Abstract:

In the Ottoman Empire, the duties and jurisdictions of the courts are quite wide, and there seems to be no legal dispute that does not fall into this area. Court decisions were recorded in the registry book by specifying the date and a document was given to the parties. In order to make the judicial process fair in the places under the domination of the Ottoman State, qadi was sent to those places. After the Syrian territory came under Ottoman rule, qadi was appointed to centers such as Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo. The first of the Aleppo Sharia (qadi) records that have survived until today is dated 956/1549. The sharia register number 1, recorded in Arabic, is the main source of our work. There are three thousand three hundred and forty-eight documents in the said registry. In this record, many people from Aleppo and its environs, from various segments of the society, applied to the court in order to resolve the conflict between them. Among them; There are Jews, Christians, peasants, artisans, merchants, slaves and women. The subjects of most of the applications made by women to the court are marriage, talaq (divorce), mahr, alimony, power of attorney, commercial relations, debt issue, berat-ı dhimmet and similar issues. In this study, the situation of women who defend their rights or apply to the Aleppo Court to register their work will be examined.

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