Müskirat resmi was a tax on

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. Strictly speaking, the

Islamic law Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' refers to immutable, intan ...

forbade alcohol, so there were no alcohol taxes in the early empire. However, the Ottoman Empire acquired increasingly large non-Muslim populations, and inherited the taxes and customs of conquered territories; so in the seventeenth century an alcohol tax for non-Muslims was inaugurated. There were, subsequently, complex changes to taxation of alcohol (and in some cases taxes were abolished or replaced with something else, only to be re-established later); but these different taxes were generally all known as müskirat resmi. Tax farming usually allowed tax collection to be done by a non-Muslim contractor, to avoid the need for a Muslim civil servant to be directly involved in the alcohol trade. There was also a '' zecriye resmi'' – a tax on "prohibited goods" – applied to alcohol sold in markets in the eighteenth century. Müskirat resmi persisted in the

tanzimat The (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of liberal reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pash ...

era; the Ministry of Finance established a separate department (''zecriye emaneti'') to collect revenues from alcohol taxation. Tax reforms simplified the rate at 20%, and imported alcohol was subject to another müskirat charge (instead of customs), which ranged from 10% to 12%. In 1861, the general müskirat tax was reduced from 20% to 10% – but alcohol sellers were required to pay for additional permits (''ruhsatname''; the cost was a proportion of their rent). Shortly afterwards, the rate increased to 15%. Towards the very end of the empire, further tax changes favoured

beer Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches from cereal grain—most commonly malted barley, although wheat, maize (corn), rice, and oats are also used. The grain is mashed to convert starch in the ...

production over

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

rakı Rakı, Türk Rakısı or Turkish Raki (, Turkish pronunciation: ) is an alcoholic beverage made of twice-distilled grape pomace and flavored with aniseed. It is a national drink of Turkey, although fewer than 17% of Turks drink alcohol. Among ...

. Only in 1926, were alcoholic drinks made legal for Muslims (in what was, by then,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

); manufacturing and distribution continued under government

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

. Christian priests and monks were generally exempt from müskirat resmi on alcoholic drinks for their own personal use, and also for masses.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muskirat Resmi Taxation in the Ottoman Empire

See also

References