Stoning To Death (Recm) In Theory And Practice In The Ottoman Empire

Adultery which thretens the future of society and is seen as against morality is forbidden in Islamic law as is the case in most of the jurisprudence. Those who are married and commit this crime are punished with a penalty called recm if they.are single they are punished with a penalty called tazir. These penalties for adultery were adopted exactly by the Ottoman law which is based on the Islamic law. In some cases punishments which were not explained in the Islamic law were regulated by kanunnames. There were debates about whether the application of the kanunname regulations were carried out according to the Islamic law and whether the recm as punishment was executed in the Ottoman Empire. When we look at both the sources and the court registers, we can conclude that the Ottoman law adopted the recm punishment same as the one in the Islamic law. On the other hand, since zina is treated with caution in Islamic law, the attitutes of the Ottoman law towards recm were shaped with tolerance in this regards.

Keywords

Adultery, Hadd, Stoning to death (Recm), Şer’î hukuk, Kanunname