Sanjak of Siroz

The Sanjak of Siroz or Serres (Ottoman Turkish: Sancak-i/Liva-i Siroz; Greek: λιβάς/σαντζάκι Σερρών, Bulgarian: Серски Санджак) was a second-level Ottoman province (sanjak or liva) encompassing the region around the town of Serres (Turkish: Siroz, now in Greece) in central Macedonia.

Sanjak of Siroz Ottoman Turkish: Liva-i Siroz
Sanjak of the Ottoman Empire
before 1846–1912
Capital	Serres (Siroz)
History
• Established	ca. 1846
• First Balkan War	1912
Succeeded by Kingdom of Bulgaria
Today part of	Bulgaria Greece

History

1907 Ottoman map of the Salonica Vilayet, with the sanjaks of Salonica, Siroz and Drama

Serres fell to the Ottoman Empire on 19 September 1383, and initially formed a fief of Evrenos Beg, who brought in Yörük settlers from Sarukhan. Although never rising to particular prominence within the Ottoman Empire, Serres became also the site of a mint from 1413/14 on.^[1] In the 18th and early 19th centuries, Serres was an autonomous beylik under a succession of derebeys, within the Sanjak of Salonica.^[1][2]

Siroz became a regular province by 1846, during the Tanzimat reforms, as a sanjak of the Salonica Eyalet (later Salonica Vilayet), encompassing the towns of Drama, Melnik, Timurhisar (Sidirokastro), Nevrekop (Gotse Delchev) and Lissa. Drama was created as a separate sanjak centre shortly after, and by 1912, the last year of its existence, the sanjak of Serres encompassed the kazas of Serres proper, Zihne (Nea Zichni), Melnik, Razlik (Razlog), Petrich, Timurhisar (Sidirokastro), Djuma-i Bala (Blagoevgrad) and Nevrekop (Gotse Delchev).^[2]

Ethnoconfessional Groups in the Sanjak of Siroz as per the 1881-82 Ottoman Census^[3]

  Muslims (42.3%)

  Bulgarians (36.3%)

  Greeks (20.7%)

  Jews (0.3%)

  Miscellaneous (0.2%)

The province was dissolved when occupied by Bulgarian troops in the First Balkan War. In 1913, after the Second Balkan War, the town of Serres and the southern half of the sanjak became part of Greece.

Demographics

According to the 1881–1882 and the 1905–1906 census of the Ottoman Empire, the population of the Sanjak of Siroz is distributed, as follows:^[3][4][5]

Ethnoconfessional Groups in the Sanjak of Siroz as per the 1905-1906 Ottoman Census^[4]

  Muslims (41.3%)

  Bulgarians (39.3%)

  Greeks (19.4%)

  Jews (0.4%)

Ethnoconfessional group
	1881-82 Census	%	1905-06 Census (Karpat)	%	1905-06 Census (Archives)	%
Muslims	143,860	42.3	68,168	42.3	150,045	41.3
Orthodox Bulgarians	123,437	36.3	69,034	36.2	131,476	39.3
Orthodox Greeks	70,459	20.7	46,018	24.1	82,334	19.4
Jews	1,112	0.3	1,420	0.7	1,580	0.4
Gypsies	N/A	N/A	2,029	1.1	N/A	N/A
Foreign citizens	725	0.2	4	0.0	N/A	N/A
Protestants	283	0.0	29	0.0	N/A	N/A
Armenians	5	0.0	31	0.0	N/A	N/A
Total	339,881	100.0	190,656*	100.0	365,435	100.0
*Suspiciously low figures for all ethnoconfessional groups given that there have been no border changes or mass migration from the sanjak

References

1. Babinger, Franz (1934). "Serres". In M. Th. Houtsma; A. J. Wensinck; E. Lévi-Provençal; H. A. R. Gibb; W. Heffening (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islām, A Dictionary of the Geography, Ethnography and Biography of the Muhammadan Peoples. Volume IV: S–Z. Leiden and London: E. J. Brill and Luzac & Co. p. 234.
2. Birken, Andreas [in German] (1976). Die Provinzen des Osmanischen Reiches [The Provinces of the Ottoman Empire]. Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, 13 (in German). Reichert. p. 77. ISBN 3-920153-56-1.
3. Karpat, K.H. (1985). Ottoman population, 1830-1914: demographic and social characteristics. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Pres. pp. 136–137, 166–167.
4. Tilbe, Özgür (2018). "Hilmi Pasha's Tenure as Inspector-General in Rumelia (1902-1908) / Hüseyin Hilmi Paşa'nın Rumeli Umumî Müfettişliği (1902-1908)" (PDF) (in Turkish). p. 132.
5. Rahman Ademi (2006). "The Macedonian Muslims in the Era of Abdulhamid II / II. Abdülhamit döneminde Makedonya Müslümanları" (in Turkish). p. 97.