Abstract:

After the conquest of Istanbul, the Ottoman society was formed on the basis of the “Millet System”, in which freedom of faith and thought was granted for the members of the communities which included various religions and parties of the society. In addition, in the line of given autonomy with regard to certain rights, judicial acts and cases that concerned private law were resolved according to the laws and customs of each community. Along with the Rūms and Armenians, Jews constituted an important branch of the Ottoman Mil- let System. Due to its multi- national and multi-religious social structure, the Otto- man Empire respected the religions and cultures of in- dividuals in the sphere of private law. This can be seen clearly in the field of fami- ly law. The Qāḍīs, in the cas- es before them, took the re- ligious identity of the par- ties into consideration and made their decisions in ac- cordance with these provi- sions thereof. This sensitivi- ty was exhibited in the prep- aration of the last example of Ottoman legislation, the Ḥuqūqi ʿĀʾila Qarār-nāmasi (Hukûk-ı Âile Kararnâme- si [The Decree of the Fam- ily Law]), and “the provi- sions regarding Jews and Christians” were established separately. This study will examine the place of Jews in the Ottoman social order and their judicial status. The study will be concluded with some evaluations compar- ing Jewish customs and the rules of family law that were applied to the Ottoman Jews within the framework of Ḥuqūqi ʿĀʾila Qarār-nāmasi, dated 1917.

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