Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Türk Hukuk Tarihi Araştırmaları, sa.2, ss.7-24, 2006 (Hakemli Dergi)
Trial and Social Structure in the Ottoman Criminal Law of the Classical Period
Ottoman criminal law was established and standardized earlier than other legal institutions.
However, it was sometimes the case that certain privileged groups had the right of idiosyncratic trial.
The Askeri class which comprised of the ‘ulama, the military and high officials, were subject to a different
trial procedures in the cases related to their offices due to the assumption that their breaking
the law was identified as a opposition tu the Sultan’s authority. Similarly in the cases of marriage,
inheritance and things related to their community affairs, the non-Muslim Ottoman subjects were
tried according to their own community laws. The descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, sayyids
and sharifs, too, could resort to the courts specifically designed to deal cases related to their status.
Despite all these exceptional special treatments, Ottoman criminal law was mainly based on the
rules applicable to all and everywhere. Such tenets of the Ottoman political philosophy as the effective
execution of the Sultan’s authority, the centralization of the power and its implication for the
provinces, were only facilitated by this inclusive and universal character of Ottoman criminal law.
Keywords: Criminal law, Ottoman law, special treatment, non-Muslim trials, sayyids and sharifs.