Pronoia

The pronoia (pl. pronoiai; Greek: πρόνοια, meaning "care", "forethought" or "providence," from πρό 'before' and νόος 'mind') was a system of granting dedicated streams of state income to individuals and institutions in the late Byzantine Empire. Beginning in the 11th century and continuing until the empire's fall in the 15th century, the system differed in significant ways from European feudalism of the same period.