An honour killing in Aintab: The issue of killing fornicators in the Ottoman Empire

Abstract

An honour killing that took place in Ottoman Aintab at the end of the 16th century is examined in this paper. As it seems the qadi (kadı) of Aintab did not punish the murderer at all. What underpins the qadi’s decision is the opinion held by shari’a jurists indicating that anyone who commits adultery could be killed and the killer, by doing so, will not be punished for the crime. The issue of killing fornicators has been generally addressed through the fatwas of the Shaykh al-Islam. How the qadis reached a verdict regarding this type of cases has been largely ignored. Thus, the issue has not been made clear completely and there have been certain misinterpretations on this subject. We aim to ascertain how the qadi gave a verdict by looking closely at a particular murder case, which is not frequently encountered in Ottoman qadi records. For that purpose, the opinions of Islamic jurists related to the issue, the fatwas of Ottoman Shaykh al-Islams and Ottoman criminal code have been examined together with the verdict of the qadi of Aintab. It is also studied which juridical opinions the parties referred to in their statements and how those references affected the verdict of the qadi.