Osmanlı Hukukun Ondokuzuncu Yüzyılda Evrimsel Sekülerleşmesi: Kökler ve Etkileri

Abstract

In the world history, the nineteenth century witnessed globally major economic, politic, and social changes. More importantly, their implications constitute today's challenges particularly for modern Muslim-majority states where the tension between state, religion and society has not been settled. There is no doubt that looking at the past where the separation between sharī'a and state started clearly to appear serves for a better understanding of today's struggle in locating the role of sharī'a in legal systems of modern Muslim-majority states. Many of them, i.e. the Middle Eastern and some North African states are the successors of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans ruled over continents for centuries thanks to their well-established governmental policy and legal system. However, they were also obliged to introduce some remarkable changes in social, political and legal spheres in the nineteenth century. The era is generally called as the process of Ottoman modernization and secularisation referring to Tanzimat Edict and following legal reforms. This study seeks to analyse the way Ottoman law has been transformed in the nineteenth century, as well as its roots, challenges and implications. To this end, the paper offers an answer to the questions as to whether secularisation of Ottoman law was evolutionary or revolutionary, why it had to go through a process of secularisation, and to what extent classical Ottoman system could serve this secularisation process. To address these inquiries, the study is divided into two principle sections: the first part evaluates the classical Ottoman legal system and its religious and non-religious characters, arguing that the Turkish state tradition with its influence on government and law making were in fact the changeable features of the Ottoman law.  Bu çalışma Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Hukukun Sekülerleşmesi başlıklı yüksek lisans tezim esas alınarak hazırlanmıştır. / This article is extracted from my master thesis, Secularisation of Law in the Ottoman Empire (London/UK: SOAS University of London, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, MA Thesis, 2013).İntihal Taraması/Plagiarism Detection: Bu makale intihal taramasından geçirildi/This paper was checked for plagiarism Etik Beyan/Ethical Statement: Bu çalışmanın hazırlanma sürecinde bilimsel ve etik ilkelere uyulduğu ve yararlanılan tüm çalışmaların kaynakçada belirtildiği beyan olunur/It is declared that scientific and ethical principles have been followed while carrying out and writing this study and that all the sources used have been properly cited (Miyase Yavuz Altıntaş). Geliş/

The Historical Role of Religion and Nationalism in the Constitutions and Laws of Syria, Lebanon and Tunisia

“…In the same vein, Article (11) stipulates that Islam is the religion of the state, emphasizing the freedom of other religions to practice their rituals. 3 It is worth noting that in the Levant, many ethnic groups also exist in Turkey due to geography and proximity. For instance, we find Syriacs, Assyrians, Kurds, Circassians and other groups who were, in fact, Ottomans, hence applying Article (8) of the Ottoman Constitution of 1876.…”