Ottoman 1927 Official Debt Document Adana Solaklı Field Massimiliano Brazzafolli Muslim Italian Italy

Ottoman Mortgage Deed of Hacı Abuzade Abdülcebbar Efendi – Solaklı Village, Adana, 1927

Description:

This original Ottoman Turkish legal document is an official deed entitled “Müsakkafât ve Arazi Mukâbilinde Medâyine Muamelâtına Mahsus Sened-i Resmî” (Official Deed for Debt Transactions Secured by Buildings and Land). Dated January 1927, during the early years of the Turkish Republic, it records a loan of 5,000 Turkish liras granted by Massimiliano Brazzafolli, an Italian national, to Hacı Abuzade Abdülcebbar Efendi, secured against a substantial agricultural property in Solaklı village, Adana.

The property consisted of approximately 600 dönüm of agricultural land. Its boundaries are recorded in the deed as a public road and the property of Kasab Mehmed Ağa to the east, the same reference to the west, and the village to the north. The agreement stipulated that the debt was to be repaid within two years. If Abdülcebbar Efendi failed to repay the loan within the agreed period, Brazzafolli was authorised to recover the outstanding amount by arranging the sale of the pledged land through public auction.

The document offers a glimpse into the financial relationships between local landowners and foreign business figures operating in the Adana region during a period of significant agricultural and commercial activity. Massimiliano Brazzafolli is identified in the supplied historical account as an Italian businessman and financier associated with the cotton industry, ginning factories, flour mills and agricultural trade in Çukurova. The deed provides direct evidence of his role as a creditor in a substantial land-secured loan, although the document alone does not establish the full extent of his wider business activities.

Although issued in 1927, the document is written in Ottoman Turkish using the Arabic-based Ottoman script, which remained in official and administrative use before the Turkish alphabet reform of 1928. It therefore belongs to the early Republican period while preserving the language and writing conventions of the late Ottoman administrative tradition.

For collectors of Ottoman-script legal documents, Adana history and the agricultural and financial history of Çukurova, this is a particularly interesting archival piece. Its record of a 5,000-lira loan secured against 600 dönüm of land, the involvement of an Italian creditor and a local landowner, and the surviving official stamps and signatures make it a valuable source for studying property-based lending and commercial relationships in southern Anatolia during the early Republican period.

Key Features:

• Title: Ottoman Mortgage Deed of Hacı Abuzade Abdülcebbar Efendi

• Original Title: Müsakkafât ve Arazi Mukâbilinde Medâyine Muamelâtına Mahsus Sened-i Resmî

• Document Type: Official Land-Secured Loan and Mortgage Deed

• Borrower and Property Owner: Hacı Abuzade Abdülcebbar Efendi

• Creditor: Massimiliano Brazzafolli, Italian national

• Location: Solaklı Village, Adana, Turkey

• Property Type: Agricultural land

• Land Area: 600 dönüm

• Loan Amount: 5,000 Turkish liras

• Repayment Term: Two years

• Security Arrangement: Agricultural land pledged as security for the loan

• Default Provision: The creditor was authorised to recover the debt through a public auction of the pledged property if repayment was not made within the agreed period

• Date: January 1927

• Language: Ottoman Turkish

• Script: Ottoman Arabic-based script

• Documentary Features: Official stamps and signatures

• Historical Significance: Documents a land-secured loan between a local landowner and an Italian creditor in the Adana region during the early Republican period

• Collectible Significance: Of particular interest to collectors of Ottoman-script legal documents, Adana and Çukurova history, agricultural land records, and the financial and commercial history of early Republican Turkey