Abstract
Historians of the Ottoman legal system agree that the basic precepts of Islamic law (the sharia) were, as a matter of principle, to apply fully to the Muslim inhabitants of the empire on all matters civil, personal, and marital. Customary law (örf or adet) was, in personal and civil matters, always subordinate to it. Public law imposed by the Ottoman political authority (kanun and örf-i sultani) was promulgated on the authority of the state and reflected, first and foremost, the priorities and values of the imperial system. Penal law was one other particular area where the Ottoman peculiarity in the implementation of the sharia found expression. The powers of the religious judge, the kadı, were extended to include some supervisory duties, such as the policing of guilds and the regulation and control of markets. Urban security was also placed under his authority, with officers to help implement his decisions. In penal or commercial matters, the law that was effectively put into practice might have been an amalgam of sharia, imperial fiat, and custom, the particular outcome being the result of the interplay of political and social forces.
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