Continuity and Transformation in Islamic Law

Original release date: 22 August 2015 | E197 | This podcast explores murky boundaries in two senses. The first has to do with Anglo-Ottoman commerce and diplomacy in the early modern period. Like the more well-known case of the the British East India Company in South Asia, British diplomatic representation in Constantinople was also controlled by a corporate entity. Known as the Levant Company, the institution ensured that from the late 16th to the early 19th century there was little distinction between merchants and statesmen when it came to British diplomacy in the Ottoman Empire. The blurred lines gave way to what might be called a “cycle of necessity,” in which British diplomats gave gifts to secure commercial privileges for British merchants who would then fund the diplomats to provide gifts again. Yet the cycle did not always proceed smoothly, and discrepancies between translations of agreements often played a key role in hitches, in the process raising basic yet profound questions about what treaty-making meant. The second part of the podcast considers Ottoman maritime space and legal order more broadly. With respect to this theme, murkiness makes another appearance, this time as it related to the ability to possess or control the sea. What did it mean to draw a line across the waves, to differentiate between su and derya? Particularly in an age of imprecise mapmaking technologies, these efforts at delineation often were accompanied by a good deal of ambiguity, pointing to the complexity - if not always plurality - of legal cultures and claims to sovereignty that existed in the Ottoman maritime space and, indeed, that extended even ashore the Well-Protected Domains as well. More at: http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2015/08/british-ottoman-diplomacy-and-making-of.html Dr. Michael Talbot completed his PhD at the School of African and Oriental Studies in London. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher with the Mediterranean Reconfigurations project at Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. Episode No. 197 Release Date: 22 August 2015 Location: Paris, France Editing and production by Chris Gratien Bibliography courtesy of Michael Talbot Image via http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O916899/a-british-official-probably-the-watercolour-anonymous-greek-artist/

Original air date: 16 August 2013 | During the nineteenth century, the increasing professionalization of medical practice led to the emergence of new institutions and laws governing legitimate use of medical knowledge. In the Ottoman Empire, the arrival of European medical schools and establishments led to tensions regarding the sovereignty of the empire over the medical realm in its own domains. This episode with Philippe Bourmaud follows the debates and conflicts over the establishment of the French medical school of Saint-Joseph in Beirut during the late Ottoman period and their meaning for own understanding of imperialism and colonialism in the Ottoman world. Philippe Bourmaud is an Assistant Professor of History at Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 University (see academia.edu) Sam Dolbee is a PhD candidate in the department of Middle East Studies at New York University Chris Gratien is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Georgetown University (see academia.edu) Seçil Yılmaz is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at City University of New York studying disease and medicine in the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey (see academia.edu) Episode No. 118 Release date: 16 August 2013 Location: Kurtuluş, Istanbul Editing and production by Chris Gratien Bibliography courtesy of Philippe Bourmaud SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Betty S. ANDERSON, The American University of Beirut : Arab Nationalism and Liberal Education, University of Texas Press, 2011 Robert BLECHER, The Medicalization of Sovereignty: Medicine, Public Health, and ¨Political Authority in Syria, 1861-1936, PhD, Stanford University, 2002 Sylvia CHIFFOLEAU, Médecines et Médecins en Égypte: Construction d'une Identité Professionnelle et Projet Médical, L'Harmattan, 1997 Jean DUCRUET, Un Siècle de Coopération Franco-Libanaise au Service des Professions de Santé, Imprimerie Catholique, 1992 Chantal VERDEIL, « Naissance d'une Nouvelle Elite Ottomane. Formation et Trajectoires des Médecins Diplômés de Beyrouth à la Fin du XIXe Siècle », in Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Méditerranée, 121-122, 04/2008, p. 217-237. Elise G. YOUNG, Gender and Nation Building in the Middle East. The Political Economy of Health from Mandate Palestine to Refugee Camps in Jordan, I.B. Tauris, 2012.

Original release date: 18 January 2014 | Notions of racial difference played an important role in the Atlantic slave trade and have left a long legacy well after the slave trade was abolished during the nineteenth century. Yet centuries earlier, an Islamic scholar from Timbuktu had formulated an argument against the enslavement of individuals based on race or skin color. In this episode, Chris Gratien discusses the life and writings of Ahmad Baba in Timbuktu and Marrakesh as a captive scholar of Sultan Ahmad al-Mansour. Image source: www.loc.gov/exhibits/mali/mali-exhibit.html SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY Gratien, Chris. "Race, Slavery, and Islamic Law in the Early Modern Atlantic." The Journal of North African Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3 (May 2013). Baba, Ahmad ibn Ahmad, John O. Hunwick, and Fatima Harrak. Mi`raj al-Su`ud : Ajwibat Ahmad Baba Hawla Al-Istirqaq. [al-Rabat]: al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyah, Jami`at Muhammad al-Khamis, Ma`had al-Dirasat al-Afriqiyah bi-al-Rabat, 2000. Hunwick, John O. "A New Source for the Biography of Ahmad Baba Al-Tinbukti (1556-1627)." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 27, no. 3 (1964). Lovejoy, Paul. "The Context of Enslavement in West Africa." In Slaves, Subjects, and Subversives : Blacks in Colonial Latin America, edited by Jane Landers and Barry Robinson, 9-38. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006. Mouline, Nabil. Le Califat Imaginaire D'ahmad Al-Mansur: Pouvoir Et Diplomatie Au Maroc Au Xvie Siècle. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2009. Zouber, Mahmoud A. Ahmad Baba De Tombouctou (1556-1627) : Sa Vie Et Son Oeuvre. Paris: G.-P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1977.

Original release date: 9 November 2013 | Osmanlı'da kamusal alan ile özel yaşam arasındaki sınır nasıl çizilmiştir? Herkesin birbirinin muhbiri olduğu bir toplumda iktidar, toplum ve birey arasındaki ilişki nasıl düzenlenmiştir? Bu sorulara yanıt aradığımız bu podcastımızda Fikret Yılmaz ile erken modern Osmanlı toplumunda mahremiyetin sınırları üzerine konuştuk. Ayrıca, Osmanlı toplum tarihçiliğinin sıkıntılarına dikkat çekerek, kavramsal çalışmaların gerekliliğine dikkat çektik. Where did the boundary between the public and private spheres lie in the Ottoman Empire? How was the relationship between government, society and individual configured in a society where everyone spied on their neighbors? In search of answers to these questions, this episode of Ottoman History Podcast explores the boundaries of privacy in early modern Ottoman society with Dr. Fikret Y0131lmaz, drawing attention to the lacuna in historiography on Ottoman society and the need for conceptual studies. (podcast is in Turkish) More at: http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2013/11/private-public-sphere-ottoman-empire.html Episode No. 129 Release date: 9 November 2013 Location: Kuzguncuk, Üsküdar Editing and production by Chris Gratien Bibliography courtesy of Fikret Yılmaz

Original air date: 26 July 2013 | Osmanlı tarihyazımında cevabı aranan önemli bir soru da Osmanlı kültüründe günlük, anı, hatırat gibi ben anlatılarının bulunup bulunmadığıdır. Bu bölümümüzde Selim Karahasanoğlu ile son çalışması Sadreddinzade Telhisi Mustafa Efendi ceridesi hakkında konuştuk. 18. yüzyılın önde gelen ulema ailelerinden birine mensup bu Osmanlı kadısının 24 yıl boyunca düzenli olarak tuttuğu bu günlüğün tarihsel kaynak olarak değerine ve Avrupa'daki diğer örneklerle arasındaki fark ve benzerliklere değindik. Ayrıca, yazma kütüphanelerinde karşılaşılan kurumsal zorlukların nasıl Osmanlı kültür tarihi araştırmalarının önünü tıkadığının altını çizerek, bir kaç eser üzerinden genellemeler yapmanın zorluğundan bahsettik.

Original air date: 20 November 2014 | How have the immense transformations of the nineteenth century impacted Egyptian state and society? Our guest Dr. Khaled Fahmy has devoted much of his work to the study of that very question in the realms of military, medicine, and in this episode, law, which is the subject of his forthcoming book. In this episode, we explore the emergence to of new legal institutions under Mehmed Ali's government in Egypt and ask Dr. Fahmy what this meant for Egypt and how it fits into the broader changes afoot in the Ottoman world. More at: http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2014/11/law-crime-ottoman-egypt-fahmy.html

Original air date: 13 July 2014 | Tanzimat’in ilanıyla beraber gündelik hayatın pek çok alanına nüfuz etmeyi hedefleyen yasal uygulamalar eczane ve attar dükkanlarının tozlu raflarına kadar ulaşmayı başarmıştı. Bu bölümde Ebru Aykut, Tanzimat sonrası Osmanlısı'nda zehir satışını düzenleyen uygulamalarla kocalarıyla hesaplaşmayı zehir yoluyla seçen kadınların kesişen hikayelerini anlatıyor. http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2014/07/poison-murder-women-ottoman-empire.html Geç Osmanlı dönemi taşrasında suç ve cezalandırma pratiklerinin sosyal-hukuki tarihi üzerine çalışmalarını sürdüren Dr. Ebru Aykut, Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi Sosyoloji Bölümü'nde öğretim üyesidir. SEÇME KAYNAKÇA Aykut, Ebru. Alternative Claims on Justice and Law: Rural Arson and Poison Murder in the 19th Century Ottoman Empire, Ph.d diss. (Boğaziçi University Atatürk Institute, 2011). Aykut, Ebru. “Osmanlı’da Zehir Satışının Denetimi ve Kocasını Zehirleyen Kadınlar,” Toplumsal Tarih, no. 194 (Şubat 2010): 58-64. Aykut, Ebru. “Osmanlı’da Tesmîm Cinayetleri: Adli Tıp, Deliller ve Mütefenninler,” Edebiyatın İzinde Polisiye Edebiyat, yay. Haz. S. Şahin, B. Öztürk ve D. A. Büyükarman (İstanbul: Bağlam Yayınları, 2013): 35-42. Bodó, Bela. “The Poisoning Women of Tiszazug,” Journal of Family History 21, no. 1 (January 2002): 40-59. Imber, Colin. “Why You Should Poison Your Husband: A Note on Liability in Hanafî Law in the Ottoman Period,” Islamic Law and Society 1, no. 2 (1994): 206-216. Robb, George. “Circe in Crinoline: Domestic Poisoning in Victorian England,” Journal of Family History 22, no. 2 (April 1997): 176-190. Rubin, Avi. Ottoman Nizamiye Courts: Law and Modernity (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). Shapiro, Ann-Louis. Breaking the Codes: Female Criminality in Fin-de-Siècle Paris (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1996). Müzik: Ayla Dikmen - Zehir Gibi Aşkın Var, Müslüm Gürses - Kadehinde Zehir Olsa, Samira Tawfiq - Ballah Tsabbou Halgahwe

Original air date: 7 June 2014 | While humans have devised no shortage of ways to punish each other throughout history, the rise of the prison and incarceration as a method for dealing with crime is primarily a nineteenth century phenomenon. In this episode, Kent Schull discusses his recent book about the development of the Ottoman prison system and explores the lives of Ottoman prisoners. More at: http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2014/06/prison-ottoman-empire-crime.html

Original air date: 18 November 2013 | Inheritance and the transfer of property across generations connects the history of families to a broader analysis of political economy, particularly in societies where wealth and capital are deeply rooted in the earth. In this episode, Zoe Griffith provides a framework for the study of family history through the lens of the mulberry tree and its produce in a study of Ottoman court records from Tripoli (modern-day Lebanon). http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2011/11/ottoman-lebanon-property.html

Original air date: 2 February 2015 | Hadi Hosainy ile 17. yüzyıl İstanbulu'nda kadın mülkiyet hakları üzerine konuştuğumuz bu podcastımızda kadınların hukuki yollara başvurarak nasıl kendilerini koruduklarına ve Osmanlı toplumunun şeri hukukun kadını dezavantajlı bir konuma iten kurallarının nasıl arkasından dolandığına değindik. Toplumsal cinsiyetin hukukun işleyişine etkilerini tartıştık. http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2015/02/islamic-law-women-property-ottoman-empire.html