Justice for All: Muslims and Non-Muslims Settling Disputes at the Kadi's Court in Kayseri, C. 1900

Abstract

This paper on justice relies on the court records of Kayseri. This city is situated in central Anatolia and was incorporated into the Ottoman empire in 1464 by Mehmed the Conqueror. It was part of the Province of Karaman in the 17th and 18th centuries. Later, in 1846, it was listed as sub-province of the province of Bozok, and in 1867 as a sub-province of the province of Ankara. Previous studies have already documented that the non-Muslims in the Ottoman empire made extensive use of the Kadi's court for various reasons. It is not our intention to discuss here the question of why non-Muslims referred to the Kadi's court instead of their independent legal institutions, inasmuch as they existed, as this is beyond the scope of this paper and the point has already been discussed for other parts of the Ottoman Empire. It seems that much of what has been said elsewhere also applies to Kayseri in the early 1900s.