Ottoman Roots of Ombudsman

Turkish Ombudsman Institution has been established in 2010 by a constitutional amendment. The institution is known as ombudsman in the World. The Ombudsman’s Office was founded by the Swedish King Charles XII in 1713. Because the king of Sweden was in the Ottoman country at the time of the establishment of the ombudsman, it was accepted that the institution has Ottoman roots. Studies on the subject mentioned a number of Ottoman institutions. It is not clear that which Ottoman institution inspired the King. There are not enough studies comparing the Ottoman institutions with the ombudsman institution. In the study, the Ottoman institutions, which are shown as the source of the ombudsman institution, were compared with the ombudsman institution. In this way, it has been tried to determine which institutions may have been the source of ombudsman and which institutions are irrelevant. It has been claimed that Ottoman institutions such as Mazalim Court, Imperial Council, Divan-i Ishraf, injustice inspectors, grand vizier, kazasker, qadi al-kudat, mufti, sheik al-islam, qadi, muhtesib, futuwwah and Ahi Organization have been related to ombudsman. All of the aforementioned Ottoman institutions carried out audit activities. In this study, the status, duties and powers, qualifications, functions, starting of research and research methods, operations and the binding of the decisions of the ombudsman are discussed. Mazalim Court, Divan-i Ishraf and qadi al-kudat are institutions that have taken part in the Islamic State Organization. Different institutions took their places in the Ottoman organization. Kazasker and qadi are members of judiciary. Ahi Organization weakened during the ombudsman’s establishment. For these reasons these institutions cannot have the origin of ombudsman. Imperial Council, injustice inspector and grand vizier had similar and different characteristics with ombudsman. Some characteristics of ombudsman may be taken from these institutions. The mufti are more similar to the ombudsman than other Ottoman institutions. Deeper studies are needed comparing mufti and ombudsman.

Keywords

ombudsman, Turkish Ombudsman Institution, Ottoman law, sheikh al-Islam