What were the differences between being a peasant in Anatolia under Eastern Rome and Anatolia under the Ottomans?

by Bhangbhangduc

So, I recently picked up Icon and Minaret: Sources of Byzantine and Islamic Civilization, which has a bunch of translations of Eastern Roman laws, but no corresponding documents for the Ottomans. What were the differences between life among these two empires for the poor folk?

Tiako

You are probably looking for a more comprehensive account, but one difference that may in fact have had major repercussions on your life is less olive oil. Throughout the Ottoman period olive cultivation decreased, particularly in the central regions, and was replaced in turn by increased animal grazing. So, broadly speaking, you are more likely to be using butter than you would have been before.

Of course anyone who has spent time in Turkey knows that olive cultivation definitely did not disappear, it just decreased in relative importance.

My source is the chapter "Olive cultivation in the economy of Roman Asia Minor" by Stephen Mitchell in Patterns of the Economy in Roman Asia Minor. Despite the name the chapter is really more of a general survey of the history of olive cultivation than just focused on Rome.

Vladith

Something to keep in mind is that much of Anatolia slipped from Byzantine control in the eleventh century, many centuries before the Ottomans existed.