Abstract:

Ottoman law is essentially based on Islamic law. In areas where Islamic law gives the head of state the authority to make regulations, laws were issued on the condition that they are not against the law. One of the areas where such regulations are made is criminal law. Among the laws that were evaluated within the scope of customary law in the Ottoman Empire and included regulations regarding criminal law, there are the law codes prepared during the reigns of Fatih Sultan Mehmed (d. 886/1481), Bayezid II (d. 918/1512), Yavuz Sultan Selim (d. 926/1520), Kanuni Sultan Süleyman (d. 974/1566), Selim II (d. 982/1574), Murat III (d. 1003/1595), Murat IV (d. 1049/1640), Mehmet IV (d. 1104/1693) and other Ottoman sultans. Penal codes continued to be prepared during and after the Tanzimat. The first penal code was prepared in 1840 in line with the principles adopted after the Tanzimat Fermanı (1839). This law generally consists of provisions taken from Islamic criminal law. The penal code (kanun-ı cedid) of 1851 is an amendment to the penal code of 1840. In this law, it is seen that the sharia provisions are given more place than the previous one. The penal code of 1858, on the other hand, was prepared within the framework of the authority to regulate the "tazir" punishments granted to the sharia head of state, as stated in its introduction, without prejudice to personal rights. It can be said that this law is a continuation of previous penal codes based on sharia provisions, but it was regulated in the form and systematically in European laws with the effect of Tanzimat. In this study, the crimes and punishments in these three penal codes, which were prepared and entered into force after the Tanzimat, will be discussed.

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