Women in the Shari῾a court records of Ottoman Damascus

Abstract

Qassam registers give detailed information about the estates of deceased people, the size of their households, the number of times they were married, the number of children, and the male-female ratio of minors and adults. The estates of deceased Christians in Damascus are reported more frequently in nineteenth-century qassam registers due to the application of the Tanzimat which advocated equality among all subjects and the tolerance shown towards the Christians by Egyptian rule in Syria in the 1830s. The registers indicate that monogamy was dominant in Damascus due to a low-to-average life-span. Marriage patterns and the composition of the estates of deceased women and men are examined in six qassam registers spanning a period of over a century (1750-1861). The establishment of religious endowments (vakıf) by Muslim and Christian women, and the varying titles given to these women in the court records are also discussed.