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In all of these regions the Muslim population of the countryside was a minority as compared to its Christian counterpart in the 15th century, being proportionately more sizeable in the regions of Thessaly and Avret Hisar, where massive Muslim settlement occurred since they were conquered in the 1380s and 1390s, as well as in the region of Drama as a result of colonization in the plains and mass conversion in the uplands. The proportion of azade, and converts in general, out of the whole Muslim population of any region can only be statically established, corresponding to a first generation of converts that were present in the particular period of time.

2 A cross-referencing table of the archival material on the Dimetoka quarters is provided in Appendix II. ��63/9789004283510_005 Topographic Reconstruction of Ottoman Dimetoka 45 town established and how was the lay-out of the town affected by their arrangement? 5 The systemic balance attainted between the Ottoman fringe belt and the pre-existent Byzantine kernel suggests that the exclusively peripheral concentration of the zaviye sites—and in this sense of the vakfs— pre-­determined the trajectories which defined the future development of the town.

Therefore, the area of Muslim settlement in Thessaly was vast and corresponded to the most fertile and productive parts of the whole region. 18 Moreover, people who are described as originating from Anatolia (ʿan Anadolulu) were still encountered among the registered peasants in the mid-15th century. 19 Therefore, next to the registered Muslim reaya there still were in the mid-15th century an unspecified but apparently considerable number of semi-nomadic Yürüks originating from Anatolia. Apparently, the vast majority of Muslim peasants in Thessaly was of such a background, with many among them having become sedentary farmers and acquired proper reaya status, while others retained the specific Yürük condition.