A legal analysis of the register of the law court of Çirmen dated 986-988/1578-1580

In this thesis, the Çirmen court record dated 1578-1580 (986-988) was legally ana-lyzed. It aimed to find out whether or not the Islamic law, the source of Ottoman law, effected the decision of the judge. For this reason, the cases in the register were examined and some important cases were analyzed. The study has found out that the register consists of cases regarding mar-riage, divorce, sale, rent, loan and waqf (endowment), adultery, slander of adultery, theft, murder, wounding, usurpation, destruction, burning and forgery of docu-ments. It has also been underlined that woman applied to the court for their dower, and all divorce cases except for one ended with muhalaa in which they gave up their rights to mahr (dower) and alimony in return for separation from their husbands. In addition, it has been underscored that the rate of al-muamala al-sharia (legal trans-actions in which the prohibition on usury is bypassed) in cash waqfs was 10%, this rate was increased when necessary, and the repayment of the debt were ensured with bail and pawns. The decision of the judge was not recorded in the register but rather the case was registered. It has been observed that in some criminal cases, the defendants were handed over to officials such as vovvoda (provincial governor), muhzır (the one who summons in the court) and subaşı (a kind of police), and bail and imprisonment were used as a trail precaution. In a record of the adultery case, it was stated that a dhimmi who confessed adultery was punished (hadd). It has also been disclosed that there were legal transactions such sale or rent between Muslims and non-Muslims meaning that there was no problem in the relations between Muslims and non-Muslims. It has been further ascertained that dhimmis brought their own cases to court and Islamic law was applied in these cases. Contrary to the claim of some orientalists that Islamic law was not applied in the courts, it has been determined that Islamic law was applied, and the court followed the Hanafi law in its decisions, and regarding the testimony of dhimmis against Muslims, the court followed the fatwa of Sheikh al-Islam Ebussuud Efendi.