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Childhood, mental capacity and conversion to Islam in the Ottoman state

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Eyal Ginio
Eyal Ginio*
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Abstract

In this paper I explore the conversions of minors as they were presented in the registrations of the şeriat court (sicil). Two types of records shed light on the conversion process: the summaries of lawsuits and the sporadic registrations of converts’ names. As the mental capacity of a child was regarded as of crucial importance when considering the child’s conversion, the kadi classified the children into three different age-groups. Special attention was given to children of seven to ten years: their conversion was approved after an examination of their mental capacity. We can assume that these cases concealed some forms of pressure as well. The conversion of adolescents should be regarded as part of a wider phenomenon — the conversion of rural migrants to Salonica.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 25 , 2001 , pp. 90 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2001

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References

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40. Sicil 82/1, 23 Rebiülevvel 1166 [28.1.1753].

41. According to Dimitriades this Christian village was officially called ‘Kalupanca’. Its current Greek name is Κύμινα. See Dimitriades, ‘Φορολογικές Κατηγορίες τών Χωριών, 410.

42. Sicil 82/1, 12 Rebiüevvel 1166 [17.1.1753].

43. Sicil 88/1, 12 Zilkade 1169 [7.9.1756].

44. See in my dissertation ‘Marginal People in the Ottoman City: The Case of Salonica during the 18th Century’ (Jerusalem 1998) 114-21, [in Hebrew]. See also Ginio, Eyal, ‘Kadinlar, Yoksulluk ve 18. Yüzyil Selânik’inde Hayatta Kalma stratejileri’, Toplum ve Bilim 89 (2001), 190–204 Google Scholar.

45. See the following cases for the resignation of domestic servants following their conversion to Islam: Sicil 18/63, 28 Receb 1120 [13.10.1708]; 78/63, 25 Receb 1164 [19.6.1751]. On the general ban on non-Muslims’ employing Muslim domestic servants on the grounds of the employers’ authority and possible pressure on their servants, see Faroqhi, Suraiya, Towns and Townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia (Cambridge 1984) 278 Google Scholar; Marcus, Abraham, The Middle East on the Eve of Modernity (New York 1989) 162 Google Scholar; 157-158.

46. Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic Law, 129.

47. Sicil 2/288, evail-i Muharrem 1109 [20.7-29.7.1697].

48. Sicil 29/169, 21 Cemaziulevvel 1131 [11.4.1719].

49. See sicil 25/66, 26 Şevval 1127 [24.10.1715]; 25/72, 25 Şevval 1127 [23.10.1715]; 26/2, 16 Muharrem 1128 [11.1.1716].

50. A possible diminutive form of Yanni. The Salonican scribes used to register non-Muslim names in a perfunctory mode: they transliterated the names into Arabic letters according to the names’ sounds without being consistent about the transliteration. Only in cases of Jewish names that could be taken for Muslim names did the scribes deliberately distort the Jewish name in order to prevent confusion. On Greek male names in Ottoman official records in nineteenth-century Salonica, see Anastassiadou, Meropi, ‘Yanni, Nikola, Lifder et les autres …Le profil démographique et socio-professionnel de la population orthodoxe de Salonique à la veille des Tanzimat ’, Südost-Forschungen 53 (1994) 73–130 Google Scholar.

51. Sekiz yaşιnι müteceviz olmakla taakul-i din eden sagir-i mezbur yanco şeref-i islâm ile müşrif vekelimeteyn-i şahadetini kιraat etmekle. Sicil 29/123, 18 Zilhicce 1130 [13.10.1718].

52. The local müftü’s task was to interpret Islamic law whenever requested. On the relationships between the local kadi and the local müftü, see Ginio, Eyal, ‘The Administration of Criminal Justice in Ottoman Selânik (Salonica) During the Eighteenth Century’, Turcica 30 (1998), 192-4Google Scholar.

53. Abraham Stanyan served as ambassador to Istanbul in the years 1717-30. See Wood, Alfred C., A History of the Levant Company (Oxford 1935), 174-5Google Scholar.

54. Sicil 30/58, evasit-i Rebiülevvel 1131 [31.1-9.2.1719].

55. Maada sagir-i mezbur sekiz yaşιnι tecavüz edip taakul-i din etmekle bil-defaat telkin-i iman olunup.

56. Sicil 30/81, evasit-i Cemaziyelevvel 1131 [31.3.1719].

57. Motzki, ‘Child Marriage in Seventeenth-Century’, 129-30.

58. Correspondences des consuls français de Salonique (1686-1762), Archives Nationales (Paris) — Affaires Etrangers, B’, 996 (4.4.1740).

59. Sicil 113/1, 16 Rebiülahir 1181 [10.9.1767].

60. Sicil 113/1, 11 Cemaziyelevvel 1181 [4.10.1767].

61. Sicil 86/1, 3-21 Cemaziyelevvel 1168 [15.2-5.3.1753].

62. Their original names, places of origin, and new Muslim names and the dates of their registrations are written on the first pages of the sicil volumes 76-122.

63. I discuss at length the rural migration to Salonica and its influence on the local labour market in my forthcoming article ‘Migrants and Unskilled Local Workers in an Ottoman Port-City: Ottoman Salónica in the Eighteenth-Century’ in Rogan, Eugene (ed.), Outside In: On the Margins of the Modern Middle East (London 2001)Google Scholar. (Forthcoming).

64. On this aspect of the Ottoman city in the Balkans, see Norris, H.T., Islam in the Balkans — Religion and Society between Europe and the Arab World (London 1993) 49–61 Google Scholar.

65. Todorova, ‘The Ottoman Legacy’, 49.

66. Levtzion, Nehemia, ‘Toward a Comparative Study of Islamization’, in Levtzion, (ed.). Conversion to Islam (New York and London 1979) 19–20 Google Scholar.