[567] The word means primarily “book-keeper.” It is derived either from the Greek word διφθέρα or from a similar Persian word (Hammer, _Geschichte_, ii. 228). Ramberti (below, p. 247) mentions but two _Defterdars_, one who took care of the revenue from all the Asiatic provinces, Egypt, and the Danubian countries, and received ten thousand ducats a year, and perquisites, the other who took care of the revenue from the rest of the European dominions, received six thousand ducats and perquisites, and was governor of Constantinople in the sultan’s absence. [568] Spandugino, 98. [569] Junis Bey (below, p. 265) says that the _Defterdars_ had 200 slaves each for their courts. Then he speaks of 50 scribes, each with 15 or 20 slaves, and of 25 secretaries who must have been the heads of the bureaus, and who had slaves. Next he mentions the two _Rusnamehjis_, who had 20 or 25 companions under them. Ramberti, 247, says that the first _Defterdar_ had 1000 slaves in his household, and the second 500. Postel, iii. 69, mentions only one _Rusnamehji_, but clearly states that he is over the chiefs of the twenty-five bureaus. [570] D’Ohsson, vii. 264-273; Hammer, _Staatsverwaltung_, 145-170. [571] It certainly was in 1660. Cf. Hammer, _Staatsverwaltung_, 170. [572] D’Ohsson, vii. 265, omits the intendants of buildings and forage. [573] D’Ohsson, vii. 236. [574] Charges for the right to plant and transport tobacco were later assigned to the care of this bureau. See Hammer, _Staatsverwaltung_, 156. [575] At a later date, when the expenses of the harem became greater, the customs duties of certain regions, the tobacco revenue from Syria and Arabia, and the tax on wool and yarn were also assigned to this bureau (_ibid._ 158). [576] Junis Bey (below, p. 266) and Postel, iii. 70, call this official _Defterdar-emini_. His department, in three bureaus, became a record office of land titles (D’Ohsson, vii. 193). It may have had this wider function in the sixteenth century. [577] Spandugino, 65, 119; Ramberti, below, pp. 244, 248. [578] Menavino, 182; Postel, iii. 70. [579] Ricaut, 103, Ramberti and Junis Bey (below, pp. 256, 271) say that the _Beylerbey_ of Rumelia had 100 scribes. [580] Spandugino, 148; Postel, iii. 63. [581] This subject is treated in Hammer, _Geschichte_, iii. 478-483, and _Staatsverfassung_, 180-337; D’Ohsson, v. 15-37; and, as concerns the legal taxes, in Belin, _La Propriété Foncière_. [582] Hammer, _Staatsverfassung_, 37 ff. [583] Hammer, _Geschichte_, ii. 523, iii. 65. [584] _Ibid._ iii. 266. According to Heidborn, 339, the registering of the lands of the different regions of the Ottoman Empire, begun in 1548 by Suleiman’s order and completed after some 55 years, remains to the present time the basis of land titles in Turkey. [585] D’Ohsson, vii. 242.