Fish and fishermen in the Istanbul region (mid-16th to mid-18th centuries) What can we find out about fish, fishing grounds and fishermen in the vicinity of Istanbul over the longue durée? How did the fishermen go about their work, and who were their customers? What kinds of fish appeared on Istanbul markets? Did the Ottoman bureaucratic apparatus exercise any kind of control over the fishermen? In the context of a larger study concerning the use that the inhabitants of Istanbul made of the natural resources available in their environment, I will try to provide at least partial answers to these questions. Early Ottoman records concern taxes paid by fishermen at work in the Sea of Marmara; particularly interesting is the abridged tax register (icmal) of Anadolu (937/1530). Certain fishing grounds were productive enough for fishermen to set up weirs; these installations existed in the mid-1600s as well, when Evliya observed them. Moreover the French naturalist Pierre Belon du Mans (visit in 1548) has provided detailed information on the methods used by fishermen working the Sea of Marmara. For the markets of the Ottoman capital and the fish sold there, our principal source is the price list (narh defteri) of 1640 which contains not only a listing of raw fish but also a few fish-based dishes. Moreover this list is contemporary with the observations of Evliya Çelebi, who recorded some of the information ? and tall tales ? that he probably picked up from local fishermen. Concerning taxation practices current in the mid-1700s, towards the end of our period, some pertinent information survives in the sultanic commands sent out in response to complaints from administrators and tax-payers (ahkâm defterleri). Tax farmers sometimes asked for information that an enlarged bureaucracy was by now much better equipped to provide. Due to the preponderance of official sources, present-day historians tend to overestimate the role of the Ottoman bureaucratic apparatus, even though fish was not nearly as important in the eyes of administrators as for instance meat or bread. However by cross-checking the information provided by officialdom with that recorded by Ottoman and foreign travelers, we can at least try to visualize how the sultans’ subjects used the unique food resource that the fish of the Marmara and Black Seas provided for them each and every year.