Istanbul Qadi Registers

Within the scope of this project, 40 daftar’s as samples of the registers of Istanbul courts (Istanbul, Galata, Eyup and Uskudar) have been selected from different ages and transliterated into modern Turkish and the facsimiles have been added to every volume in order for comparison. The forty-volume output of the project, which was initiated in 2008, was published with the support of the commission of 2010 European Capital of Culture-Istanbul.

These court records include not only the records of legal disputes which were passed to the courts, but also the records similar to today’s municipal works and notary documents like regulations and standards for artisans, craftsmen and tradesmen, price lists of the goods, waqf bills, bills for sales, donations and loans, documents about partitions of inheritance, testaments, marriages and divorces; and finally copies of decrees and orders from the Imperial Court about construction and maintenance of the buildings belonging to waqfs and/or the public. These data help to penetrate into the details of Ottoman cultural life. Interesting information about non-muslims can also be found among the legal disputes that were passed to the courts. These records make it possible to see how the law as a whole was applied among Ottomans.

The project was conducted under the direction of ISAM’s former director Prof. M. Akif Aydin, and Dr. Coskun Yilmaz contributed to it as the editor. Prof. Idris Bostan, Prof. Feridun Emecen, Prof. Ismail Erunsal, Prof. Mehmet Ipsirli and Dr. Mustafa Oguz worked as the members of the academic board. Also, a helpful index which shows every word in its context was prepared by the late Dr. Yucel Dagli.

The published work was presented to the public on 20 December 2012 with a press conference organized at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality building and now is available on internet free of charge.

 

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