Ziamets

The Seljuq sultanate utilized ziamets in an effort to invest provincial governors, who were also made subordinate chiefs in the military regime. In this pre-Ottoman period, timars were used with other tactics, such as building caravansaries, in an effort to sedentarize nomadic groups. The Ottoman state later took on this timar system after conquering Anatolia, and it represented just one of several institutions adopted from the Seljuq sultanate. The Ottoman Empire came into disarray due to problems asserting central government control during the 16th and 17th centuries. Ziamets of Ottoman cavalry were enlarged and turned over to a smaller number of owners, with a longer tenure. Thus, authority in provincial areas turned to police authority as local administrations dissolved, and ziamets were converted into tax farms or iqta. This conversion proved to be the first step to growing provincial control in the Ottoman Empire, as economic decline in the empire gave these stronger provincial governors the chance to assert power.