Ottoman Vlachs of Istria on the Original „Tromeđa“: unstable subjects and ambivalent loyalities on the multiborder area in Croatia of the 16th Century

Abstract

Drawing from both unpublished and published Ottoman and Venetian sources, as well as published Habsburg records, this paper analyses the Vlach group know in historiography as the “Vlachs of Istria,” who, in the first half of the 16th century, socio-demographically dominated the area of the “original Triple Confinium” in Croatia. This study
focuses on the return migration of a Vlach group from the Habsburg territories of north-eastern Istria and Kras, whose demograpchic core consisted of descendants of Croatian medieval Vlachs. These Vlachs had emigrated northwest on several occasions in the early 16 th century in response to advancing Ottoman conquests. As part of the Ottoman colonization policy of istimâlet, some of these Vlachs returned between 1528 and 1530
to their former settlements in the Hrvati Vilajet and the Klis Sanjak. This was a Vlach community that, for over half a century, moved reversibly and cyclically within the imperial frontier region, shifting allegiance among the Ottoman, Habsburg, and Venetian rulers. Using their example, the paper examines phenomena arising from the dynamic
and complex relations at the border, such as return migrations, unstable subjecthood, and ambivalent loyalties. These conditions reflect the insecure life in the restless frontier region, which required adaptive and compromising strategies. The paper analyses Ottoman tax registers (defters) from 1528-1530, 1540, 1550, and 1574, investigating the social, demographic, economic, and ethno-cultural structures of these Vlach communities, as
well as the causes of their eventual disappearance as a distinct group community in the second half of the 16th century.