OTTOMAN FAMILY LAW AND THE STATE IN THE NINETEENTH' CENTURY

The nineteeutlı century'was an era of reform in the Ottornan Empire, not only in the adıninistrative and military, but also iiı legal and eultural spheres. Co~pared to previous centuries, the nineteenth cen~ tury Ottoman witnessed changes İn every aspeet of lifeand private life and family ,clationships were no exeeption. Put another way,' the Ottoman cİtizcn ı;ınd the Ottoman family were much mo,e affected by. state inİtiated ch~nges in legal eo~es and.therrapplie~tiou than ever before. The increased incidence of legal proce~dings during that time is one measure of this. it is difficult to say whether or not traditional family structure and its legal status nnderwent the same density of change in every region of the empire, but the formulation of codes' concerning the familyand the mode of theirimplementation ,began in that century to lose many features they had a{}quİredduring the classical period, features whieh had persisted until the nineteenth century. Religious communities, which previously had fonowed their o~n sodany ,and legally circumscribed lives andtraditions, now came to be composed of family unİts which were requixed to adhere to laws pro, mulgated by an in~reasingıy penetrating state, were obliged to fono'\v standard adınİnistrative procedures, and were themselves subject to a bureaucratic admİnistrative recording system. These changes mark a transition to life in a modern state and a modern society, one based on a single universalistic legal code.