OTTOLEGAL Project aims to introduce an innovative approach to the study of Ottoman legal history, one that rejects essentializing and teleological assumptions and exposes the dynamic interaction of multiple actors in the lawmaking process, thereby opening new lines of inquiry that will highlight the relationship of legal ideas of diverse origins in the Ottoman legal universe.
In OTTOLEGAL Prof. Dr. Abdurrahman ATÇIL and his team investigates the formation of law in the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period. Examining a large corpus of religio-legal opinions (fetva) and sultanic decrees (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.
Prof. ATÇIL's project proposal was supported within the scope of TÜBİTAK's ERC Principal Investigator Advancement Program (EBAG).
Prof. Dr. ATÇIL is the recipient of the TÜBA Outstanding Young Scientist Award (2015) and the Science Academy Young Scientist Award (2018). In 2023, he was elected as an Associate Member of TÜBA.
Call: ERC-2019-CoG
Project Duration: 5 year
Project Acronym: OTTOLEGAL
Project Title: The Making of Ottoman Law: The Agency and Interaction of Diverse Groups in Lawmaking, 1450–1650
Project ID: 866319
Host Instituion: Sabancı University
Panel: SH6 - The Study of the Human Past
Related ERC Proof of Concept Project: -
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.
(Resource: CORDIS)
