The wikipedia entry about Rashidun Caliphate says:


The citation provided for the above quote refers to this article which says:



When did (exactly what year) this "codification of Sharia" happen? And how did this affect the rule of law in the Ottoman Empire?



The right keyword to look up is the Majallah (transliteration variant: "Mecelle", "Medjelle", and many others, the Arabic full name is مجلة الأحكام العدلية). It was a commercial and civil law code based on the Hanafi school of Islamic law. The codification was quite an extensive effort, led by Ahmed Cevdet Pasha, happening gradually from 1869 - 1876 and entering into force in 1877.


Before this codification, the Islamic law was applied by Islamic judges - and religious minorities were allowed various autonomy to have their own laws. In addition, with the capitulations to European nations, citizens of those European nations were not subject to the Ottoman courts, but rather a "mixed court" composed of Ottoman and European judges. As you see there were multiple jurisdictions here which might get confusing.

I am not sure how "codified" the religious-based laws were. The Sharia was and is based on the Quran and the prophetic tradition, but there can be multiple ways to interpret and implement them in specific situations. The mixed court was based on a local version/translation of the French commercial code, but its resources were limited and it was unable to take on the rising number of cases.

With the codification, the Empire adopted a "standard" implementation which was published in 16 books comprising 1800+ articles, written in legal language similar to European legal codes. And as your quote noted, it was now governed by the state as opposed to Islamic judges/legal scholars. Another effect of this standardization was that non-Muslims were now subject to the Majallah - which covers civil and commercial law; family and inheritance laws were exempted. Another interesting impact of this is that Majallah lived on long after the fall of the Ottomans, in former territories of the empire. For example, Israel's law was based partially on the Majallah, but it was replaced step by step until abolished in 1984.


  • Wasn't Hanafi law "codified" in the writings of Abu Hanifa and his school? What exactly does "codification" mean? – fdb Dec 18 '16 at 12:32
  • @fdb maybe calling it "Codification of Sharia" is a bit ambiguous. It was not writing the entire Hanafi Islamic law, but compiling and writing the civil and commercial laws of the Ottoman empire, which were based mainly on the Hanafi version of the Islamic law. – user69715 Dec 19 '16 at 6:02

I do not think that Noah Feldman knows anything about the history of Islam. Islamic law was “codified” in numerous manuals, beginning with the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Malik in the 8th century, followed by similar law books of the various schools, all long before the rise of the Ottomans.

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