he first signs that the Ottoman state was unable to curb the power of its regional officials came at the end of the 16th century. The disparate need for money in the central treasury led the administration to make a number of concessions regarding the financial exploitation of the countryside for the enrichment of the local administration.
Small timars - fiefdoms, were sequestered and transformed into imperial estates - hass so that the sultan could rent them out to financially powerful people, in other words to those who were in a position to transfer large sums of cash in payment, or to court officials who had indirect control over regional tax collection. Initially, the state franchised out the right to collect taxes for a limited period only - (iltizam)- in return for an advance payment of a substantial proportion of the projected revenues. But by the mid-17th century, new franchising practises meant that this arrangement tended to be made on a permanent basis (millikan, and the size of the areas subject to such arrangements grew continuously.
