Transcription and evaluation of İstanbul Kısmet-i Askeriye Court Registry Number 876

The registry numbered 876 belonging to the Kısmet-i Askeriye Court, which is in the Istanbul Mufti's Office Sharia Records Archives, consists of 72 pages containing 117 accounting records kept in the years 1224-1225 (1809-1811). This thesis consists of two parts; in the first part, the practices regarding orphan children and the kassam system in the Ottoman society before Tanzimat are examined using the data obtained from the aforementioned registry. The second part contains the transcription of the mentioned register. The examined book consists of accounting records of orphan children whose parents were soldiers and subjects in Ottoman society. For this reason, the study focused on the practices regarding the protection of orphan children in the Ottoman Empire and evaluations were made within this framework. In this thesis, it has been seen that the management of orphans and their property was largely entrusted to guardians appointed from among other living family members. The property of orphaned children is entrusted to their guardians in order to meet their maintenance expenses and protect their assets. It has been observed that this practice is carried out both by lending cash belonging to orphans and by renting real estate. It has been observed that the income obtained covers various expenses, from meeting the alimony of orphans to repairing and paying for the foundation properties in the possession of orphans, from children's education expenses to purchasing holiday clothes. The orphan's assets were used for profit purposes to a large extent through loans, the income obtained was used to cover expenses, and the remaining money at the end of the accounting period was kept in the bezzazistan fund by the guardians to be given to those who wanted new loans, and returned to them when they came of age. It was observed that upon the approval of maturity in court, the entire property of the orphan was handed over. Based on 131 accounting books registered in the registry that constitutes the subject of the study, the transactions and practices of the mother and father until they come of age were examined and tabulated, and the status of the assets of the orphan children before and after accounting was revealed and tabulated. Based on accounting data, the average alimony amount allocated to orphans, assets and accounting periods can be determined. Again, by examining and graphing the registry data, data on subjects such as types of guardian appointments and reasons for appointing new guardians were obtained, detailed explanations of two case studies were made, and accounting records kept for orphan children were included.