A raiyah or reaya (from
Arabic: رعاياraʿāyā, a plural of رعيّةraʿiya "countryman, animal, sheep pasturing,[1] subjects,[1] nationals,[2] flock", also spelled raiya, raja, raiah, re'aya;
Ottoman Turkish رعايا IPA:[ɾeˈʔaːjeː];
Modern Turkishrâiya[ɾaːˈja] or reaya; related to the Arabic word rā'ī راعي which means "shepherd, herdsman, patron"[3]) was a member of the tax-paying lower class of
Ottoman society, in contrast to the
askeri and
kul. The raiyah made up over 90% of the general population in the
millet communities. In the
Muslim world, raiyah is literally subject of a government or sovereign. The raiyah (literally 'members of the flock') included Christians, Muslims, and Jews who were 'shorn' (i.e. taxed) to support the state and the associated 'professional Ottoman' class.[4]
However, both in contemporaneous and in modern usage, it refers to non-Muslim subjects in particular, also called
zimmi.[5][6][7]
In the early Ottoman Empire, raiyah were not eligible for military service, but from the late 16th century, Muslim raiyah became eligible, to the distress of some of the ruling class.[8]
See also
Ryot: A land holding system developed during the Mughal rule in India.
^Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48, "Raiyah \Raee"yah\ (r[=a]"y[.a] or r[aum]"y[.a]), n. [Ar. ra'iyah a herd, a subject, fr. ra'a to pasture, guard.] A person not a Mohammedan (i. e. Muslim), who pays the capitation tax. (Turkey) (1913 Webster)"
^"Raiyahs,"--all who pay the capitation tax, called the "Haraç." "This tax was levied on the whole male unbelieving population," except children under ten, old men, Christian and Jewish priests. --Finlay, Greece under Ottoman and Venetian Domination, 2856, p. 26.
Molly Greene, A Shared World: Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean, Princeton, 2000.
ISBN0-691-00898-1
Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804, series title A History of East Central Europe, volume V, University of Washington Press, 1983.
ISBN0-295-96033-7.