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While this enumeration of the villages and their inhabitants was in progress, he arranged the military system necessary for the defence of the island. There were detailed for the whole of Cyprus 1000 yenicheri, with their commandant the yenicheri-agha, and another officer under him, the qol-h'aya, the fourth in rank of the four aghas of Levkosia, and 28 chorbaji of the same corps, of whom 14 were styled yayabashi, that is to say captains respectively of horse and foot. He enrolled also 2666 sipahi under 42 zaini ; 32 of these were posted to the garrison of Levkosia, and 10 to those of Ammochostos and Paphos. To the command of these zaini and sipahi were appointed three superior officers called Alay Bey, the chief of these being stationed at Levkosia, and the other two, who were subordinate to him, at Ammochostos and Paphos. These are the two so-called ajaqs of the sipahi and yenicheri, that is to say the two corps of cavalry and infantry, to whose guardianship was committed the safety of the whole island. To each corps was assigned its necessary pay. To the yenicfieri each year 12,000 piastres, collected from 24 nmqata'a, fiefs specially dedicated to this service, to wit, the Customs of Larnax, Lemesos, Paphos, Ammochostos and Kyrenia : the two Salines of Laniax and Lemesos: and sixteen villages, Ashia, Levcouico, Enagrai, Kiades, Klia, Koilanion, Palaikythron, Kazapliani, Bitzada, Apalestra, Peristerona,.Pege, Levka, Lemesos, Eski Shehr or Palaia Chora, Achera, Lapithos, and other besides. The land of these villages pays tithe on all its produce, and their inhabitants pay each one piastre yearly for the tax called spenza. To the same corps is assigned the iktisabliq, that is to say one of the alioriaji is appointed to examine from time to time the sale price of comestibles : the same officer seals all fabrics of cotton, linen and wool : he is assisted by two yenicheri called yasaqji, and those too take some small dnty on all loads which enter and leave Ijevkosia. Other 2000 piastres are assigned towards the yearly cost of this corps, and these are levied from the rents of the water of Episcopi, Colossion and Levka, and from certain imperial spenzai, payable here and there by the inhabitants of particular villages. The auditor of this revenue, appointed solely for this duty, is the defterdar efendi, the first in rank of the four aghas of Levkosia. This officer had formerly a defterdar-kiaya, and seven villages for his personal pay, Peristerona near Morphou, Petia, Ainiantns, Calata, Haitiana, Peristerona near Paphos, and Anogyra, from which he still receives a fifth of the produce, an eighth of the barley, and a spenza fixed at six piastres for each inhabitant. The aghas of Levkosia, or the richest of them, farm out the twenty-four fiefs (niuqata'a) and, after the system called tadakhid, or anticipative encashment of three or even five years' dues, they clear four times as much, so that the 12,000 piastres mount up to 47,000 piastres a year. But of the cavalry corps, each division—sipahi and timor—was paid from the tithes of all the villages not assigned to the yenicheri, and from the annual spenza paid by their inhabitants. Besides these were two minor commands or sanjaqs, of Paphos and Carpasion, with an income of 10,000 piastres, perhaps for the maintenance of the Pashas of those districts. The sanjaq of Paphos was paid out of the tithes, spenza and garden tax of 24 villages in the two sub-districts or qaziliqs of Paphos and Abdiin. That of Carpasion, in the same way, from seven villages of tho qaziliqs of Ammochostos and Carpasion. But after a time, when these two pashaliqs were suppressed, and there remained only one Pasha at Nicosia as Governor-General of the island, the income from Ammochostos and Carpasion was dedicated to a mosque at Constantinople, under which it was farmed by notables of that city. And in the same way the so-called chifiliqs (farms) of Morphou, Polis tes Chrysochou, and Kouklia, with their dependent villages, fourteen belonging to Kouklia, seven to Polis: Morphou counting only its own inhabitants. The labourers of these chifiliqs pay only two Turkish 346 EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

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