If you were an Ottoman peasant, you are literally part of a flock.

The word for being a subject in Turkish, Rodeaya, is the exact same word used in the sense

of a flock of sheep, a flock of goats, livestock.

So the word that refers to livestock also refers to you, the peasant.

And the similarities between the two goes beyond just a common word.

From the standpoint of the government, you are useful in the same way.

Even Christian and Jewish peasants were shorn or taxed to support the state and the professional

Ottoman class.

The upper classes were the soldier class and they wouldn't be taxed, but you as a peasant

who made up 90% of the population of the Ottoman Empire would be taxed and your taxes made

up the economic backbone of Ottoman society.

Maybe you weren't a slave, but as we've seen in this series on Ottoman lives, a slave

could be pretty prestigious.

Back unix of the Heromor slaves and some of them practically ran the Ottoman Empire.

Janissaries were considered slaves and they were the elite military corps of the Ottoman

Empire.

Conquibines were considered slaves and they could give birth to future sultans.

But another way that you as a peasant were similar to livestock is that you could be preyed

upon by other parts of Ottoman society.

You lived in the Arabian Peninsula, something that you had to be concerned about were beda

winds.

Up until the 20th century, technology limited travel in the deserts of North Africa in the

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