Literature on the late Ottoman economy mainly focuses on the port cities of Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. Studying the development of port cities once they came into contact with the world economy, this literature underemphasizes the commercial and economic dynamism of the Ottoman hinterland. Studies on Erzurum, one of the major cities of Ottoman Eastern Anatolia, reflect a similar viewpoint: After the Russian occupation in the 1828-29 War, Erzurum is assumed to face with an economic decline with the destruction of the city and immigration of Armenian communities to Russia. In the following decades, the economic decline could not be arrested or reversed. Instead, it grew worse because of social and political unrest the city and its environs underwent. Contrary to this literature, this paper argues that in the 19th and early 20th centuries Erzurum experienced considerable economic development and developed strong trade ties with regions both within and beyond the Ottoman Empire. The paper studies animal (mainly sheep and some cattle) trade of the Erzurum province from the Tanzimat era until the early 20th century. Documents from Ottoman archives show that the province of Erzurum was an important center for live-animal and meat trade. For instance, Erzurum played a major role in meat provisioning of Istanbul and increased its share in sheep exports to Istanbul throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. While sheep was also sent to Aleppo, Damascus, and Egypt, cattle from the province were sold in large numbers to Eastern and Central Anatolia for the production of pastırma (dried meat). The documents consulted show that sheep trade had also a transborder dimension: Some of the animals exported to above-mentioned markets were collected from tribes and villagers in Russian and Iranian Empires. Our paper will analyze actors of this trade such as tribes, moneylenders, meat merchants, and drovers. It will study how these actors built and maintained trade networks that spread across different regions of the empire. It will also analyze the fragility of these networks and problems that the actors of animal trade faced during their long march from Erzurum to Istanbul in the west and to Aleppo, Damascus, and Egypt in the south such as unfavorable climate conditions, epidemics, and animal diseases.