numaralı Yazmanın Transkripsiyonu – Dizini (edited by: Yücel Dağlı, Seyit Ali Kahraman, İbrahim Sezgin). Sv. V. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2001.
Evliyâ Çelebi bin Derviş Mehemmed Zillî, Evliyâ Çelebi Seyahatnâmesi Topkapı Sarayı Kütüphanesi Revan 1457 Numaralı Yazmanın Transkripsiyonu – Dizini (edited by: Seyit Ali Kahraman, Yücel Dağlı). Sv. VI. Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2002.
Kašić, Bartol. Autobiografija isusovca Bartola Kašića u prijevodu i izvorniku (1575.-1625.). Zagreb: Školska knjiga, 2006.
Mikhail, Alan. Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt. An Environmental History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Moačanin, Nenad. “Pristup ekohistoriji Podravine prema osmanskim izvorima.” Ekonomska i ekohistorija, 1, 1 (2005): 139-146.
Moačanin, Nenad. Slavonija i Srijem u razdoblju osmanske vladavine. Slavonski Brod: Hrvatski institut za povijest, Podružnica za povijest Slavonije, Srijema i Baranje, 2001.
Moačanin, Nenad. Town and Country on the Middle Danube 1526-1690. Leiden; Boston: Brill Publishing, 2006.
Vlašić, Anđelko. “Iskorištavanje šuma u Slavoniji u osmanskom razdoblju.“ Scrinia Slavonica 16 (2016): 71-90.
Vlašić, Anđelko. “Obitelj Zrinski u Putopisu Evlije Čelebija i usporedba s neosmanskim izvorima.“Povijesni prilozi 52 (2017): 29-52.
Vlašić, Anđelko. “The role of forests in the spread of revolts and banditry in Ottoman Slavonia in the 16th and 17th centuries.” In: Alaattin Aköz, Doğan Yörük, Hüseyin Muşmal (ed.), INOCTE 2016: International New Tendencies Congress in Ottoman Researches, October 7-9, 2016, Sarajevo. Proceedings Book (e-knjiga). Konya: Selçuk University, 2016., pp. 69-81.
White, Sam. The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
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