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The Mecelle-i Ahkâm-ı Adliye ( Ottoman Turkish : مجلۀ احكام عدلیە ), or the Mecelle in short, was the civil code of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is the first codification of Sharia law by an Islamic nation.

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57-536: The Ottoman Turkish name of the code is Mecelle-ʾi Aḥkām-ı ʿAdlīye , which derives from the Arabic مجلة الأحكام العدلية , Majallah el-Ahkam-i-Adliya . In European languages, it has also been transliterated as Mejelle , Majalla , Medjelle , or Meğelle . In French, it is known as Medjéllé or as the Code Civil Ottoman . The code was prepared by a commission headed by Ahmed Cevdet Pasha , including

114-783: A French version of Pharos of the Bosphorus (or Lighthouse of the Bosphorus ). Gedeon stated that Nicolaides obtained 5,000 gold francs from the Ambassador of Russia to the Ottoman Empire, Ignatieff, to fund this publication, and that he did not give much of this away to other parties. According to Gedeon, Theodoros Kasapis wrote in Diogenis that the Russian ambassador had bribed Nicolaides. Nicolaides also applied to have his own Karamanli Turkish publication, Asya , but

171-525: A French-language collection of Ottoman law, Législation ottomane , that was published by Gregory Aristarchis . He also edited the Greek version of the Düstur , Оθωμανικοί Κώδηκες ("Othōmanikoi kōdēkes", meaning "Ottoman Codes", with Demotic Greek using "Οθωμανικοί κώδικες"), its first non-Turkish version. These two publications enriched him financially, giving him money used to operate his newspapers. After

228-672: A Multilingual Empire: Translations of the Kanun-ı Esasi and Other Official Texts into Minority Languages , wrote that Nicolaides was "an extremely active but somewhat enigmatic figure in the press life of 19th century Istanbul ". Nicolaides was born and raised in Ottoman Constantinople (now Istanbul) and attended the Great School of the Nation (Megalē tou Genous scholē), from which he graduated in 1861. His family

285-666: A Multilingual Empire: Translations of the Kanun-ı Esasi and Other Official Texts into Minority Languages", wrote that "The translation [...] was a demanding task" which "required abundant notes." Nicolaides also made his own Greek translation; the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdulhamid II gave Nicolaides, through the Ottoman Internal Affairs fund, 5,000 piastres due to the translations of

342-425: A [d] when followed by a vowel sound. This is reflected in conventions of Ottoman orthography as well. In Turkish, there is a verb representing to be , but it is a defective verb. It doesn't have an infinitive or several other tenses. It is usually a suffix. Negative verb to be is created with the use of the word دگل değil , followed by the appropriate conjugation of the to be verb; or optionally used as

399-475: A basis. L. Rota, a lawyer of Constantinople (now Istanbul ), translated other parts, assisted by Alexander Adamides. A Greek version, Nomikoi kanones ētoi Astykos Kōdēx (Νομικοί κανόνες ήτοι Αστυκός Κώδηξ), was translated by Konstantinos Photiadis , and Ioannis Vithynos , and was released from 1873 to 1881. Both men were well-versed in Ottoman Turkish. Johann Strauss, author of "A Constitution for

456-430: A claim against a person made by another person in court. This book includes conditions and fundamental rules relating to an action and the defense, as well as limitations to actions. This book is composed of four chapters that include law on the nature of evidence, documentary evidence and presumptive evidence, administering an oath, and preferred evidence and administration of an oath to both parties. This final book of

513-400: A contract of settlement and release, the consideration and subject matter of the settlement, the subject matter of the settlement, and fundamental conditions governing settlement and release. This book is composed of law regarding conditions governing admissions, the validity of an admission, the effect of an admission, and written admissions. This book is based on actions, where an action is

570-706: A daughter, who married in 1892. He invited Sultan Abdulhamid II to his daughter's wedding. Balta and Kavak stated that this illustrated the close relationship between the Ottoman government and Nicolaides. He himself was in favour of Ottomanism . According to Gedeon, Nicolaides had a house in Phanar (now Fener ), one in Mouchli and one in Antigone (now Burgazada ) in the Princes' Islands . An 1894 earthquake ruined

627-606: A decision backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , who said the language should be taught in schools so younger generations do not lose touch with their cultural heritage. Most Ottoman Turkish was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet ( Ottoman Turkish : الفبا , romanized :  elifbâ ), a variant of the Perso-Arabic script . The Armenian , Greek and Rashi script of Hebrew were sometimes used by Armenians, Greeks and Jews. (See Karamanli Turkish ,

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684-401: A dialect of Ottoman written in the Greek script; Armeno-Turkish alphabet ) The actual grammar of Ottoman Turkish is not different from the grammar of modern Turkish .The focus of this section is on the Ottoman orthography; the conventions surrounding how the orthography interacted and dealt with grammatical morphemes related to conjugations, cases, pronouns, etc. Table below lists nouns with

741-676: A document but would use the native Turkish word bal ( بال ) when buying it. The transliteration system of the İslâm Ansiklopedisi has become a de facto standard in Oriental studies for the transliteration of Ottoman Turkish texts. In transcription , the New Redhouse, Karl Steuerwald, and Ferit Devellioğlu dictionaries have become standard. Another transliteration system is the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft (DMG), which provides

798-466: A large team of scholars, issued in sixteen volumes (containing 1,851 articles) from 1869 to 1876 and entered into force in the year 1877. In its structure and approach it was clearly influenced by the earlier European codifications. Family law, which had been originally exempted and left in the domain of religious courts, eventually became a part of it in 1917, as the Law of Family Rights . It has been praised as

855-411: A single root verb, with the addition of a variety of morphemes and suffixes, multiple new and different verbs meanings can be expressed in single but larger words. Below table is a sample from the verb تپمك tepmek meaning 'to kick', whose root (which is also 2nd person imperative) is تپ tep . Each of the produced new verbs below can be made into an infinitive with the addition of ـمك -mek at

912-427: A standalone for 3rd person. Generally, the verbs 'to exist' and 'to have' are expressed using what's called an existential copula , the word وار var . The verb 'to have' is expressed in the same way, except that the object noun will take a possessive pronoun, producing sentences that will literally mean "there exists house of mine". The verbs 'to exist' and 'to have' conjugated for other tenses, are expressed in

969-572: A transliteration system for any Turkic language written in Arabic script. There are few differences between the İA and the DMG systems. Demetrius Nicolaides Demetrius Nicolaides ( Greek : Δημήτριος Νικολαΐδης Dimitrios Nikolaidis ; French : Démétrius Nicolaïdes ; c.  1843 – 3 July 1915 ), also known as Nikolaidis Efendi , was an Ottoman Greek journalist and compiler of legislation. Johann Strauss, author of A Constitution for

1026-435: A variety of phonological features that come into play when taking case suffixes. The table includes a typical singular and plural noun, containing back and front vowels, words that end with the letter ه ـه ([a] or [e]), both back and front vowels, word that ends in a ت ([t]) sound, and word that ends in either ق or ك ([k]). These words are to serve as references, to observe orthographic conventions: Table below shows

1083-429: Is a distinction made between two classes of joint ownership. The first class is when joint ownership arises due to purchase or gift. The second class is when joint ownership comes about through contract and agreement of parties in the joint ownership. This book is composed of eight chapters including legal code on partition, walls and neighbors, jointly owned property which is free, joint expenses, and partnership. Book 11

1140-416: Is based on agency, which consists of one person empowering another person to perform some act for him. This book is composed of three chapters regarding the fundamental basis and classification of agency, conditions attaching to agency, and essential elements of agency. This book divides settlement into three parts and release into two parts. Settlement: The first part consists of a settlement by admission of

1197-409: Is compound verbs. This consists of adding a Persian or Arabic active or passive participle to a neuter verb, to do ( ایتمك etmek ) or to become ( اولمق olmaq ). For example, note the following two verbs: Below table shows some sample conjugations of these two verbs. The conjugation of the verb "etmek" isn't straightforward, because the root of the verb ends in a [t]. This sound transforms into

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1254-529: Is entrusted to one person from another person for safe keeping. Trusts can also involve the loaning of something for use, meaning that the one accepting the loan is to enjoy use in the subject of the trust. This section includes general conditions of trusteeship, as well as stipulations for depositing for safe keeping and loaning for use A gift consists of bestowing the ownership of property upon some other person without receiving anything in return. This section consists of two chapters that outline matters relating to

1311-474: Is in volumes 6-7, which do not include Aristarchis's name. According to Johann Strauss, author of "A Constitution for a Multilingual Empire," these two volumes "seem to have been edited solely by Demetrius Nicolaides". G. Sinapian, a scholar of Turkish studies and a jurist of Armenian descent, translated the eight chapters of the Mecelle in volume 7. For Livre des Preuves he used work by Ohannes Bey Alexanian as

1368-407: Is possible to obtain payment or satisfaction of some claim. Such property is then said to be pledged, or given in pledge. Book 5 includes the fundamental basis of the contract of the pledge, stipulations of the pledgor and pledgee, fundamental rules relating to the pledge, and sale of the pledge. This book contains all legal information regarding trusts and trusteeship. A trust involves something that

1425-524: Is the basis of the modern standard. The Tanzimât era (1839–1876) saw the application of the term "Ottoman" when referring to the language ( لسان عثمانی lisân-ı Osmânî or عثمانلیجه Osmanlıca ); Modern Turkish uses the same terms when referring to the language of that era ( Osmanlıca and Osmanlı Türkçesi ). More generically, the Turkish language was called تركچه Türkçe or تركی Türkî "Turkish". Historically, Ottoman Turkish

1482-592: The list of replaced loanwords in Turkish for more examples of Ottoman Turkish words and their modern Turkish counterparts. Two examples of Arabic and two of Persian loanwords are found below. Historically speaking, Ottoman Turkish is the predecessor of modern Turkish. However, the standard Turkish of today is essentially Türkiye Türkçesi (Turkish of Turkey) as written in the Latin alphabet and with an abundance of neologisms added, which means there are now far fewer loan words from other languages, and Ottoman Turkish

1539-402: The 1960s, Ottoman Turkish was at least partially intelligible with the Turkish of that day. One major difference between Ottoman Turkish and modern Turkish is the latter's abandonment of compound word formation according to Arabic and Persian grammar rules. The usage of such phrases still exists in modern Turkish but only to a very limited extent and usually in specialist contexts ; for example,

1596-471: The Bulgarian version probably originated from Nicolaides's Greek version due to "striking similarities" between the two, even though the Bulgarian one says that it was a collaborative work that was directly translated from Ottoman Turkish. A Konstantinoupolis employee, Manuel Gedeon, wrote that Nicolaides, Christoforos Samartzidis , and a person Gedeon described as "another impostor" together published

1653-553: The Mecelle is based on the legal administration of justice including codification of judges, judgement, retrial, and arbitration. The French version of the Mecelle is available in Législation ottomane, ou Recueil des lois, règlements, ordonnances, traités, capitulations et autres documents officiels de l´Empire ottoman , a collection of Ottoman law edited by Demetrius Nicolaides and published by Gregory Aristarchis . Mecelle

1710-594: The Mouchli house. In 1915, Nicolaides died a poor man, and his children were not present as they were in different places. Rum Millet community members living in Pera ( Beyoğlu ) and friends paid for his funeral, which was officiated by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople , Germanus V . Nicolaides received medals: the Ücüncü Rütbe'den Mecidî nişani after requesting so from the Ottoman government,

1767-546: The Ottoman government received the Greek version, it made him a third-class civil servant. Nicolaides also wrote a document stating that he translated volumes of the Dustür and the Mecelle into Bulgarian. The Bulgarian copies of the Dustür circulating stated that they were written by Christo S. Arnaudov ( Bulgarian : Христо С. Арнаудовъ ; Post-1945 spelling: Христо С. Арнаудов), who published it. Johann Straus concluded that

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1824-543: The Persian genitive construction takdîr-i ilâhî (which reads literally as "the preordaining of the divine" and translates as "divine dispensation" or "destiny") is used, as opposed to the normative modern Turkish construction, ilâhî takdîr (literally, "divine preordaining"). In 2014, Turkey's Education Council decided that Ottoman Turkish should be taught in Islamic high schools and as an elective in other schools,

1881-474: The Persian character of its Arabic borrowings with other Turkic languages that had even less interaction with Arabic, such as Tatar , Bashkir , and Uyghur . From the early ages of the Ottoman Empire, borrowings from Arabic and Persian were so abundant that original Turkish words were hard to find. In Ottoman, one may find whole passages in Arabic and Persian incorporated into the text. It was however not only extensive loaning of words, but along with them much of

1938-442: The additional - ـنـ [n] is a vowel, the final vowel ی is kept; otherwise it is removed (note the respective examples for kitaplarını versus kitaplarından ). Examples below : Below table shows the positive conjugation for two sample verbs آچمق açmak (to open) and سولمك sevilmek (to be loved). The first verb is the active verb, and the other has been modified to form a passive verb. The first contains back vowels,

1995-572: The basis of civil law in Jordan and Kuwait . The first book of the Mecelle is composed of seven chapters that focus on the jurisprudence and codification of laws regarding sale. These include standards of contracts, the subject matter of sales, matters relating to price, giving and taking delivery, and various categories of things sold and the effect thereof. Book 2 is the legal codification of circumstances dealing with hire ( renting ). This book contains general hire specifications, questions relating to

2052-401: The contract of gift and fundamental rules relating to gift, such as guidelines for the revocation of a gift. Wrongful appropriation is when a person takes and keeps another person's property without the owner's consent. This book is composed of law regarding wrongful appropriation and destruction of one's property by another. This book also defines direct and indirect destruction of property and

2109-526: The contract of hire, questions relating to the amount of the hire, period of the hire, type of thing hired and matters relating thereto, rights and obligations of person giving and person taking on hire after the conclusion of contract, and matters of compensation. Book 3 deals with legal guarantee . This includes matters of contractual agreement and release from a contract of guarantee. This book includes matters of contracts dealing in transfer of debts. A pledge consists of setting aside property from which it

2166-403: The defendant. The second part consists of a settlement by denial of the defendant. The third part consists of a settlement by the silence of the defendant consequent upon the absence of any admission or denial. Release: The first part consists of release by way of renunciation of a right. The second consists of release by admission of payment. This book includes chapters dealing with conclusion of

2223-417: The end. Ottoman Turkish was highly influenced by Arabic and Persian. Arabic and Persian words in the language accounted for up to 88% of its vocabulary. As in most other Turkic and foreign languages of Islamic communities, the Arabic borrowings were borrowed through Persian, not through direct exposure of Ottoman Turkish to Arabic, a fact that is evidenced by the typically Persian phonological mutation of

2280-563: The first successful rendition of Hanafi fiqh into legal civil code comprehensible to the layperson belonging to any religious ideology and not just to Islamic scholars. The substance of the code was based on the Hanafi legal tradition that enjoyed official status in the Empire, put into European code-form. However, using the method of preference ( Istihsan ), it also incorporated other legal opinions that were considered more appropriate to

2337-422: The grammatical systems of Persian and Arabic. In a social and pragmatic sense, there were (at least) three variants of Ottoman Turkish: A person would use each of the varieties above for different purposes, with the fasih variant being the most heavily suffused with Arabic and Persian words and kaba the least. For example, a scribe would use the Arabic asel ( عسل ) to refer to honey when writing

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2394-649: The legal documents. Nicolaides also wrote a document stating that he translated volumes of the Mecelle and the Düstur into Bulgarian. He lacked funds to publish the entire collection; vilayet council leaders agreed to fund the distribution of these volumes. He had translated two volumes which together had half of the Düstur and Mecelle laws at the time. Ottoman Turkish language Ottoman Turkish ( Ottoman Turkish : لِسانِ عُثمانی , romanized :  Lisân-ı Osmânî , Turkish pronunciation: [liˈsaːnɯ osˈmaːniː] ; Turkish : Osmanlı Türkçesi )

2451-448: The legal ramifications associated with each type of property destruction. In this book, interdiction, constraint, and pre-emption are legally codified where interdiction consists of prohibiting any particular person from dealing with his own property; Constraint consists of wrongfully forcing a person through fear to do something without his consent. Pre-emption consists of acquiring possession of property which has been purchased, by paying

2508-455: The purchaser what he paid for it. This book defines matters relating to the interdiction of minors, lunatics, and imbeciles, as well as prodigals and debtors. In regards to pre-emption, this book includes conditions attaching to the right of pre-emption, the claim of pre-emption, and the effect of pre-emption. This book is composed of law regarding joint ownership, in which a thing belongs absolutely to more than one individual. In this book, there

2565-415: The reform was the Turkish nationalist Ziya Gökalp . It also saw the replacement of the Perso-Arabic script with the extended Latin alphabet . The changes were meant to encourage the growth of a new variety of written Turkish that more closely reflected the spoken vernacular and to foster a new variety of spoken Turkish that reinforced Turkey's new national identity as being a post-Ottoman state . See

2622-496: The same way, with a possessive pronoun if needed, and copula وار var , followed by the 3rd person singular form of the verb 'to do: ایتمك etmek attached as a suffix (or separate as a stanadalone verb); as conjugated in the above section. The verbs 'not to exist' and 'not to have' are created in the exact same manner and conjugation, except that the copula یوق yok is used. Turkish being an agglutinative language as opposed to an analytical one (generally), means that from

2679-544: The second front vowels; both containing non-rounded vowels (which also impacts pronounciation and modern Latin orthograhpy). Below table shows the conjugation of a negative verb, and a positive complex verb expressing ability. In Turkish, complex verbs can be constructed by adding a variety of suffixes to the base root of a verb. The two verbs are یازممق yazmamaq (not to write) and سوه‌بلمك sevebilmek (to be able to love). Another common category of verbs in Turkish (more common in Ottoman Turkish than in modern Turkish),

2736-410: The suffixes for creating possessed nouns. Each of these possessed nouns, in turn, take case suffixes as shown above. For third person (singular and plural) possessed nouns, that end in a vowel, when it comes to taking case suffixes, a letter - ـنـ [n] comes after the possessive suffix. For singular endings, the final vowel ی is removed in all instances. For plural endings, if the letter succeeding

2793-526: The time, including from non-Hanafis. As the Mecelle was eventually applied in the secular ( nizamiye ) courts as well as in the Sharia courts of the Empire, Jews and Christians were for the first time subjected to Islamic law instead of their own law, but could now be called as witnesses in court. After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following World War I , the Mecelle remained a lasting influence in most of its successor states (except Egypt , where it

2850-476: The words of Arabic origin. The conservation of archaic phonological features of the Arabic borrowings furthermore suggests that Arabic-incorporated Persian was absorbed into pre-Ottoman Turkic at an early stage, when the speakers were still located to the north-east of Persia , prior to the westward migration of the Islamic Turkic tribes. An additional argument for this is that Ottoman Turkish shares

2907-461: Was at Millet Han in Galata . He applied to move to a new facility twice, to Financılar Yokușu in 1899, approved but not completed, and then to Lloyd Han in 1902, also approved. The move was completed by 1903. Because Nicolaidis tried to save his newspapers no matter what it took, he sold his possessions and lost his wealth. He had a wife, Sevastitsa, two sons (Nikolakis "Nikos" and Georgakis) and

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2964-404: Was denied. Evangelina Baltia and Ayșe Kavak, authors of Publisher of the newspaper Konstantinoupolis for half a century , wrote that they could find no information explaining why Nicolaides' proposal was turned down. Ultimately, in 1889, he established an Ottoman Turkish newspaper, Servet . Servet-i Fünûn was originally a supplement of Servet . For a period, his main printing facility

3021-416: Was never in force). The Mecelle was long-lasting in most places since it was effective, coherent, and difficult to dislodge. It remained in force: In Bosnia and Herzegovina after 1878 Austro - Hungarian occupation, Mecelle was slowly replaced with General Civil Code , but some provisions of Mecelle remain in force even after 1918, until abolishment of state Sharia courts in 1946. The Mecelle also remained

3078-403: Was not instantly transformed into the Turkish of today. At first, it was only the script that was changed, and while some households continued to use the Arabic system in private, most of the Turkish population was illiterate at the time, making the switch to the Latin alphabet much easier. Then, loan words were taken out, and new words fitting the growing amount of technology were introduced. Until

3135-607: Was the Ieromnimon. He began editing the Anatolikos Astēr in 1862. In 1864, he left the first publication and began editing Heptalophos ; he received ownership of it in 1865 and renamed it Nea Eptalofos . It became a newspaper in 1867, and it was renamed Kōnstantinoupolis after that. During periods when Kōnstantinoupolis was not in operation, Nicolaides edited Thrakē (" Thrace "; August 1870 – 1880) and Avgi ("Aurora"; 6 July 1880 – 10 July 1884). He edited

3192-594: Was the standardized register of the Turkish language in the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed extensively, in all aspects, from Arabic and Persian . It was written in the Ottoman Turkish alphabet . Ottoman Turkish was largely unintelligible to the less-educated lower-class and to rural Turks, who continued to use kaba Türkçe ("raw/vulgar Turkish"; compare Vulgar Latin and Demotic Greek ), which used far fewer foreign loanwords and

3249-475: Was transformed in three eras: In 1928, following the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey , widespread language reforms (a part in the greater framework of Atatürk's Reforms ) instituted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk saw the replacement of many Persian and Arabic origin loanwords in the language with their Turkish equivalents. One of the main supporters of

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