An Analysis on the Operations and Functions of a Sharīʿah Court: the Case of Ottoman Üsküdar (1547-1551)

Abstract

Through a close reading of a single register found in the sixteenth-century court record series of Üsküdar, this article introduces the reader to the operations of the Sharīʿah court of Üsküdar and its records from 1547 to 1551. By approaching the court records as both “text” and “document,” it explores the functions of the court, identifies the court officials, defines their roles, and delineates the role played by the qāḍī, his court and the local community in the administration of justice. This article can be read as a contribution to the newly emerging literature on variations in the Sharīʿah courts in the Ottoman Empire in terms of their operations. As the recent literature including this present study demonstrates, the duties of the local Sharīʿah court in the Ottoman Empire are neither singular nor monolithic. While some of the courts provided notarial and administrative services primarily, others acted as significant sites for dispute resolution. Hence their operations were primarily judicial. What emerges from this study is that the court of Üsküdar in the very middle of the sixteenth century primarily functioned as a “public registry.”