Nâib in the Ottoman judicial organization

Nâib is an official working as the assisstant of kadı. They had the authority to hear criminal and civil cases as well as handling other judicial processes outside the court on behalf of kadı. Assigning nâibs as the assisstants of kadı first emerged in the early periods of Islamic law and seen in the context of public power. Nâib was accepted as a presedential represantative. There had been regulations about nâib in the Ottoman Classical period. In 18th century, the assignment procedure of nâib had been changed and an exam system had been envisaged. In 1838, the practice of kadı's to go to their places of duty in person instead of appointing a nâib, had been renounced. Kadı officials had adopted this strategy to assign nâibs to their places of duty ever increasingly and that had resulted in the replacement of the term kadı with nâib during Tanzimat period. In the 1855 Regulation About Nüvvâb, there were only provisions about nâib, with the term nüvvâb actually meaning sharia judges. There had been many different officials with different duties under the name of nâib in the Ottoman state practice. These officials should be counted under two main categories as generally and specially authorized nâib. Nâib had an authority in every field of law and also performed administrative duties. Their decisions had been monitored by different official positions. They had been very useful in shortening the judicial process periods and keeping the courts functioned. However the system had degenerated over time due to qualifications of nâibs, also the assignment methods and economical reasons. In our history, the closest example to the institution of assisstant judge stipulated in Law No. 7413 that entered into force in 1.1.2013, is nâibship as the provisions of this Law is deemed similar to Tanzimat Period regulations about nâib.