The legal status of Ottoman middlemen in the Levant (16th Century)

MELIS, NICOLA

In press

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Abstract

An academic division still persists between Ottoman and Islamic legal studies. In the past, the former very rarely set Ottoman law in a general Islamic context; the latter often viewed Ottoman legal reasoning as having no pertinence to Islamic law in general. In fact, each of the two fields has a very strong tradition of isolated internal discussion. Over the past few decades, however, there has been a marked increase in interest in the relationship between the Islamic jurisprudence and legal practice and the reconciliation of the two. Ottoman law provides a timely demonstration of the flexibility and contextual sensitivity of Islamic law, contrasting with commonly held conceptions of the fikih as a fixed canon. Hence, a flourishing theme in Ottoman studies is currently the relationship between legal theory and practical jurisprudence. Historians of Islamic legal discourse have begun to exploit Ottoman legal records as a source for the study of Islamic legal history.