Periodic Reporting for period 3 - OTTOLEGAL (The Making of Ottoman Law: The Agency and Interaction of Diverse Groups in Lawmaking, 1450–1650)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-07-01 do 2024-12-31
This project (OTTOLEGAL) 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.
OTTOLEGAL proposes to intervene in the field of Ottoman legal history by introducing a fresh way of reading kanun and fetva sources to reveal the agency of non-governmental and non-scholarly actors in the process of lawmaking in the early-modern Ottoman Empire. The successful completion of this project has the potential to offer a number of benefits beyond the merely academic. By undermining the notion of the “sovereignty” of the government and scholars in lawmaking, OTTOLEGAL will invite people to reconsider dogmatic understandings of law and lawmaking in both the past and the present. By exposing the diversity in Ottoman lawmaking during the 1450–1650 period—an era many in the Middle East and Europe still consider a legal golden age—OTTOLEGAL will also contribute to conversations about the nature of law and lawmaking in Europe and beyond. Moreover, through the example of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-linguistic society in which a range of groups participated and had a say in lawmaking, OTTOLEGAL will invite Europeans of diverse backgrounds to foster a legal culture open to dialogue and participation.
The digital platform of the project, Sources of Ottoman Legal History (SOLEH), will be open and free to all users. Everyone will have the chance to consult the sources of the project to confirm or criticize its findings and interpretations, as well as to develop their own.
The strategic objective of OTTOLEGAL is to introduce an innovative approach to the study of Ottoman legal history. To achieve this overall goal, the project pursues the following three specific objectives:
(1) To examine the particular fetva and kanun sources that provide evidence for the participation and interaction of diverse groups in lawmaking
(2) To transliterate, translate, and analyze a sample of fetva and kanun sources that indicate the agency and interaction of multiple actors in lawmaking
(3) To synthesize the findings and develop a model of lawmaking that can account for diversity and change in the Ottoman Empire and beyond in the early-modern period
OTTOLEGAL proposes to intervene in the field of Ottoman legal history by introducing a fresh way of reading kanun and fetva sources to reveal the agency of non-governmental and non-scholarly actors in the process of lawmaking in the early-modern Ottoman Empire. The successful completion of this project has the potential to offer a number of benefits beyond the merely academic. By undermining the notion of the “sovereignty” of the government and scholars in lawmaking, OTTOLEGAL will invite people to reconsider dogmatic understandings of law and lawmaking in both the past and the present. By exposing the diversity in Ottoman lawmaking during the 1450–1650 period—an era many in the Middle East and Europe still consider a legal golden age—OTTOLEGAL will also contribute to conversations about the nature of law and lawmaking in Europe and beyond. Moreover, through the example of a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-linguistic society in which a range of groups participated and had a say in lawmaking, OTTOLEGAL will invite Europeans of diverse backgrounds to foster a legal culture open to dialogue and participation.
The digital platform of the project, Sources of Ottoman Legal History (SOLEH), will be open and free to all users. Everyone will have the chance to consult the sources of the project to confirm or criticize its findings and interpretations, as well as to develop their own.
The strategic objective of OTTOLEGAL is to introduce an innovative approach to the study of Ottoman legal history. To achieve this overall goal, the project pursues the following three specific objectives:
(1) To examine the particular fetva and kanun sources that provide evidence for the participation and interaction of diverse groups in lawmaking
(2) To transliterate, translate, and analyze a sample of fetva and kanun sources that indicate the agency and interaction of multiple actors in lawmaking
(3) To synthesize the findings and develop a model of lawmaking that can account for diversity and change in the Ottoman Empire and beyond in the early-modern period
During the first reporting period (July 2020–December 2021), the research team, consisting of 16 members, was built. The PI, with the help from a committee from Sabancı University, undertook the task of hiring project researchers and administrative and technical personnel.
Work began with the development of the database and the web portal for data collection. To date, the research team has catalogued 3,755 legal documents, along with their descriptions and metadata. Copies of the original documents have also been acquired and stored in the database to be consulted by multiple users (Objective 1). In addition, the team has transliterated more than 700 document pages and begun to work on and analyze groups of these documents selected for their potential to produce innovative results (Objectives 2–3).
The PI presented the preliminary results of the analysis of a group of the documents in the database in two workshops:
• “Corruption Discourse in the Preambles of Kannunames (16th–17th Centuries),” Corruption Workshop, Boğaziçi University (online), 12, 19, 26 November 2021
• “Sharia as a Shared Language: Ottoman Debates over Cash Endowments in the Sixteenth Century,” Workshop on Ottoman Political Thought, Sabancı University (online), 13–15 August 2021
The project team has also prepared and circulated the call for papers for its first international conference, “The Balance of Justice in the Ottoman Empire: Non-Muslims as Agents in an Islamic Imperial Legal Context” (https://www.ottolegal.net/thebalanceofjustice(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) scheduled for this fall.
Work began with the development of the database and the web portal for data collection. To date, the research team has catalogued 3,755 legal documents, along with their descriptions and metadata. Copies of the original documents have also been acquired and stored in the database to be consulted by multiple users (Objective 1). In addition, the team has transliterated more than 700 document pages and begun to work on and analyze groups of these documents selected for their potential to produce innovative results (Objectives 2–3).
The PI presented the preliminary results of the analysis of a group of the documents in the database in two workshops:
• “Corruption Discourse in the Preambles of Kannunames (16th–17th Centuries),” Corruption Workshop, Boğaziçi University (online), 12, 19, 26 November 2021
• “Sharia as a Shared Language: Ottoman Debates over Cash Endowments in the Sixteenth Century,” Workshop on Ottoman Political Thought, Sabancı University (online), 13–15 August 2021
The project team has also prepared and circulated the call for papers for its first international conference, “The Balance of Justice in the Ottoman Empire: Non-Muslims as Agents in an Islamic Imperial Legal Context” (https://www.ottolegal.net/thebalanceofjustice(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)) scheduled for this fall.
In the first eighteen months of the OTTOLEGAL project, the PI has put together a team of researchers of diverse backgrounds, skills, and interests to work on a large and diverse body of sources, some of which are difficult to access, while others are difficult to decipher. This team developed the digital infrastructure required for the project, and it has compiled a corpus of sources to collaborate on in their investigation of multiple overlapping legal spaces in which diverse groups participated to different degrees in creating legal norms. The ability to visualize the dated documents on an interactive map through the database and web portal will allow the team to navigate through the features of different periods and regions. Ultimately, the analysis and evaluation of a wide range of sources will make it possible to draw a realistic picture of lawmaking, acknowledging the agency of not only sultans and scholars but also other groups, such as powerful local groups, non-Muslims, common people, founders of endowments, guilds, and merchants. In doing so, the project team aims to develop a model of lawmaking that can account for diversity and change in the Ottoman Empire and beyond in the early-modern period. This will extend the frontiers of the field of Ottoman studies and promote its relevance for both specialists of Ottoman legal history and others who want to understand how people from different groups in the early-modern world used the means at their disposal to participate in the lawmaking process (or tried to) and interacted with one another to form laws within a globalizing imperial framework.