TOWARDS A PORTRAIT OF ‘THE RICH’ IN OTTOMAN PROVINCIAL SOCIETY: SOFIA IN THE 1670s Rossitsa GRADEVA The tereke or muhallefat defters and the inventories of estates in general, and the possibilities they offer for the study of various aspects of social life in Ottoman society, attracted the attention of scholars as early as the late 1960s. 1 Since then, research based on them has gone in several directions. Some scholars publish single documents with a view to the study of important personalities or simply high officials, 2 while others publish collections of estates of specific social groups, or address only geographically defined groups. 3 It is impossible even to list all the themes which have been researched with the help of the mass of material contained in these inventories. Some analyse them as a historical source, their structure, limitations, but also the variety of issues which can be studied in the light of them, including the legal procedures, and the functionaries involved in the process. 4 Usually after the description of some general features of their sources, 1. L. Fekete, ‘XVI. Yüzyılda Taşralı Bir Türk Efendisinin Evi’, Belleten, 29/116 (1965), 615-38; Ö. Barkan, ‘Edirne Askeri Kassamına ait Tereke Defterleri’, Belgeler, 3/5-6 (1968), 1-479. 2. J. Hathaway, ‘The Wealth and Influence of an Exiled Ottoman Eunuch in Egypt: The Waqf Inventory of Abbas Agha’, JESHO, 37/4 (1994), 293-317; S. Savaş, ‘Sivas Valisi Dagistani Ali Paşa’nın Muhallefatı. XVIII. Asrın Sonunda Osmanlı Sosyal Hayatına Dair Önemli Bir Bölge’, Belgeler, 15/19 (1993), 249-91; Y. Cezar, ‘Bir Ayanın Muhallefatı. Havza ve Köprü Kazaları Ayanı Kör İsmail-Oğlu Hüseyin (Musadere Olayı ve Terekenin İncelenmesi)’, Belleten, 12/161-64 (1977), 41-78; G. Veinstein, ‘Le patrimoine foncier de Panayote Bénakis, kocabaşï de Kalamata’, JTS, 11 (1987), 211-33. 3. N. Todorov and M. Kalitsin (eds), Turski izvori za bălgarskata istoriya [Turkish Sources for Bulgarian History], vol. 6 (Sofia 1977), 23-223; Y. Nagata, Some Documents on the Big Farms (Çiftliks) of the Notables in Western Anatolia (Tokyo 1976); idem, Materials on the Bosnian Notables (Tokyo 1979); H. Özdeğer, 1463-1640 Yılları Bursa Şehri Tereke Defterleri (Istanbul 1988); S. Öztürk, Askeri Kassama ait Onyedinci Asır Istanbul Tereke Defterleri (Sosyo-Ekonomik Tahlil) (Istanbul 1995). 4. G. Veinstein and Y. Triantafyllidou-Baladié, ‘Les inventaires après-décès ottomans de Crète’, in A. van der Woude and A. Schuurman (eds), Probate Inventories: A New Source for the Historical Study of Wealth, Material Culture and Agricultural Development (Wageningen 1980), 191-204; J.-P. Pascual, ‘Les inventaires après-décès. Une source