Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
BILIG, sa.44, ss.25-44, 2008 (SSCI)
The registers of the law cases held at the Ottoman shari courts ended with a list of names titled "suhudu'l-hal". This list was a shorter or a longer one depending on the case involved. Researchers are still uncertain as to the identity of the names on this list and the function they served in court. It has been debated whether these people defined as "suhudu'l-hal" constituted an assembly functioning within the fundamental workings of the court or whether they had a status similar to that of a jury in the Western court. Some researchers have presented the "suhudu'l-hal" as the latter. This article attempts to explain the nature and function of this assembly depending on existing documents. The most important argument in this article is that the "suhudu'l-hal" did not constitute a jury. These people were not only observers of the case held at court but also witnesses that were to be consulted were the case to repeat itself.