Mihai Maxim, a world-renowned Romanian Professor of Turkish Studies, studied at the Universities of Iași, Baku and Moscow (1961-1968), then he graduated magna cum laude from the Department of Turkish History, the Institute of Oriental Studies, and earned a doctor's degree in History, in 1976, with the great professors Mihai Berza (Bucharest) and Halil İnalcık (Ankara).He has begun his academic career in 1968 as junior lecturer (1968-1978), continuing as senior lecturer (1978-1989), associate professor (1990-1993) and professor (from 1993) at the Faculty of History, the University of Bucharest. He has also been a doctoral advisor for candidates in Turkish Studies from Romania, Italy, Japan, Turkey etc, visiting professor at the Columbia University (1990-1991), the University of Istanbul (1995-2001), University of Venice (2002-2003) etc. He has been the founder (1985) and the director of the "Dimitrie Cantemir" Center for Turkish Studies of the University of Bucharest (up to the present); the director of Romano-Turcica periodical (up to the present); the originator of a new Romanian school of Turkish Studies; director of the Dimitrie Cantemir Romanian Cultural Institute in Istanbul (January 2005-January 2011), holding the diplomatic rank of Minister Counsellor. He serves as an Editorial Board member for some international publications and a governing board member for some International Associations of Turkish Studies; vice president of the International Association for the Study of Islamic Civilization in the Balkans. He was awarded the Romanian Academy Prize in 1993.He has been elected honorary member of the Turkish Academy of History (Türk Tarih Kurumu).Of the over 130 books which he has published so far, the following titles worth mentioning: Culegere de texte otomane / Collection of Ottoman Texts ( Bucharest, 1974);  Limba turco-osmană. Curs Practic / The Turkish- Ottoman Language: practical course ( Bucharest, 1984, reprinted in 1993 and 2004);  Țările Române și Înalta Poartă. Cadrul juridic al relațiilor româno-otomane în Evul Mediu, cu o prefațăde Prof. Halil İnalcık / The Romanian Principalities and the Sublime Porte: the legal framework of the Romanian-Ottoman Relations in the Middle Ages; with a foreword by Professor Halil İnalcık ( Bucharest, 1993); LʼEmpire ottoman au nord du Danube et lʼautonomie des Principautés Roumaines au XVI siècle. Études et documents (Istanbul, 1999);   Romano-Ottomanica. Essays and Documents from the Turkish Archives, Istanbul, 2001 ; Noi documente turcești privind Țările Române și Înalta Poartă(1526-1602) / New Turkish Documents concerning the Romanian Principalities and the Sublime Porte (1526-1602), Brăila, 2008 ; Brăila. Noi documente otomane / Brăila. New Ottoman Documents, Brăila, 2011 ; O istorie a relațiilor româno-otomane cu documente noi din arhivele turcești/ A History of the Romanian-Ottoman Relations with new documents preserved in the Turkish archives, vol. 1 ( 1400-1600), vol. 2 ( 1601-1711/1716), Brăila, 2012The work makes the most of the Professor Mihai Maxim’s research carried out in Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi [General Directorate of State Archives of the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey] in Istanbul, during the last years, regarding Brăila under the Ottoman rule, in specific subject fields: population and tax registrers; registers for inspection and maintenance of military constructions; account registers concerning the renting of the gangway/port of Brăila; janissaries' registers; light infantry registers; heritage registers. The study of these category of registers (defterler) is part of defterology, an anancillary discipline of  Turkology and Osmanistics.The book includes: the Author's Foreword (pp. 9 – 14); Chapter I: New Materials from the Turkish Archives (pp. 15 – 246); Chapter II: Census Registers of the Sixteenth Century (pp. 247 – 345); Conclusions (pp. 347 – 350); Illustrations (pp. 351 – 356).In the foreword, the author tells us that the Fondul Turco-Osman Mihai Maxim [“Mihai Maxim” Turkish-Osmanistics Fund ] has been created within the Library of the Museum of Brăila, including Turkish registers (defter) regarding the history of Brăila under Ottoman occupation (1540-1829), which were discovered in the archives in Istanbul. This fund is already computerized and available to the researchers.The present work is meant to serve as a catalog of the Fondul turco-osman Mihai Maxim [“Mihai Maxim” Turkish-Osmanistics Fund ] for those who study Osmanistics and look into the research of these historical sources of great value for Brăila under Ottoman occupation.Chapter I, entitled New Materials Regarding the City and the Port of Brăila in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Preserved in the Turkish Archives, Professor Mihai Maxim brought in and published significant excerpts about Brăila, collected from the following thematic archive funds, found at Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi-Istanbul (BOA):–01.BD. BŞM. BNE. D (Bâb-i Defteri. Baş Muhâsebe. Bina Emini Kalemi Defteri); Registers no. 15.974; 15.996; 15.998; 16.008; 16.252; 16.310; 16.312; 16.313 (pp. 15 – 66); –02. BD. YNÇK. D(Bâb-i Defteri.Yeniçeri Kalemi Defteri ); Registers no. 34.197; 34.315; 34.481; 34.488; 35.060 (pp. 67 – 119); –03. BD. PYMK. D(Bâb-i Defteri.Piyâde Mukabelesi Kalemi. Defter). Registers no. 35.169; 35.214; 35.377; 35.383 (pp. 121 – 173) –04. BD. BŞM. MHFK. D (Bâb-ı Defterî. Baş Muhāsebe.Muhallefât Kalemi. Defteri); Registers no.13.012; 13.236; 13. 251; 13. 262 (pp. 174 – 220); –05. BD. BŞM.BMK. IBM. D (Bâb-ı Defteri. Baş Muhasebe. Baş Mukata’a Kalemi. Ibrāil Mukata’ası. Defter ). Registers no.   22.640; 22.641; 22.642; 22.643; 22.644 (pp. 221 – 243). Thus, Chapter I consists of reports of the Ottoman military architects (bina emini) on their conclusions and evaluations related to the status of the city of Brăila and the measures taken to repair this tremendous fortress, especially during the Russian-Austrian-Ottoman wars of  1768-1774, 1787 -1792, 1806-1812, as well as in the last period after the Greek Revolution of 1821 and the Russian-Ottoman war of 1826-1828, ended with the peace of Adrianople, which returned Braila to the Principality of Wallachia.Chapter II includes various Census Registers of the Sixteenth Cdentury concerning the Fair and Kaza of Brăila (pp. 247 – 345). In the first subchapter, II. 01., Professor Mihai Maxim highlighted the Importance of the Turkish Census Registers (Tahrîr Defteri, encoded TT.d) for the history of Romania: the demographic and fiscal census of a territory recently occupied by the Ottomans was taken imediately after that region had been integrated in Dar ül-Islām. That Tahrîr Defteri provided the precise status of the financial and demographic configuration of the territory under Ottomanization; on the other hand, the census register became the basis and also the comparison element for the following census, which was achievable in about 30 years, for the next generation of Ottoman subjects. A Tahrîr could also be achieved in terms of extraordinary internal and/or external conditions.In terms of political and practical Tahrîr, the historical Romanian territory can be divided into two categories: Zone A, containing Wallachia (Eflâk), the land of Moldavia (Kara Boğdan)  and the Principality of Transylvania, unoccupied by Ottomans; Zone B, represented by the territories effectively occupied by the Ottomans and integrated into the Ottoman state (Devlet-i Osmaniye): Dobrudja, Giurgiu, Turnu, Brăila, Chilia, Cetatea Albă, Tighina, Timişoara, Oradea, Hotin). Zone A belonged to the tributary states, having internal autonomy, recognized by the Ottomans, where the subjects of the Sultan were prohibited from trespassing. In Zone B the Ottoman law was applied, including the demographic and fiscal policy of Tahrîr (pp. 247-259).In the next subchapter, II. 02., entitled Turkish Census Registers of the Sixteenth Century concerning Brăila under Ottoman Occupation, Professor Mihai Maxim talked about several Tahrîr Defterleri on Brăila:–BOA; TT.d, no 483 / 977 H. / 1570 (pp. 260 – 274);–BOA; TT.d, no3.800 / 995 H. / 1586 – 1587 (pp. 275 – 300);–BOA; TT.d, no 688 / 1006 H. / 1597 – 1598 (pp. 301 – 314);–BOA; TT.d, no 701 / 1006 H. / 1597 – 1598 (pp. 315 – 331);–BOA; TT.d, no 775 / 1052 H. / 1642 – 1643 (pp. 332).Then the author analyzes the demographic and fiscal information of Tahrîr Defterleri,  mentioned above, and outlines a first statistics of the demographic evolution of Brăilaʼs population under the Ottoman rule and of the numerical evolution of the constituent villages, in the period 1570-1643 (pp. 333 – 345).The conclusions highlight what is new in the book.       First, it would be the exceptional importance of the documents in the volume for studying the history of Brăila under the Ottoman rule in the second half of the sixteenth century. The second originality is the creation of the Fondului Turco-Osman Mihai Maxim [“Mihai Maxim” Turkish-Osmanistics Fund], at the Library of the Museum of Brăila, opened to the researchers in Turkology and Osmanistics, along with the dual function of this historiographical contribution: a collection of documents and an inventory of the “Mihai Maxim” Turkish-Osmanistics Fund. This book opens a perspective for future research on the city and fortress of Brăila. In this context, we also mention the increasing interest for the tremendous Ottoman fortresses along the Danube (Măcin, Isaccea, Babadag, Giurgiu), both in Romania, and in Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.

Mihai Maxim, a world-renowned Romanian Professor of Turkish Studies, studied at the Universities of Iași, Baku and Moscow (1961-1968), then he graduated magna cum laude from the Department of Turkish History, the Institute of Oriental Studies, and earned a doctor's degree in History, in 1976, with the great professors Mihai Berza (Bucharest) and Halil İnalcık (Ankara).He has begun his academic career in 1968 as junior lecturer (1968-1978), continuing as senior lecturer (1978-1989), associate professor (1990-1993) and professor (from 1993) at the Faculty of History, the University of Bucharest. He has also been a doctoral advisor for candidates in Turkish Studies from Romania, Italy, Japan, Turkey etc, visiting professor at the Columbia University (1990-1991), the University of Istanbul (1995-2001), University of Venice (2002-2003) etc. He has been the founder (1985) and the director of the "Dimitrie Cantemir" Center for Turkish Studies of the University of Bucharest (up to the present); the director of Romano-Turcica periodical (up to the present); the originator of a new Romanian school of Turkish Studies; director of the Dimitrie Cantemir Romanian Cultural Institute in Istanbul (January 2005-January 2011), holding the diplomatic rank of Minister Counsellor. He serves as an Editorial Board member for some international publications and a governing board member for some International Associations of Turkish Studies; vice president of the International Association for the Study of Islamic Civilization in the Balkans. He was awarded the Romanian Academy Prize in 1993.He has been elected honorary member of the Turkish Academy of History (Türk Tarih Kurumu).Of the over 130 books which he has published so far, the following titles worth mentioning: Culegere de texte otomane / Collection of Ottoman Texts ( Bucharest, 1974);  Limba turco-osmană. Curs Practic / The Turkish- Ottoman Language: practical course ( Bucharest, 1984, reprinted in 1993 and 2004);  Țările Române și Înalta Poartă. Cadrul juridic al relațiilor româno-otomane în Evul Mediu, cu o prefațăde Prof. Halil İnalcık / The Romanian Principalities and the Sublime Porte: the legal framework of the Romanian-Ottoman Relations in the Middle Ages; with a foreword by Professor Halil İnalcık ( Bucharest, 1993); LʼEmpire ottoman au nord du Danube et lʼautonomie des Principautés Roumaines au XVI siècle. Études et documents (Istanbul, 1999);   Romano-Ottomanica. Essays and Documents from the Turkish Archives, Istanbul, 2001 ; Noi documente turcești privind Țările Române și Înalta Poartă(1526-1602) / New Turkish Documents concerning the Romanian Principalities and the Sublime Porte (1526-1602), Brăila, 2008 ; Brăila. Noi documente otomane / Brăila. New Ottoman Documents, Brăila, 2011 ; O istorie a relațiilor româno-otomane cu documente noi din arhivele turcești/ A History of the Romanian-Ottoman Relations with new documents preserved in the Turkish archives, vol. 1 ( 1400-1600), vol. 2 ( 1601-1711/1716), Brăila, 2012The work makes the most of the Professor Mihai Maxim’s research carried out in Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi [General Directorate of State Archives of the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey] in Istanbul, during the last years, regarding Brăila under the Ottoman rule, in specific subject fields: population and tax registrers; registers for inspection and maintenance of military constructions; account registers concerning the renting of the gangway/port of Brăila; janissaries' registers; light infantry registers; heritage registers. The study of these category of registers (defterler) is part of defterology, an anancillary discipline of  Turkology and Osmanistics.The book includes: the Author's Foreword (pp. 9 – 14); Chapter I: New Materials from the Turkish Archives (pp. 15 – 246); Chapter II: Census Registers of the Sixteenth Century (pp. 247 – 345); Conclusions (pp. 347 – 350); Illustrations (pp. 351 – 356).In the foreword, the author tells us that the Fondul Turco-Osman Mihai Maxim [“Mihai Maxim” Turkish-Osmanistics Fund ] has been created within the Library of the Museum of Brăila, including Turkish registers (defter) regarding the history of Brăila under Ottoman occupation (1540-1829), which were discovered in the archives in Istanbul. This fund is already computerized and available to the researchers.The present work is meant to serve as a catalog of the Fondul turco-osman Mihai Maxim [“Mihai Maxim” Turkish-Osmanistics Fund ] for those who study Osmanistics and look into the research of these historical sources of great value for Brăila under Ottoman occupation.Chapter I, entitled New Materials Regarding the City and the Port of Brăila in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, Preserved in the Turkish Archives, Professor Mihai Maxim brought in and published significant excerpts about Brăila, collected from the following thematic archive funds, found at Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi-Istanbul (BOA):–01.BD. BŞM. BNE. D (Bâb-i Defteri. Baş Muhâsebe. Bina Emini Kalemi Defteri); Registers no. 15.974; 15.996; 15.998; 16.008; 16.252; 16.310; 16.312; 16.313 (pp. 15 – 66); –02. BD. YNÇK. D(Bâb-i Defteri.Yeniçeri Kalemi Defteri ); Registers no. 34.197; 34.315; 34.481; 34.488; 35.060 (pp. 67 – 119); –03. BD. PYMK. D(Bâb-i Defteri.Piyâde Mukabelesi Kalemi. Defter). Registers no. 35.169; 35.214; 35.377; 35.383 (pp. 121 – 173) –04. BD. BŞM. MHFK. D (Bâb-ı Defterî. Baş Muhāsebe.Muhallefât Kalemi. Defteri); Registers no.13.012; 13.236; 13. 251; 13. 262 (pp. 174 – 220); –05. BD. BŞM.BMK. IBM. D (Bâb-ı Defteri. Baş Muhasebe. Baş Mukata’a Kalemi. Ibrāil Mukata’ası. Defter ). Registers no.   22.640; 22.641; 22.642; 22.643; 22.644 (pp. 221 – 243). Thus, Chapter I consists of reports of the Ottoman military architects (bina emini) on their conclusions and evaluations related to the status of the city of Brăila and the measures taken to repair this tremendous fortress, especially during the Russian-Austrian-Ottoman wars of  1768-1774, 1787 -1792, 1806-1812, as well as in the last period after the Greek Revolution of 1821 and the Russian-Ottoman war of 1826-1828, ended with the peace of Adrianople, which returned Braila to the Principality of Wallachia.Chapter II includes various Census Registers of the Sixteenth Cdentury concerning the Fair and Kaza of Brăila (pp. 247 – 345). In the first subchapter, II. 01., Professor Mihai Maxim highlighted the Importance of the Turkish Census Registers (Tahrîr Defteri, encoded TT.d) for the history of Romania: the demographic and fiscal census of a territory recently occupied by the Ottomans was taken imediately after that region had been integrated in Dar ül-Islām. That Tahrîr Defteri provided the precise status of the financial and demographic configuration of the territory under Ottomanization; on the other hand, the census register became the basis and also the comparison element for the following census, which was achievable in about 30 years, for the next generation of Ottoman subjects. A Tahrîr could also be achieved in terms of extraordinary internal and/or external conditions.In terms of political and practical Tahrîr, the historical Romanian territory can be divided into two categories: Zone A, containing Wallachia (Eflâk), the land of Moldavia (Kara Boğdan)  and the Principality of Transylvania, unoccupied by Ottomans; Zone B, represented by the territories effectively occupied by the Ottomans and integrated into the Ottoman state (Devlet-i Osmaniye): Dobrudja, Giurgiu, Turnu, Brăila, Chilia, Cetatea Albă, Tighina, Timişoara, Oradea, Hotin). Zone A belonged to the tributary states, having internal autonomy, recognized by the Ottomans, where the subjects of the Sultan were prohibited from trespassing. In Zone B the Ottoman law was applied, including the demographic and fiscal policy of Tahrîr (pp. 247-259).In the next subchapter, II. 02., entitled Turkish Census Registers of the Sixteenth Century concerning Brăila under Ottoman Occupation, Professor Mihai Maxim talked about several Tahrîr Defterleri on Brăila:–BOA; TT.d, no 483 / 977 H. / 1570 (pp. 260 – 274);–BOA; TT.d, no3.800 / 995 H. / 1586 – 1587 (pp. 275 – 300);–BOA; TT.d, no 688 / 1006 H. / 1597 – 1598 (pp. 301 – 314);–BOA; TT.d, no 701 / 1006 H. / 1597 – 1598 (pp. 315 – 331);–BOA; TT.d, no 775 / 1052 H. / 1642 – 1643 (pp. 332).Then the author analyzes the demographic and fiscal information of Tahrîr Defterleri,  mentioned above, and outlines a first statistics of the demographic evolution of Brăilaʼs population under the Ottoman rule and of the numerical evolution of the constituent villages, in the period 1570-1643 (pp. 333 – 345).The conclusions highlight what is new in the book.       First, it would be the exceptional importance of the documents in the volume for studying the history of Brăila under the Ottoman rule in the second half of the sixteenth century. The second originality is the creation of the Fondului Turco-Osman Mihai Maxim [“Mihai Maxim” Turkish-Osmanistics Fund], at the Library of the Museum of Brăila, opened to the researchers in Turkology and Osmanistics, along with the dual function of this historiographical contribution: a collection of documents and an inventory of the “Mihai Maxim” Turkish-Osmanistics Fund. This book opens a perspective for future research on the city and fortress of Brăila. In this context, we also mention the increasing interest for the tremendous Ottoman fortresses along the Danube (Măcin, Isaccea, Babadag, Giurgiu), both in Romania, and in Turkey, Ukraine and Russia.