Lecture 6 Law and Society.

Muslims and non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire

Law in the Ottoman Empire

Several types of law used concurrently in the Ottoman Empire Sharia Islamic law Kanun secular law land tenure, taxation and criminal law Christian ecclesiastical and Jewish law regulated the personal affairs of the Empires Christian and Jewish subjects Tribal law in tribal areas Customary law

Sharia Precedence over other types of law, cases involving Muslims had to be resolved in the sharia courts Sharia courts open to non-Muslims too Sultans not originators of Islamic law Sources of the Sharia the Quran, the hadith traditions of the Prophet Muhammad his sayings and deeds, analogy, unanimity of juristic opinion, custom supplementary Limitations of the sharia does not resolve cases of land tenure, taxation and criminal law Criminal law the relatives of the victim responsible for bringing the case to court, the authorities responsible to prosecute the case only in five instances fornication, accusations of fornication, wine drinking, theft and highway robbery
Sharia not monolithic, Sunni and Shia traditions

Sunni legal schools - Hanafi, Shafii, Maliki and Hanbali

Hanafi school largely followed throughout the Ottoman Empire

Religious, Legal, Scholarly and Judicial Hierarchy in the Ottoman Empire

Education until the very end of the 18th c. education was religious Ulema religious scholars

The ulema in dominated the religious, legal, scholarly and judicial hierarchy in the Empire
Governors and bureaucrats also received religious education

Medreses colleges emergence of the Eight Colleges as the most prestigious educational institutions graduation from one of them important for being appointed to a high bureaucratic position; yet, patronage even more important
Professors at the medreses produced compendia of law

Mufti jurisconsult provided a legal opinion fetva; however, he did not implement it 15th c. onwards muftis appointees of the state, prestigious position Chief mufti eyhlislam 1420s Kadi judge his judgments were binding, however, not valid as precedents; the decree valid only in the particular case Presided over sharia courts Implemented orders of the sultan Sharia court in every Ottoman city Maintenance of court records (sijill) important sources for Ottoman social history Military judges kadi asker two of them Kadiasker of Rumeli and kadiasker of Anatolia Judges for the military class, members of the imperial council

Kanun Applied in the cases where the provisions of the sharia were insufficient criminal law, land tenure and taxation Origins and legitimacy in custom; in many cases the particular Slavic, Greek or Hungarian word was preserved In the course more homogeneous and standardized throughout the Empire Emerged during the time of Bayezid II (1481-1512); a body of written codes Ottoman law Bayezid II order to compile all Ottoman laws, clauses deriving from sultanic decrees, fetvas and defter Suleyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) Suleyman the Lawmaker efforts to merge the disparities of secular law and the sharia The two chief muftis Kemalpashazade and Ebussuud attempted to harmonize sharia and kanun; debates about the relationship between the sharia and kanun, not resolved for a long time Criminal law punishment of the criminals the responsibility of the askeri

Muslims and non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire inhabited by non-Muslims not just Muslims

In the Balkans Christians constituted the majority Slavic groups (Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs), Greeks, Christian Albanians, Vlahs Sizable Christian communities in Anatolia in the interior, as well as port cities Greeks and Armenians, in major Arab cities, such as Damascus, Aleppo, Cairo and Baghdad; representatives of various Christian denominations in Lebanon

Jews in the Ottoman Empire Romaniote Jews indigenous Jewish populations from the Byzantine period Arabic-speaking Jews indigenous to Arab regions Sephardic Jews came from the Iberian peninsula following the Reconquista in 1492, sometimes after spending some time in Europe Invited to settle in the Ottoman Empire, granted permissions to build synagogues Most of them settled in the city of Salonica/Thessaloniki, which subsequently became the largest Jewish city in the world Others settled in Istanbul and other places throughout the Empire

A portrait of a Jewish woman in Istanbul, 18th c.

Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire status of zimmis/dhimmis people of the covenant Allowed to practice their religion in return for recognizing Muslim political authority and paying a special tax the jizye
Jizye traditionally defined as the Islamic tax that zimmis had to pay to their Muslim rulers, although some authors (e.g. Imber) seem to disagree Jizye varied in terms of rates throughout the Empire, in many cases preOttoman tax came to be known as the jiziye; differences in taxation rates from one period to another; different levels of taxation for different social groups Evidence of gradual increase of the jizye burden even if one takes into consideration inflation 1691 jizye reform non-Muslim subjects divided into three categories according to their material status and accordingly three levels of jizye; tax paid by every non-Muslim adult man

 End of 17th c. first half of 18th c. the men in the average category paid jizye of 5 guru or 600 akes Estimates of the average income from the sale of agricultural produce for the Peloponnesos (end 17th first half of 18th c.) 732 akes For the poor people it was a real burden; establishment of charitable foundations by Christians and Jews in order to help the poor pay their jizye Levied in cash to the central treasury, a major source of income Another side effect peasants began seeking of other methods of increasing their income (used other type of cultures, tried to increase the size of the land they worked) 18th c. levied on groups of people, communities had to pay the jizye for those who had fled

Zekat almsgiving, religious duty for every Muslim, one of the Five Pillars of Islam In the Ottoman Empire voluntary tax, proceedings did not go to the central treasury Pact of Umar A written version in the 9th c. The non-Muslims could keep and practice their faith and were guaranteed the protection of the state under the following conditions Non-Muslims - recognized to the political authority of Islam in a Muslim state and pay the jizye They would not speak of Muhammad, the Quran or his faith No fornication with Muslim women, no marriage between a non-Muslim man and a Muslim woman; marriage between a Muslim man and a non-Muslim woman permissible; the woman could keep her faith Non-Muslims forbidden to sell or give to Muslims anything banned by Islam alcohol and pork Display of crosses or ringing of bells in public not allowed No construction of new churches or synagogues Different clothing for the non-Muslims; non-Muslims could not ride horses only donkeys Non-Muslims could not have Muslim slaves No public religious processions

Millet system Millet comes from milla (Arabic) nation; in the Ottoman Empire a non-Muslim religious community represented in the Empire by an official religious leader Early 19th c. three officially recognized millets Christian Orthodox, Armenian and Jewish Orthodox headed by the Greek ecumenical patriarch in Istanbul, the Armenian headed by the Armenian patriarch in Istanbul, the Jews by a hahambashi At the beginning this organization was not an Empire-wide system, individual agreements with individual communities 18th c. the organization resembled a system (e.g. Orthodox communities in the Empire, wherever they were, were headed by the ecumenical patriarch in Istanbul) 19th c. millet acquired increasingly political meaning By the end of the Empire 12 millets

Christian Orthodox Church benign Ottoman attitude until the beginning of 19th c. After the conquest of Istanbul Gennadios, one of the opponents of the union between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, was appointed an Orthodox patriarch by Mehmed the Conqueror Greek Orthodox patriarchate authority over all Orthodox Christians in the Empire regardless of their ethnic background 1557-1776 patriarchate of Pec, present day Kosovo another Orthodox patriarchate with a jurisdiction over the western Balkans Suspicions towards the patriarchate after the beginning of the Greek revolution in 1821

Mehmed the Conqueror appoints Gennadios Scholarios an Orthodox patriarch

Ottoman awareness of religious divisions and conflicts in Europe the Reformation and Counterreformation Protestant powers, such as England and the Netherlands, acquired favorable commercial capitulations treaties Influx of some Protestant refugees fleeing persecutions to the Ottoman Empire

Shia Muslims in the Ottoman Empire Shia communities in Iraq, Lebanon and Anatolia (the latter Kizilbash) Persecutions against the Kizilbash and those who supported the shahs of Iran some 40,000 Kizilbash deported to other parts of the Empire No persecutions against the Shia who accepted Ottoman rule and had no political connections with the Safavids

 Conquest of Baghdad and Basra by Suleyman the Magnificent brought large Shia populations to the Ottoman Empire Official sultanic patronage and donations to important Shia mosques and shrines e.g. the Shia shrines in Najaf and Kerbala Step dictated by practical considerations the desire not to alienate the large Shia populations who were next door to the Safavids During the Ottoman period Baghdad and Basra came to be dominated more by Shia Islam than in the preceding centuries Ottomans protectors of pilgrimage to the Shia holy sites in Iraq

A Kalenderi dervish, 16-17th c.

Sufi groups in the Ottoman Empire

Early Ottomans and Ottoman sultans strong links with Sufi groups
Two Sufi traditions followers of socially deviant practices mainstream groups compliance with established Muslim practices and law Latter half of 15th c. 16th c. change of official attitude and relationship socially deviant orders persecuted and wiped out

Bektashi Sufi order named after Haji Bektash Veli, a mystic who came from north-western Iran to Anatolia in the 13th c. followers spread throughout the Empire blend of Sunni and Shia practices and beliefs, as well as Christian elements and pre-Islamic beliefs and practices; trinity God, Muhammad and Ali celebrate the mourning days of the Shia; permitted wine, women could go without head-cover and participate in religious ceremonies, communion with bread strong links to the janissaries Haji Bektash an official patron of the corps 1826 banned after the destruction of the janissaries

Conversion to Islam Conversions to Islam not forced The only cases of forced conversion the devshirme child levy, and slavery Conversion conditioned by a variety and usually a combination of factors economic, social, cultural, the stage of religious organization

Different processes of conversion in the different regions Arab provinces conversions not widespread, same dynamic as prior to the Ottoman conquest Anatolia extensive conversions during the Seljuks Balkans conversions to Islam during the Ottoman period was most visible and best documented Conversions beginning in the 14-15th c., peak in the 17th c., slowed down in the 18th c.

Albania conquered gradually in the course of the 15th c. significant conversion only in the second half of the 17th c. linked to increase of the jizye and the avariz tax activity of the Bektashi dervishes contributed to conversion to Islam Local Muslims preserved their language Albanian

Bosnia Theories about conversion to Islam in Bosnia Bogomil theory the beliefs of the Bosnian church were Bogomil or that the majority of Bosnian population were Bogomils before the arrival of the Ottomans Bogomilism a heretical Christian movement originating in the 10th c. in Macedonia and Bulgaria; dualist beliefs Satan and God equal power; Satan the creator of the visible world, God the heavenly kingdom; rejected the use of church building; rejected the Trinity, abhorred the cross; baptism with water; poor, ascetic life, vegetarian The followers of the Bogomil church converted to Islam immediately after the Ottoman conquest as an act of defiance to the Orthodox and Catholic church Bogomil theory still widely popular but has been decisively challenged by scholarship

Another theory of conversion to Islam in Bosnia Conversion to Islam in Bosnia a result of a number of factors, among them the lack of one single dominant religion in Bosnia and poor church organization Bosnian church (est. 13th c.) was not Bogomil, theologically Catholic, some Orthodox practices veneration of certain saints, use of the Orthodox church calendar Competition among three churches in Bosnia the Catholic, the Orthodox and the Bosnian church; the latter very weak 15th c Bosnian rulers became Catholics; pressure on the part of the Bosnian kings for the followers of the Bosnian church to become Catholic; church officials left, others converted to Catholicism Ottoman conquest 1463 afterwards the Bosnian church survived for a while but gradually disappeared

 Conversions to Islam in Bosnia gradual Members of all three major Christian denominations Orthodox, Catholics and the followers of the Bosnian church converted to Islam, not just the followers of the Bosnian church Conversions of Orthodox and Catholics to each others religions

Other non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire Merchants Captives and prisoners of war people captured as part of corsair raids or warfare; arrangements for exchange of prisoners of war with the Habsburgs 17th c.; captives often offered for ransom by corsairs otherwise in many cases sold as slaves Slaves in some cases converted to Islam

More important terms Sharia kanun Mufti Kadi Zimmi/dhimmi jizye Millet system