JBO'C's Historical Reference

Ottoman Provinces in the Mid 16th Century

Ottoman Provinces in the Mid 16th Century

Sultan Suleiman the Magnificant

"Suleiman divided this empire into twenty-one governments, which were again subdivided into 250 Sanjaks. The governments were:

1. Rumelia, under which term were then comprised all the Ottoman continental possessions in Europe south of the Danube: these included Ancient Greece, Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Illyria, Dalmatia, and Mcesia.

2. The islands of the Archipelago: this government was vested in the Capudan Pasha.

3. Algiers and its territory.

4. Tripoli in Africa.

5. Ofen, comprising the conquered portions of western Hungary.

6. Temeswar, combining the Bannat, Transylvania, and the eastern part of Hungary.

7. Anatolia, a title commonly given to the whole of Asia Minor, but here applied to the northwestern part of the peninsula, which includes the ancient Paphlagonia, Bithynia, Mysia, Lydia, Caria, Lycia, Pisidia, and the greater part of Phrygia and Galatia.

8. Karaman, which contains the residue of the last-mentioned ancient countries, and also Lycaonia, Cilicia, and the larger part of Cappadocia.

9. Rum, called also the government of Sivas, and at times the government of Amasia: it comprehended part of Cappadocia and nearly the whole of the ancient Pontus that lay in Asia Minor.

10. Sulkadr: this embraced the cities of Malatya, Samosata, Elbistan, and the neighboring districts, and the important passes of the eastern ridges of Mount Taurus, n. Trebizond: the governor of this city commanded the coasts round the southeastern extremity of the Black Sea.

12. Diarbekir.

13. Van: these two governments included the greater part of Armenia and Kurdistan.

14. Aleppo.

15. Damascus: these two embraced Syria and Palestine.

16. Egypt.

17. Mecca and Medina, and the country of Arabia Petraea.

18. Yemen and Aden: this government extended over Arabia Felix and a considerable tract along the coast of the Persian Gulf and northwestern India.

19. Bagdad. 20. Mosul.

21. Bassora: these three last contained the conquests which Selim and Suleiman had made from the Persians in Mesopotamia and the adjacent southern regions: the Tigris and the Euphrates (after its confluence with the other river) formed their eastern limit, and at the same time were the boundaries between the Turkish and the Persian dominions.

1520-1566"

Turkey Volume 14 of The history of nations
Western books, The Middle East from the rise of Islam: Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy, Archibald Cary Coolidge, Walter Harold Claflin J. D. Morris, 1906

Barry O'Connell's Notes Main Index