Meaning of avania | Babel Free

Definitions

A tax or fee imposed on foreigners under the Ottoman Empire, especially one considered to be irregular or extortionate.

historical

Equivalents

Examples

“The merchants are considered as more immediately under the protection of the Mohassil, and therefore not so subject to the Avanias made by the Bashaw.”

““Khoja,” said the pasha, slowly, removing the chibouque from his mouth, and looking towards the secretary; “write that Yacob the Jew shall, before sunset, pay an avania to the pasha of one hundred piastres, for selling dhourra within the walls of the city, without authority—now Hebrew, once more we listen.””

“Ten years later, as they told their ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Thomas Bendysh, they were still loth to meddle in those ‘barbarous places’ because of the ever-present hazard of avanias.”

“The Europeans often felt that these practices went against the capitulations, and considered them extortions – which they called avanias.”

CEFR level