This website was established to present the results of GrocerIST, a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and conducted by the Department of Turkish Studies at the University of Vienna, in collaboration with the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (ACDH-CH). It showcases data on Istanbul’s grocers as documented in inheritance inventories from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

For the eighteenth century, a total of 392 kadi sicills were scanned, of which 77 include grocers' inheritance inventories with 88 entries in total from the years 1701 to 1795, covering three judicial districts (kadiships) of Istanbul: Galata (37 inventories), Üsküdar (21 inventories), and Eyüp (19 inventories).

For the nineteenth century, 124 kadi sicills from the Üsküdar kadiship were scanned, yielding 29 grocers’ inheritance inventories from the period between 1803 and 1851. The website will soon incorporate an additional 150 Eyüp grocers’ inheritance inventories, covering the years 1798 to 1906. By the first quarter of 2025, the data from the Galata grocers will also be added to the database.

The data can be explored in detail through five dedicated tabs: “Documents,” “Grocers,” “Groceries,” “Grocery Categories,” and “Locations.” Additionally, the “Dashboard” tab offers detailed graphs and visualizations of the data, facilitating deeper analysis. The site also includes a list of “paraphernalia” documented in the grocers’ inheritance inventories and will soon feature a separate database of pricing information.

For the database click here: https://grocerist.acdh.oeaw.ac.at