Women in the Ottoman Balkans: Gender, Culture and History
Page 49
divorce ( talak divorce). If the talak divorce was declared before the kadı, the
zimmi man can not claim that the divorce is invalid according to his religion,
and therefore the woman is divorced. (Düzdağ 1998: 157.) See also Jennings
1978: 275.
laiou, Christian Women in an ottoman World
263
38. See for instance Zilfi 1997: 282–83;
Tucker 1998: 93.
39. Folder
1/18, 1014/1605. A similar register of divorce in the şeriye sicili of
Karaferye, No. 1, 89.
40. Şeriye sicili of Karaferye No. 19, 6.
41. Merkellbach 1991: 81.
42. Şeriye sicili of Karaferye No. 1, 83.
43. Şeriye sicili of Karaferye No. 11, 105, 1037/1627. See also Vasdravellis 1954,
2: 17–18. For similar cases, see also Karantzikou and Photeinou 2003: 29,
147.
44. Türk
Dünyası Araştırmaları Vakfı 1989, 2: 247: beyinimizde hüsn-i
zindegânemiz olmamağla âyin-i bâtılamız üzere beyinimizde mehr-i müeccel
tesmiye olunmadığı ecilden beynimizde olan nikâhımızı ba’de’lfesh…
45. For
representative examples of deliberate delays in issuing divorce letters on
behalf of the ecclesiastical authorities, see Kalinderis 1974: 103; Giannoulis
1980: 46, 51, 52, 53, 54; Sfyroeras 1956: 14.
46. Ginis 1960–63: 255; Mihailidis-Nouaros 1982–83: 13.
47. Stavrinidis 1976, 1: 180, 175;
Şeriye sicili of Candia No. 2, 56, 59.
48. Stavrinidis 1976, 1: 8.
49. V
asdravellis 1954, 2: 2–3. I was unable to locate the court record for the year
1008 either in Thessaloniki or in Veria.
50. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, “Hadana”; Tucker 1998: 128–31.
51. Harmenopoulou
1971: book IV, title IX 3, 241. A similar legal regulation,
incorporated in the legal practices on the Island of Samos in 1860, is in
Sevastakis 1986: 190, and also in the Nomokanon of Theophilos (Ginis
1960: 90), as well as in the Nomokanon of Photinopoulos (1766) (Zepos and
Georgescu 1982: 70).
52. Maurer 1976: 105.
53. Mihailidis-Nouaros 1982–83: 14.
54. Kasdagli 1999: 254.
55. Mihailidis-Nouaros 1982–83: 14.
56. Folder I/67, 1045/1635.
57. See also Peirce 1997: 173, 187;
Tucker 1998: 139; Imber 1997: 192.
58. Folder
2/39, 1071/1661: mezbur Andriya gelüb beni ahz edüb ben dahi imtina
etmemek ile bana fiil-i şeni eyleyüb hamile olmuşumdur sual olunub müceb-
i şer icra olunması matlubumdur. Her confession that she did not resist, as
well as her statement that she occasionally suffered from fits—made after the
defendant had taken an oath of innocence—demonstrate her endeavor to be
considered as non compos mentis and thus to avoid the punishment for the
crime of false accusation for zina [ kazf]. See also Laiou 1999: 149–57.
59. Folder
II/83, 1092/1681: Yani veled-i Aleksa nasrani beni evi içinde fiil-i şeni
ile bana zina etdi habelim zahir oldu.
60. Stavrinidis 1976, 5: 1;
Şeriye sicili of Candia No. 26, 246.
61. Stavrinidis 1976, 5: 13.
62. Schacht 1964: 178.
264
Women in the ottoman Balkans
63. Imber
1983: 62, 73. It is interesting that the same attitude towards the woman’s
role in a case of rape was held in France in the eighteenth century. (Vigarello
2001: 73–78.) See also Hafton 2003: 311. For a different attitude toward non-
consensual sex and the question of whether or not to punish the woman in the
Byzantine period, see Laiou 1993: 156–74, where it is stated that in Byzantine
Law, the absence of consent by the woman constituting a case of rape could be
proved by some objective criteria, such as the use of a weapon, the existence
of accomplices, and the location of the crime.
64. Imber 1983: 80–83.
65. Imber 1983: 60; see also Ze’evi 2001: 226, tables 1–4.
66. Sonbol 1997: 216.
67. Heyd 1973: 56–64, 95–103.
68. Sonbol
1997: 223. The consul Jean Giraud (seventeenth century) related that
in Athens, adulteresses were exposed to public humiliation if they failed to
bribe the kadı. (Aggelomatis-Tsougarakis 1992: 396.) The consul probably
refers to the imposition of a fine. Also, another traveller described the public
flogging of an adulteress in İzmir. (Ibid.) In seventeenth-century Bursa, the
women who were brought to court by the subaşı and accused of adultery were
condemned to the bastinado; it is uncertain, however, if they also paid a fine.
(Gerber 1980: 239.)
69. In
relation to the oath of innocence, it is interesting that in the kadı record
of Aintab of 1540–41, women took an oath of innocence in very few cases
compared to men. (Peirce 2003: 192.)
70. See
also ibid., 354. It is very interesting that in Byzantine civil law, the role
played by the locality of the crime was different: if the woman was seduced
in a place where her outcry could not be heard, this was proof that she did not
consent. (Laiou 1993: 164–65.) On the contrary, Islamic law emphasizes the
commitment of the crime inside the “private space” the house.
71. In
the Ottoman criminal law of Süleyman the Magnificent, the crime of
kazf was punished by flogging and the payment of fine [ tazir], or by hadd
punishment. (Heyd 1973: 109.)
72. See
also Peirce 2003: 203–204 and 361–64, which describes how pre-marital
sex and its public exposure even as zina sometimes led to the conclusion of
a marriage.
73. Sonbol 1997: 221.
74. Mihailidis-Nouaros 1982–83: 21.
75. T
ourtoglou 1963: 152–56, 158–59; Kalpourtzi 2002: 38.
76. T
ourtoglou 1963: 96–99; for a similar attitude in Syros, see Zepos and
Georgescu 1982: 270.
77. T
ourtoglou 1963: 100, n. 3.
78. Şeriye sicili No. 19, 4: mezbur Mehmed fuzulen beni çıkub ev içinde zina etdi.
(1058/1648.)
79. Jennings 1993: 20.
80. Theocharidis 1993, 3: 1203, 1467, 1599.
laiou, Christian Women in an ottoman World
265
81. Stavrinidis 1976, 1: 20–21 and 97–98, respectively
.
82. Heyd 1973: 241–42.
83. Folder
3/34, 1117/1705. For similar cases, see Tourtoglou 1963: 156, 158–59;
and Kalpourtzi 2002.
84. Imber
1983: 73–74; Heyd 1973: 93, 130. For cases of the banishment of
prostitutes, see Aggelomatis-Tsougarakis 1992: 349; Ginio 1998: 197; Rafeq
1990–91/2: 190.
85. Stavrinidis
1976, 1: 94–96; Aggelomatis-Tsougarakis 1992: 349–50; Hafton
2003: 350.
86. On the recipients of the fines, see Heyd 1973: 289–95.
87. Among
the examined cases, the women were represented in the court by a
vekil mostly in cases of marriage or divorce, and quite often their vekils were
male or female relatives. See for instance Stavrinidis 1976, 1: 347, 394–95;
2: 25, 97, 160, 162.
88. Zarinebaf-Shahr
1997: 253; Faroqhi 2002: 185; Peirce 1999: 148–49. Also,
on the islands of the Aegean where Muslims were a very small minority
(if they existed at all), women of lower status enjoyed greater freedom of
movement and communication. (Aggelomatis-Tsougarakis 1992: 365.)
Likewise, it is interesting that in the late Byzantine period, the women of the
Despotate of Epirus quite often appeared in person at court in cases of divorce.
(Aggelomatis-Tsougarakis 1982: 475–76).
89. Pantazopoulos 1967: 99; Ginis 1960: 246.
90. On this subject, see Seng 1994: 185, 193.
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