derebey

A derebey (trans. from Tirebey, riverside castle lord) was a feudal lord in Anatolia and the Pontic areas of Lazistan and Adjara in the 18th century, with considerable independence from the central government of the Ottoman Empire. Derebeys were required to provide military assistance in time of war, but ruled and administered their own territories, in full freedom in practical terms, and often forming local dynasties. Their emergence was often sparked by the gradual abandonment of the timar system administered by the military fiefdom of sipahis, and the tendency of the central government to sub-contract tax revenues as of the 18th century, receiving a determined sum from the derebey and outsourcing on them the task of collecting from the taxpayers themselves. In official terminology, thes...