The State Archive of the Republic of Northern Macedonia continues with the publication of the series "Turkish documents on the history of Macedonia, censuses from the XIX century" - for Skopje Sandzak, this time for Tetovo Kaza for the period 1832/33, which is actually a continuation of the series started by DARSM from 2017. The purpose of these first modern censuses, especially for the Islamic population as opposed to the previous general censuses, is clear: to have an accurate and precise record of the number of able-bodied people of the Islamic population as opposed to the Christian population, who instead of participating in military campaigns were obliged to gave a special tax, and was thus exempt from participating in the military campaigns themselves. The censuses were considered to be basic and reliable indicators of the overall condition of the population and contain important data on the number of population on the territory of Macedonia during the Ottoman rule directly from the Ottoman official services themselves.
This census conducted by the Ottoman state is the first modern census on the territory of the country, unlike the general censuses conducted earlier from the XV and XVI century, which mostly referred to different taxes, ie only the taxable population. Namely, it is a census of population of Islamic religion in the neighborhoods in Tetovo - a total of 8 neighborhoods, the villages located on the upper sleeve - a total of 66 villages, the villages on the sleeve of the river - a total of 8 villages, the lower sleeve - a total of 27 villages, and the villages of Dervend a total of 14 villages of the Tetovo kaza in the first half of the XIX century (1832/33).
At the same time, these censuses generally served as state records for the general condition of the population, similar to today's birth certificates because until the next censuses these censuses were considered credible. The data presented through this edition of the census from the first half of the XIX century are very important for the inhabitants of those neighborhoods and villages, because given the time gap with today, the edition contains data for seven or eight generations before, and after automatism is a great relief for the population to more accurately assemble their family trees.
