Project description
The formation of law in the Ottoman Empire
The religio-legal opinions (fetva) of scholars and decrees of sultans (kanun) were two main media for the articulation of legal norms in the Ottoman Empire. In addition to scholars and sultans, diverse groups like local actors with entrenched interests, non-Muslim communities, common people, founders of endowments, guilds and merchants participated and interacted in the formation of legal norms in different degrees and ways. The EU-funded project, OTTOLEGAL, examines the lawmaking process in the Empire between 1450 and 1650 on the basis of a new perspective. The project aspires to develop a model of lawmaking that will account for diversity and change across time and space in early-modern societies.
Objective
This project investigates the formation of law in the Ottoman Empire between 1450 and 1650. Examining the religio-legal opinions (fetva) of scholars and decrees of sultans (kanun), it aims to expose the hybridity of Ottoman law by revealing the agency and interaction of diverse groups in the lawmaking process, moving beyond the well-known role of such actors as the government (the sultan and his representatives) and scholars to better understand the role of other, lesser-known actors like local groups with entrenched interests, non-Muslim communities, common people, founders of endowments, guilds, merchants, and others. Previous scholarship in the field has mainly utilized fetva and kanun as fixed legal categories, respectively representing the order of sacred law (sharia) and the will of the sultan. This project departs from this view, instead treating both fetva and kanun as malleable media that provided languages for the articulation and hybridization of diverse legal views. Approaching the study of the Ottoman legal history from a new perspective, OTTOLEGAL scrutinizes a large corpus of kanun and fetva texts with particular research questions that are expected to reveal the agency and interaction of multiple groups and their ideas in the formation of law. Additionally, the project aspires to develop a model of lawmaking that will account for diversity and change across time and space in early-modern societies. The OTTOLEGAL team will prepare a database with a web portal, including metadata, description, transliteration, translation, and essays of scholarly analysis for the key sources of the project. In addition, three monographs and one sourcebook will be written and published, and two international conferences will be organized and their papers published in two edited volumes. This project promises to recast the field of Ottoman legal history on the basis of a new perspective and open new frontiers in the study of history and law.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- humanities history and archaeology history
- social sciences law
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
34956 Istanbul
Türkiye
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.