Breaching the Bronze Wall: Franks at Mamluk and Ottoman Courts and Markets

Erscheinungsjahr 2020
ISBN: 978-90-04-38274-9
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 2, 332 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 633 g

Reihe: Mediterranean Reconfigurations

Breaching the Bronze Wall deals with the idea that the words of honorable Muslims constitutes proof and that written documents and the words of non-Muslims are of inferior value. Thus, foreign merchants in cities such as Istanbul, Damascus or Alexandria could barely prove any claim, as neither their contracts nor their words were of any value if countered by Muslims. Francisco Apellániz explores how both groups labored to overcome the ‘biases against non-Muslims’ in Mamluk Egypt’s and Syria’s courts and markets (14th-15th c.) and how the Ottoman conquest (1517) imposed a new, orthodox view on the problem. The book slips into the Middle Eastern archive and the Ottoman Divan, and scrutinizes shari'a’s intricacies and their handling by consuls, dragomans, qadis and other legal actors.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Apellániz, Francisco

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islamisches Recht
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike
• Rechtswissenschaften Ausländisches Recht Islamisches Recht
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Dialog & Beziehungen zwischen Religionen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

1 Introduction

1.1 Structure of the Book

2 Producing, Handling and Archiving Evidence in Mediterranean Societies

2.1 The 'Archival Divide'

2.2 Islamic Notions and Doctrines on Proof and Evidence

2.3 Notaries in the Cross-Confessional Middle Ages

2.4 The Case of the Outremer Notaries

2.5 New Attitudes towards the Written

3 ‘Men Like the Franks’: Dealing with Diversity in Medieval Norms and Courts

3.1 An Introduction to Siyasa

3.2 The Crusader Marketplace

3.3 The actor sequitur forum rei Principle

3.4 Empowering One Consul over the Others

3.5 An Iberian Epilogue

3.6 Siyasa Justice in Theory and Practice

3.7 Conflict Resolution in and out of the Courtroom

3.8 Merchants at the Islamic Courts: a Lender of Last Resort?

3.9 Mixed Cases at the Qadi Court

3.10 Mixed Cases before Siyasa Courts

3.11 Siyasa among the Franks

4 Ottoman Legal Attitudes towards Diversity

4.0 The ‘Witness System’: a Bronze Wall?

4.1 The Legal Grounds of the Ottoman Witness System

4.2 The Ban on Muslim Witnesses

4.3 Dhimmi Claims on Communal Exclusivity: the Carazari Clause

4.4 False Witnessing

4.5 Proving Enslavement

4.6 Legal Truth and the Governance of Frontier Zones

4.7 The Aleppo Ferman

4.8 A Death in Damascus

5 Conclusions

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Francisco Apellániz, Ph.D. (2006) European University Institute, has taught Islamic and Ottoman History at Aix-en-Provence and is currently at the Orientale in Naples. He is the author of Pouvoir et finance en Méditerranée pré-moderne: le deuxième Etat mamelouk et le commerce des épices (1382-1517) (CSIC 2009).