The Bosnian Sanjak Fortresses and Their Garrisons in 1530

Abstract

In the historical literature the opinion prevails that the Ottomans destroyed the majority of the medieval forts they had found during the siege or by Sultan's order after 1463, so that very few have been preserved. A summary census of the Bosnian sanjak from 1530 gives a different picture on the ground belonging to that sanjak. In the said areas, there were fifty-nine garrisons, thirty-one ulufejji and twenty-eight timar ones. The ulufejji garrisons were located in the border areas and they made up the zone of military borderland, while the timar fortresses were located in the inland. The military borderland stretched approximately along the line Doboj, Banjaluka, Kamengrad, Udbina, then southwards towards Obrovac, Karin, and Novigrad. The timar garrisons mostly were centred in the middle part of the sanjak, the upper parts of the rivers Bosna and Vrbas.

For many garrison members their origins were given, indicating that a large number of them čame from these parts, and a considerable number of them were also sons of military officials. Rare are the cases in which it is visible that they čame from remote parts, such as some from Vidin, Moreja, Serez, Hungary, or that they were Albanians, while one of them was from the Anatolian part of the Empire. No such indicators exist for the ulufejji garrisons.

From the basic data on the numbers of garrison members in the fortresses, it can be seen that the garrisons differed in numbers, and that going tovvards the border they were usually more numerous. The service was not strictly related to one fortress, so that transfers of garrison crew were very frequent from a fortress to a fortress, as are frequent the cases of dispossession of timars and their distribution to other persons under various circumstances, as a result of withdrawing from the service, failure to execute it, but sometimes for the reasons of morality as well. As seen from the above, the Ottomans kept and put in function ali significant medieval forts they had found there. There was no massive pulling down of them after 1463, as it was mainly assumed.