Local Court Community And Justice In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Century Ottoman Empire

Abstract: This dissertation studies specific features of the Ottoman administration of justice in Anatolia during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In particular, it examines the functions and responsibilities of Islamic courts within the framework of the Ottoman provincial administration, and explores the processes of adjudication and dispute resolution through a detailed juxtaposition of court records from two Anatolian towns, Çankırı and Kastamonu. This latter task is achieved through a historical-anthropological analysis of legal practices, which focuses primarily on the micropolitics of adjudication and dispute resolution.