Local Court, Provincial Society, and Justice in the Ottoman Empire: Legal Practice and Dispute Resolution in Çankiri and Kastamonu (1652-1744)

Local Court, Provincial Society, and Justice in the Ottoman Empire: Legal Practice and Dispute Resolution in Çankiri and Kastamonu (1652-1744) Bogaç Ergene Leiden: Brill, 2003 (xv + 236 pages, appendix, bibliography, index, illustrations, maps) $138 (cloth and hardcover) Bogaç Ergene's book is a study of the shari'a courts of two small Anatolian towns, Çankiri and Kastamonu. In explaining this pattern of urban dominance, Ergene suggests that connections and social networks may have been important in the judicial process, in addition to the greater resources available to urban residents. According to the Hanafischool, a girl wishing to exercise her hiyar-i bulug had to annul the marriage as soon as she reached puberty, that is, at the minute she began menstruating. Ergene uses Krafft's memoir as an example of corruption, to suggest that actual legal proceedings may have looked very different from their representation in the court records, which is a reasonable point, and more particularly to suggest that judges played a more creative role in the judicial process than we think.