Bordering and Surveying the Borderland: Azerbaijan under Ottoman Rule Ottoman centralization policies in the post- conquest era often involved surveying the borderland and recording populations, sources of revenue as well as bordering urban geographies and rural landscapes. My paper based on the rich paper trail and documentation of two periods of Ottoman administration of Azerbaijan ( 1585 & 1725)an important borderland between the Ottoman and Safavid Empires will focus on the Ottoman methods of bordering and administration as well as the importance of Ottoman defters for the study of rural and urban landscapes. How did Ottoman surveyors survey such a vast territory ( entire western Iran including Azerbaijan) at a time when their empire was in the process of ‘decline?’ What was the Ottoman grand strategy in the east after the collapse of theSafavid empire in 1725 and what can we learn from the Ottoman correspondence with governors in Azerbaijan and the eastern border towns ( Erzurum) about it ( Muhimme registers)? In other words, how did Ottoman concept of empire and its administration of eastern Borderlands change and evolve from based on a study of Ottoman archival records? At the end I will offer some documents from the Safavid archives.