Kaza of Kütahya in the Second Half of XVII Century

Being located in inner-west anatolian part of aegean region and hosting many civilizations, kütahya fell under domination of turks in the late xi century. as from late xiii century, it fell under domination of germiyans. it got involved in ottoman territories in 1429 upon the testament of yakub the germiyan beg and after a while, center of anatolian state moved here. the sanjak of kütahya having a rapidly increasing population during the xvi century was exposed to attacks by the jelali in the early xvii century. these attacks caused the population of the sanjak to decrease and the cities to fall into ruin. in this study, condition of the kaza of kütahya in the second half of xvii century was examined. book of travels (seyahatname) of evliya çelebi and primarily avârız registers were used. data of avârız register of 1675-76 were compared with cadastral record books of the xvi century and avârız records of 1622-23. accordingly, even though the population of the kaza decreased in the early xvii century, population of the kaza had a tendency to increase again in the mid-xvii century as a result og disappearance of the effects of the jelali revolts. in the examined period, the kaza of kütahya involved boroughs of nahiye-i etraf-ı şehir, amrudabâd, gümüş, altuntaş, gereği, yalak, virancık, tavşanlu in terms of administration. a great majority of the kaza’s population was resident in the rural area. while a few numbers of non-muslim were resident in the city center of kütahya, all of those living in the rural area were muslim.