This short essay presents a number of unpublished 17th century documents from the Sharīʿa court records of Aleppo pertaining to the rather sensitive, both morally and socially, issue of how to deal with cases of legally married women permanently deserted and abandoned by their absent husbands. In Aleppo, as elsewhere in the Ottoman realm, this frequently occurring phenomenon had its causes in widespread regional and interregional mobility patterns. For once, the Ottoman judiciary found itself incapable to come up with a practical solution and had to look for answers outside of the officially recognized Ḥanafite school. The Shāfiʿite madhhab, the leading juridical school in Syria up until the arrival of the Ottomans in early 16th century, could and did in fact offer a much more pragmatic way out to the predicament of a relevant number of married women (including non-Muslim ones) who were allegedly experiencing hardship and privation.

Mariti assenti e casalinghe disperate? Un rimedio legale dalla scuola shāfiʿita nella Aleppo ottomana ḥanafita, ovvero una lezione sulla flessibilità della Legge islamica (non musulmani inclusi)

Marco Salati
2023-01-01

Abstract

This short essay presents a number of unpublished 17th century documents from the Sharīʿa court records of Aleppo pertaining to the rather sensitive, both morally and socially, issue of how to deal with cases of legally married women permanently deserted and abandoned by their absent husbands. In Aleppo, as elsewhere in the Ottoman realm, this frequently occurring phenomenon had its causes in widespread regional and interregional mobility patterns. For once, the Ottoman judiciary found itself incapable to come up with a practical solution and had to look for answers outside of the officially recognized Ḥanafite school. The Shāfiʿite madhhab, the leading juridical school in Syria up until the arrival of the Ottomans in early 16th century, could and did in fact offer a much more pragmatic way out to the predicament of a relevant number of married women (including non-Muslim ones) who were allegedly experiencing hardship and privation.
2023
Armenia, Caucaso e Asia Centrale. Ricerche 2022
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
978-88-6969-667-1-ch-06.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Versione dell'editore
Licenza: Dominio pubblico
Dimensione 563.16 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
563.16 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in ARCA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/5021084
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact