Chiflik (Ottoman Empire)

Chiflik, or chiftlik (Ottoman Turkish: Çiftlik; Albanian: çiflig; Bulgarian and Macedonian: чифлик, chiflik; Greek: τσιφλίκι; Serbian: читлук/čitluk), is a Turkish term for a system of land management in the Ottoman Empire. Before the chiflik system the Empire used a non-hereditary form of land management called the Timar System. Starting as the Empire began to collapse, powerful military officers started to claim land from the Sultan's holding allowing them to pass the land onto their sons thus creating the Chiflik system. This form of land management lasted from the sixteenth century to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1919.

In the Ottoman Empire before the Chiflik system was adopted the Timar system was official Ottoman policy. The system was one in which the projected revenue of a conquered territory was distributed in the form of temporary land grants among the Sipahis (cavalrymen) and other members of the military class including Janissaries and other kuls (slaves) of the Sultan. These land grants were given as compensation for annual military service, for which they received no pay. Timars could be small, granted by governors, or large which required a certificate from the Sultan but generally the fief had an annual value of less than twenty thousand akçes. Although the military officers were granted land they did not have title which was retained by the Sultan. If the military member died or left the land it reverted to the Sultan to be distributed to a new person. Under this system the temporary owners could demand about three days labour per year from the peasants living on their land. This is compared to two or three days a week under the Christian feudal system.

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