Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire (24 page)

Besides the two great
bayrams,
several important
holy nights and religious holidays were celebrated with an impressive display
of prayer and meditation by all Muslims. Unlike the two main
bayrams
that
were celebrated with public festivities, however, during the holy nights of the
year, the faithful focused on solemn prayers, meditation, participation in
chanting ceremonies, and feasting and celebrations in the privacy of their
homes. The first of these holy nights was the feast of the birth of Muhammad,
the prophet of Islam, and it was celebrated by Sunni Muslims on the 12th of
Rabi
ul-Awwal
and by the Shia Muslims on the 17th of
Rabi ul-Awwal,
the
third month in the Islamic calendar. The second great holy night celebrated the
night of Muhammad’s conception on the fourth of
Receb
(Arabic:
Rajab)
,
the fifth month in the Islamic calendar. On each of these holy nights, mosques
were illuminated and special foods prepared.

The third holy night in the Islamic calendar was the Night
of Ascension that commemorated the prophet Muhammad’s ascent to heaven.
Sometimes known as Muhammad’s Night Journey, the story on which the holiday was
based illustrates the scriptural and narrative connections between Islam,
Christianity, and Judaism. The Night of Ascension was traditionally celebrated
on the 27th of
Receb.
On this night, mosques and minarets were lighted,
and families visited a main mosque where children sat and listened attentively
to the story of the Prophet’s journey. After listening to the story of
Muhammad’s night journey, children joined their parents in a communal prayer,
followed by food and special treats. One of these treats,
kandil simit,
or
ring-shaped sweet bread covered by sesame seeds, was served at each of the
commemorations of major events in the life of the prophet Muhammad, such as his
birth, the first revelation he received, and his ascension to heaven.

The fourth important holy night was the Night of Record and
Day of Forgiveness, celebrated on the 14th of
Sha’ban,
the eighth month
in the Islamic calendar. As with other holy nights of the year, the faithful
gathered in mosques to pray. The worshippers believed that on this night, God
registered all the actions of mankind to be performed during the coming year.
They also acknowledged a tree in heaven that shed several leaves on this night,
each one containing the name of someone destined to die within the year. The
mercy of God also descended on this night, and sinners who repented were likely
to obtain forgiveness. Muslims remained awake and prayed for much of the night.
A daylong fast followed.

The most important of all holy nights was the Night of
Power, which was observed on the 27th of
Ramazan,
the ninth month in the
Islamic calendar. It celebrated the angels’ descent to earth with the Holy
Quran and the Angel Gabriel’s revelation of it to the prophet Muhammad. The
night was also significant because it was believed that special blessings were
sent down to the truly devout from heaven. Upon the arrival of the Night of
Power, a solemn and meditative spirit overcame every Muslim household. From the
large urban centers to the humblest village, young and old, men and women,
state officials, merchants, artisans and peasant farmers, participated in night
prayers, for they believed that on this night the fate of every devout Muslim
was shaped for the following year. Muslim men generally avoided sexual
intercourse during all holy nights, but on the Night of Power, the sultan slept
with a slave girl at the royal harem, and if a baby was conceived, it was
regarded as a symbol of the power and the glory of the Ottoman ruling house.

The Muslim communities of Anatolia and the Balkans also
celebrated non-Islamic festivals with great joy and enthusiasm.
Nevruz,
also
known as
Sultan Nevruz,
marked the beginning of spring and was
celebrated on the day of the astronomical vernal equinox. The celebration was
particularly popular among the Kurdish and Alevi communities of Anatolia, Iraq,
and Syria, who greeted the arrival of the New Year by exchanging the greeting “May
your
Nevruz
be victorious.” While the devout shunned dancing, Muslims
living in the rural and mountain communities of Bosnia, Albania, and the
Kurdish-populated regions of southeast Anatolia, northern Iraq, and northern
Syria, danced frequently during weddings, various festivities, and even
religious ceremonies connected with pilgrimages to the tombs of holy men and
saints. Among many Kurdish communities, men and women danced
chubi,
which
brought together a group of dancers joining hands and balancing “their bodies
backwards and forwards, marking time, first with one foot and then with the
other, accompanying their movements at intervals with wild cries.” Men danced
first, followed by women who removed their veils and wore long dresses “resplendent
in gold spangles and parti-colored silks.” At weddings,
surnay
or
zurna,
double-reed outdoor wind instruments, accompanied by a bass drum and reed
flutes, were played in unison as men and women danced for hours.

7 - ISLAMIC LAW AND EDUCATION

The
Ottomans did not rule as a colonial empire but as an Islamic state where the
sacred law of Islam, or
şeriat
(Arabic:
sharia
), ruled
supreme. The
şeriat
provided the legal framework for public as well
as private aspects of daily life, including all personal, political, social,
and economic activities. It also regulated the personal and ethical conduct of
the individual and applied to both civil and criminal cases. The Quran and the
sunnah
(the way and the manners of the prophet Muhammad, including his statements,
actions, and practices) constituted the primary sources of Islamic law. In
performing his responsibilities as a Muslim sovereign, the sultan “was assisted
by a hierarchy of scholars and divines, the custodians of the Islamic holy law.”
Thus, parallel with the palace and the administrative and military structure
was the Islamic religious establishment and the legal and educational system of
the empire, which was exclusively run by freeborn Muslims.

ULEMA

The interpretation and application of the
şeriat
belonged
to the ulema, who were recognized as the learned men of religion, “the doctors
of the Muslim canon,” and “the jurist-divines of Islam.” “Law, education, and
the supervision of the Muslim community’s moral and religious life were in
their care,” and since “the basis of the state was religion, their duties gave
them prestige and power.” They “were to apply the sheriat and to further the
principles of Islam through their educational and religious institutions.” The “dogmas
of faith, the rules of ritual and worship, the civil and criminal law—all
emanated from the same authority and were buttressed by the same ultimate
sanctions.” Those who were experts in them “followed different specializations
in the same basic discipline of knowledge.” That knowledge, “in Arabic
Ilm,”
was the domain of the ulema—”those who know” and are therefore learned. Under
the Ottoman system, their hierarchy was called
Ilmiye.
The everyday work
of the ulema “was concerned with two main subjects, theology and law and their
talents were exercised in two great professions, education and justice.” They
were led by the
şeyhülislam,
or the head of the ulema, who was
appointed by the sultan, “but who held in fact an independent position.” He “could
issue a
fetva,
which was an opinion or interpretation dealing with the
question whether acts performed by the government conformed to Muslim
principles.” The
şeyhülislam
“could not enforce his decisions, but
his judgment had an important hold on public opinion.” He “could and sometimes
did determine the fate of a sultan.”

From among the ranks of the ulema came the muftis, who
interpreted the Islamic law, and the
kadis
who executed it. Acting as
the interpreters of the Islamic law “and the sultan’s decrees,” the muftis “were
consulted when the meaning of a law was in dispute,” while
kadis
“were
dispatched throughout the provincial administration to enforce” both the
şeriat
and the sultan’s laws. The
kadis
enjoyed “jurisdiction over all
Muslims and over Christians except in those sectors reserved for the Christian
church authorities.”

In the eyes of the ulema, the state existed to serve as the
tool for the application of Islamic law and was, therefore, subordinate to
religion.
Fiqh,
or Islamic jurisprudence, which was an extension of
Islamic law and based directly on the Quran and the
sunnah,
dealt with
supervising and legislating the everyday observance of public morals, rituals,
and practices.

The brand of Islam that the Ottomans espoused was Sunni, as
distinct from the Shia Islam that the rival Safavid Empire imposed as the
official religion of neighboring Iran in 1501. Sunni Islam recognized four
schools of Islamic jurisprudence: the Hanafi, Shafi’i, Maliki, and Hanbali
schools of legal interpretation. The principal differences between the four
schools centered on religious rituals, such as ablution before the five daily
prayers and personal and contractual issues, such as marriage, divorce, and
inheritance. The Ottoman ruling class, as well as the majority of the Muslim
population in the Balkans and the Sunni Turkish-speaking communities of
Anatolia, observed the Hanafi school of law, while the majority of the North
African subjects of the sultan, as well as those in Upper Egypt, followed the
Maliki school. The Shafi’i school was dominant in western Arabia (Hejaz),
Yemen, Lower Egypt, and the Kurdish-populated regions of the empire. The
Hanbalis were confined to the Wahhabi-held territory in Arabia. Though the
Ottomans did not try to impose the Hanafi school of jurisprudence on non-Hanafi
Muslim communities, the
kadis
or religious judges they appointed
followed the Hanafi legal interpretation.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

The education of a young Muslim began at primary schools,
or
sibyan mektepleri,
which were usually “established by the sultans, or
by prominent statesmen or philanthropists” and “were generally located within a
külliye
(mosque complex), or in freestanding buildings in many villages
and city quarters.” The freestanding schools were often “established and
operated through charitable foundation or endowment system and might be
co-educational or segregated by sex, according to the stipulation in the deed
establishing the school.” Children “aged five or older” attended these schools
and enrolled in classes often taught by “religious functionaries, such as the
imam (prayer leader), the muezzin (person who calls the faithful to prayer), or
the caretaker of the mosque.” Educated women “who had memorized the Quran were
also eligible to teach in the schools for girls.” The principal objective of
the
mektep
education was “to teach children how to read, write, and
perform the four basic arithmetic operations, and to have them memorize
passages from the Quran and the precepts of Islam.” In their last year at the
mektep,
the students studied “dictionaries in Arabic and Persian.”

From the
mektep,
the pupils moved on to a
medrese
(Arabic:
madrassa)
, or a higher institute of Islamic education,
where students memorized the Quran and studied Quranic interpretation, Islamic
law, the sayings of the prophet Muhammad, logic, and the principles of Islamic
jurisprudence. The
medreses
were usually established in the large urban
centers of the empire, where they were supported by
vakifs,
or religious
endowments, which were grants of “land or other source of revenue given in
mortmain for pious or charitable purposes.”

The founder of a
medrese
was usually a sultan, a
prince or princess of the royal family, a member of the ruling elite such as a
grand vizier, a high government official, a provincial governor, or a member of
the ulema. The
medreses
were divided into lower or exterior (
hariç
)
medreses,
which served as preparatory schools, and the interior (
dahil)
schools that provided instruction in advanced religious sciences. Each of these
two institutions was further subdivided in accordance with the particular
topics, texts, and areas of study that they offered. Thus, at the lower
preparatory schools the students learned “the rudiments of Arabic grammar and
syntax, logic, scholastic theology, astronomy, geometry and rhetoric.” Later,
they could move to a higher rank institution and study rhetoric and literary
sciences, and eventually attend an even more advanced school and enroll in
classes on scholastic theology and jurisprudence. At the
medreses
where
higher knowledge and advanced Islamic sciences were taught, students began by
studying Quranic exegesis and ultimately moved to the highest-level
semaniye
medreses,
where they enrolled in “a group of three subjects—Islamic
jurisprudence, Koranic exegesis or scholastic theology, rhetoric, and related
studies—and received specialized training.”

Many of the prestigious schools and centers of Islamic
learning were attached to the grand mosques. These could include elementary
schools for boys, schools for reading the Quran, or ones for studying the
traditions and statements attributed to the prophet Muhammad. Charitable and
public services, along with institutions such as hospitals, insane asylums,
soup kitchens for the poor that provided a loaf of bread and a dish of food
every day, and bathhouses, could also be attached to large mosques built by a
sultan, members of the ruling dynasty, or high officials of the central
government.