ÇORUM TARİHÎ COĞRAFYASINA KATKI: KARAHİSAR-I DEMİRLİ NAHİYESİ’NDE NÜFUS VE YERLEŞİM

Karahisar-ı Demirli, which was a district attached to the Çorum Sanjak in the administrative division of the Ottoman Empire, is an area of settlement that has not survived to the present day. The center of the district is currently located near Kalehisar, one of the central villages of Çorum, and the ruins of buildings belonging to this settlement can still be observed in the vicinity of Kalehisar and Mahmudiye Villages. The administrative area covered by the Karahisarı Demirli District was not limited to the aforementioned two villages but encompassed dozens of villages and hamlets. While some of these villages and hamlets disappeared over time, others have persisted until today. These villages, which continue to exist under the jurisdiction of Çorum, Alaca, Sungurlu, Boğazkale, and Uğurludağ districts, were part of the Karahisar-ı Demirli during the Ottoman period. Within the scope of the study to be conducted, first of all, the importance of Karahisar-ı Demirli, a district that has not survived to the present day, during the Seljuk and principalities period will be considered within the framework of the medieval resources. In addition, the origin of the name of the district will be explained. Then, the administrative area covered by Karahisar-ı Demirli will be elucidated based on a kind of population and land census called “tahrir” registers, which the Ottomans periodically kept to calculate and record tax revenues. In this context, three detailed tahrir registers that have survived to the present day related to the relevant district will be examined. After revealing the historical geography of the Karahisar-ı Demirli District based on the detailed registers kept during the early reigns of Mehmed the Conqueror, Süleyman the Magnificent, and Murad III, the population and settlement characteristics in the region between 1455 and 1576 will be discussed. In this context, comprehensive explanations will be provided regarding the development of villages and hamlets in Karahisar-ı Demirli over the approximately 120-year period under study, and the approximate population in the district’s centre and rural settlements will be calculated. Additionally, based on the records in the tahrir registers, the tribes, communities, and clans settled in the district will be discussed. Finally, the population size and population movements in the Karahisar-ı Demirli District will be compared with the central district of the Çorum Sanjak during the same period. Thus, the socia