The Sources of Judicial Verdict in Ottoman Law in Accordance with Shaykh al-Islam Sadeddin Efendi's Fatwas

Abstract

In this article we tried to find the sources of judgement in Ottoman Law in accordence with Shaykh al-Islam Sadeddin Efendi's fatwas. The sources we found that designate the judgement are: fatwa, will of sultan, custom, discretion of judge and endower's condition. The Ottoman Scholars adopted for the judges the principle of handing out a decision in accordance with the comment which has been taken as a basis whitin the Hanafi fiqh. It needs to be spelled out that the will of the sultan which is forming the statutory part of the Ottoman law system is playing an important role as a source in judgement. Besides the two mentioned before it may be said, even if to be subsidiary, the discretion of the judge and custom created a recource for juridical decisions specifically in terms of stating the matter in dispute. Finally, the endower's conditions could be accepted as the assignment of the judges decisions but limited with the setting of conditions of a founder concerning his or her foundation.