Author(s): Zemzem Yücetürk / Language(s): Turkish
Issue: 16/2022
The Ottoman Empire had many different ethnic elements. The state in question has managed to manage these different groups in terms of religion, language, race and culture for centuries with a tolerant administration and understanding of justice originating from the religion of Islam. It has provided the citizens of different religions with the opportunity of judgment, administration and administration according to their own religions. In local administrations, he allowed non-Muslims to be governed by their own clergy as long as they did not rebel against the state. Although there are congregational courts, it also gave the aforementioned subjects the right to bring their cases to the shari'a courts if they wished. In line with this right, non-Muslims often brought their cases to the sharia courts. In the study, the legal demands and lawsuits of the people of Livane, from the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the reign of Sultan Abdülmecit, were handled separately as non-Muslims and Muslims. During this period, non-Muslims had requests and lawsuits regarding the church, estate, permission, receivables, conversion and denomination movement, appointment of proxy, executive director, consul and murder. Those of the Muslims are claims and lawsuits about inheritance, family law, permission, debt, theft and murder. As it is understood from the documents, both Muslims and non-Muslims conveyed their cases to Istanbul with petitions and demanded that orders be sent to the administrators of the sanjak to which Livane was affiliated, for the settlement of their cases in the shari'a courts. If it was not possible to resolve the case, they requested that the defendants be summoned to Istanbul and held their hearings. The state dealt with the complaints and demands of all the people and sent orders to the local administrations to solve the cases and to fulfill the requests. With the request to report the results of the cases to Istanbul again, the follow-up of the results was also carried out. As it can be understood from the documents, non-Muslims had their own courts and conveyed their cases to Istanbul with petitions. The state also approached the wishes of the people positively, without discriminating between Muslims and non-Muslims. Although the Ottoman Empire responded positively to the requests of non-Muslim subjects, it was understood from a document belonging to the period that these subjects did not behave tolerantly towards each other. When a non-Muslim changed his sect and got married to an Armenian nation, the Catholic nation imposed a fine on this person.
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