Ottoman Regular Courts: Law and Modernity

This book originated from Avi Rubin’s doctoral dissertation at Harvard University, examining the Ottoman regular courts. Historians, particularly those in legal history, regard these courts as a significant milestone in the Middle East’s entry into modernity in the late 19th century. Rubin investigates the establishment of these courts during the late Tanzimat era and Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s reign (1856-1909), including their interaction with Sharia courts. He utilizes the “Courts Gazette” as a key source in exploring legal discourse and enforcement.

Contrary to common academic perceptions, Rubin challenges the idea of a clear division between modern secular courts and ancient Sharia courts in the Ottoman Empire. He disputes the notion that Ottoman law reform aimed at secularizing laws by substituting Islamic laws with human-made ones. Rubin dismisses the Western influence model, typical of early historians studying Ottoman institutions, and the modernization theory. He opts for a world-order approach, acknowledging the diverse universality of modernity, and discards the traditional hierarchical view that places Western societies above others in evolutionary terms.

Rubin employs a socio-legal approach, emphasizing law application and day-to-day judicial practices in regular courts. He suggests understanding the role of these courts within the Ottoman model of modernization, rather than through the lens of secularization and replacing Islamic law with man-made legislation.

The book offers a fascinating exploration of Sultan Abdul Hamid II’s reform initiatives and authoritarian governance, particularly the centralization of state power. It questions how 19th-century people received a legal system influenced by French law, the state’s success in establishing the separation of powers, efforts to mitigate legal pluralism’s side effects, how people used this pluralism for personal gains, and the state’s attempts to curb court corruption. Rubin provides insightful answers to these and other complex questions in his comprehensive study.