Ottoman Ayan
The Ottoman ayan (singlular: ayn) were local notables or dynasts that maintained different extents of administrative control over swaths of land in the Ottoman Empire from the 16th to the early 19th centuries. These dynasts held significant autonomy from the central Ottoman government but did not challenge the state. Though the title could only be earned by Muslims, their leadership was secular. This elite class consisted of, “Wealthy merchants, heads of Janissary garrisons, leaders of important craft guilds, those who had bought the right to collect taxes for the government in Istanbul, and those who supervised the distributions of wealth generated by, and the maintenance of, pious endowments.” Ultimately, their presence was a part of a greater decentralizing trend experienced in the Ottoman Empire beginning in the 16th century, one which would come to define the Empire’s structure until its fall in the early 20th century.
Census in the Ottoman Empire
The Ottomans, rulers of Ottoman Empire, did develop a reasonably efficient system for counting the empire's population only a quarter century after census procedures were introduced in the United States of America , Great Britain , and France. Four general censuses were held in the Ottoman Empire. These were 1831 census, 1881–82 census, 1905–06 census, and 1914 census. There were many special census, which Istanbul (Capital) is well known. There is considerable evidence that the census was taken throughout the empire, but it was accomplished under such severe difficulties that its results must be considered no more than estimates. The census takers were untrained and mostly unsupervised.