Abstract:

In the multinational Ottoman Empire, people were divided into groups only according to their religion; nation concept in the modern sense did not exist and in this regard, the Jewish, the Armenians and the Rums who composed nearly the half of the population lived freely until the collapse of the state without losing their identities and being forced to convert to Islam. In the Ottoman Empire, non-Muslim groups benefited from the protection of the Islamic law due to the Treaty of Zimmet. In this study, the legal status of the individuals who lived in the Ottoman Empire, an Islamic state, and who were called “zimmis” will be examined in the light of archival documents. In our research, the rights that non-Muslims who resided in Ottoman territories had in terms of private and public law will be reviewed in the light of several archival documents

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