The Ottoman Tax Farmer Who Bankrupted an Empire

The Story of Turkey: From Byzantium to the Ottoman Empire to Today — Fexingo History · Oct 1, 2026 · 6m · transcript

In this episode, we explore the lives of the tax farmers who kept the Ottoman economy afloat while quietly undermining its stability. We meet men like Yahya Efendi and the complex system of mütesellim and timar that defined revenue collection for centuries. Lucas and Luna trace how the shift from land grants to cash farming in the late sixteenth century created a class of wealthy intermediaries who enriched themselves at the state's expense. We look at specific cases from Bursa and Istanbul, examining how corruption became systemic rather than exceptional. The conversation also touches…