Çiftlik

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Çiftlik

 

in the Ottoman Empire:

(1) A tract of land held by a peasant that could be worked with one team of oxen. In the late 16th century peasant holders of çiftliks became sharecropping tenants.

(2) A feudal holding, originally a grant, that was given to feudal lords on condition that they pay a tithe to the treasury or provide one soldier for the sultan’s army. In the late 16th century it became a hereditary holding. In the first half of the 19th century the çiftlik was a large estate of a member of the gentry.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.