The right to life in Ottoman Law (1453-1566)

This study tries to explain the position of the right to life in Ottoman Law. The subject of the study is, to cover the relevant period, the right to life in the Ottoman Empire. The aim of the study is to examine whether the right in question, which is considered to be the most fundamental human right, exists in the history of Turkish law, if so, how it is protected and in what way it is limited. In the study, the relevant sources in national and international doctrine, Ottoman law books (qanunname), Islamic law books which are the sources of Ottoman law, fatwa books and Ottoman judicial registers were used. In this context, the purpose of the study, the method used and some basic concepts are explained in detail in the introduction. In the first part; the basic concepts regarding the right to life, in the second part; the protection of the right and in the third part; the issues related to its limitation are mentioned. In this study, it was concluded that the right to life is a right that existed in the Ottoman Empire and was legally protected. Another conclusion is that this right was limited by various factors such as death penalty and the state's intervention in events such as riots in the Ottoman Empire as it is today. The study has an original character in terms of its subject and the working of subject. Keywords : Right to life, Ottoman Law, death penalty, apostasy, euthanasia, ta'zeer bil-qatl, foetus, stone to death