ispence

İspençe was a land tax levied on non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire.

İspençe was a land-tax on non-Muslims in parts of the Ottoman Empire; its counterpart, for Muslim taxpayers, was the resm-i çift - which was set at slightly lower rate. The treasury was well aware of the difference in tax takes, and the incentive to convert; the legal reforms of Bayezid II halved some criminal penalties on non-Muslim taxpayers "so that the taxpayers shall not vanish"; this rule was reconfirmed a century later, in 1587. In other cases, local taxes were imposed on non-Muslims specifically to encourage conversion.