Bad-i hawa (Ottoman windfall revenues)

Bad-i hawa, literally 'wind of the air', is in Ottoman fiscal usage a general term for irregular and occasional revenues — fines, fees, registration charges and other casual sources of income. The term does not appear in the Kanuns of the 9th/15th century but is found in kanunnames where penalties and fines, bride-tax, fees for the recapture of runaway slaves 'and other bad-i hawa' are mentioned, including those of Ankara (929/1522), Aydin and Malatya (935-937/1528-1530), and of the Gypsies of Rumeli, in the last two of which it is counted among the rusum-i 'urfiyye. It is found in kanuns and registers from all over the Empire during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. ¹

In free timars (serbest timar) the bad-i hawa belonged to the timar-holder; in others it was either shared with the khass or, more often, reserved entirely to it — retained as imperial khass or granted to the governor (see Bayt al-Mal). The name seems to convey the same meaning as the English 'windfall' and may, as Inalcik suggests, be connected with the much-disputed Byzantine aerikon. ¹