Exile and execution were among the heaviest sanctions of Ottoman criminal law. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, exile was applied as one of the ta‘zir punishments to many offenses, from bribery to fraud. The death penalty was imposed for hadd and kısas (retaliation) offenses, and also for serious ta‘zir offenses known as “siyaset.”
Quick Summary
- Criminal law rested on the rulings of sharia and the sultan’s law codes (kanunnames).
- In the documents, exile appears as “nefiy” and the place of exile as “menfa.”
- The main places of exile were cities such as Bursa and Edirne, the Aegean islands and distant places such as Baghdad, Taif and Fezzan.
- Under kalebentlik, the convict was forbidden to leave the fortress.
- The laws of 1838 and 1840 restricted the power to order executions by siyaset.
Contents
- The basis of criminal law
- The punishment of exile
- Places of exile
- Mass deportation for settlement
- Kalebentlik
- Which crimes carried the death penalty?
- The question of fratricide
- Methods of execution
- The change brought by the Tanzimat
- Frequently asked questions
The Basis of Ottoman Criminal Law
Ottoman criminal law rested on two sources: sharia and the sultan’s law codes (kanunnames). According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the law codes took as their basis the punishments prescribed by sharia for hadd and kısas offenses. For this reason, no detailed regulations were made for these offenses. The law codes laid down rules mainly in the field of ta‘zir, that is, offenses whose punishment was left to the discretion of the state.
Hadd offenses are those whose punishment is fixed in the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Kısas is retaliation in kind for intentional killing and wounding. According to the encyclopedia, the ta‘zir punishments included public exposure, fines, sentencing to the galleys, imprisonment, exile and kalebentlik. We described the role of kadıs in these cases in our article What did an Ottoman kadı do?.
How Was the Punishment of Exile Applied?
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, exile is the sending of a person to another place as a punishment or a security measure. The person is obliged to live there. In the Ottoman state this practice became systematic. In the documents exile usually appears as “nefiy” and the place of exile as “menfa.” According to the encyclopedia, the duration of the punishment was usually not specified; for offenses against honor, however, it could be limited to one year.
According to the encyclopedia, many people were sent into exile for offenses such as bribery, fraud, adultery, prostitution and slander. False testimony, theft, threats, disobedience to orders and the abduction of girls were also among the grounds for exile. Statesmen removed from office were also sent away from Istanbul. In the later periods, exile was also imposed for political offenses.
Where Were the Places of Exile?
According to the encyclopedia, as places of exile not only cities close to the center but also hard-to-reach frontier towns, strong fortresses and islands were chosen. The main places of exile included Bursa, Edirne and Gelibolu. The islands of Chios, Lesbos, Lemnos, Rhodes, Kos, Tenedos and Cyprus were also frequently used. Baghdad, Tripoli in Libya and Fezzan, Taif and Acre were among the most distant places of exile. In the last period of the empire, exile abroad was also resorted to.
Mass Deportation for Settlement
Exile was not only a punishment. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the state could resettle people en masse elsewhere to populate newly conquered regions. In such cases, villages and towns had to send out one or two households in ten, depending on their size. After the conquest of Istanbul, people were brought to the city from Anatolia and from the conquered lands.
According to the encyclopedia, when Cyprus was conquered, a deportation order was issued on 21 September 1571 for the settlement of the island. Over time the number of volunteers fell, and some villagers fled the order. Places obliged to send deportees began to choose the unemployed or people harmful to society. Thus the word sürgün gradually shifted toward the meaning of punishing criminals with exile.
According to the encyclopedia, the first mass deportation in the early sources is the resettlement in Rumelia of some nomads from Western Anatolia who had not obeyed a salt ban. It is also known that Turkmen groups who sided with the Safavids were deported to the Rumelian side. After 1699 this policy changed because of territorial losses. Immigrants from outside were settled, while tribes engaged in banditry were deported to regions such as Raqqa and Aleppo.
Kalebentlik: Convicts Bound to a Fortress
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, kalebend means “a person bound to a fortress, imprisoned in a fortress.” Under this punishment the convict was obliged to live within the walls of a fortress and was not allowed to leave. A convict who moved freely on an island was called a cezire-bend, one held in a palisade a palanka-bend, and one held in a tower a kule-bend. According to the encyclopedia, this form of exile became prominent from the second half of the seventeenth century and widespread in the eighteenth century.
The offenses punished with kalebentlik were quite varied. According to the encyclopedia, they included wounding, robbery, banditry, slander, bribery, counterfeiting, selling goods above the fixed price (narh) and even baking underweight bread. The victim could apply to the kadı or submit a petition directly to the Imperial Council. A person whose guilt was established was taken to the fortress accompanied by a çavuş and kept there until reformed.
According to the encyclopedia, some non-Muslim convicts were held in monasteries and were called manastır-bend. The punishment of a convict from the military class was imposed on the report of the commander of his unit. For members of the ulema, the opinion of the kadı, the kazasker and the şeyhülislam was sought. We described how the council worked in our article What was the Imperial Council?.
Which Crimes Carried the Death Penalty in the Ottoman Empire?
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the death penalty prescribed by sharia was applied in hadd and kısas offenses. In addition, some serious offenses were punished with death under ta‘zir, and this was called the “siyaset punishment.” According to the encyclopedia, offenses such as embezzlement, horse theft, habitual theft and the illegal export of grain fell within this scope from time to time. Important state officials found guilty of grave negligence were also often punished with death.
According to the encyclopedia, Ottoman jurists regarded rebellion against the sultan’s legitimate orders as the crime of “bağy” and issued fatwas in favor of the death penalty. Gathering supporters, causing disorder and attempting rebellion were punished mostly with death in almost every period. Some viziers and pashas considered dangerous were also executed on political grounds, even without a concrete act.
The Question of Fratricide
According to the encyclopedia, the Law Code of Mehmed II contained a provision allowing the sultan who ascended the throne to kill his brothers for the sake of “nizam-ı alem” (the order of the world). Because it allowed even members of the dynasty who had not actually rebelled to be killed, this provision was much debated from the standpoint of Islamic jurisprudence. Because of the belief that the blood of the dynasty must not be shed, princes were executed by strangling. We told one of the best-known cases of execution within the dynasty in our article Who was Şehzade Mustafa?.
How and Where Were Executions Carried Out?
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, a death sentence imposed through kısas was usually carried out with the sword. For other offenses, methods such as hanging and beheading were used. The death penalty imposed by siyaset was carried out by beheading or strangling. According to the encyclopedia, stoning was applied only once in this history.
Death sentences were usually carried out in public. According to the encyclopedia, repeat offenders and thieves who committed crimes at night were punished in conspicuous places in the city. Other convicts were punished at the place where they had committed the crime. Executions that were not carried out publicly took place in prison, and the bodies were thrown into the sea. Selim III abolished the custom of announcing executions with a cannon fired from the fortress.
Who Decided on Executions?
According to the encyclopedia, the authority to impose the death penalty by siyaset belonged to the sultan, the grand vizier and the viziers they authorized. When state authority weakened or the power was abused, there were attempts to restrict it. In ordinary offenses, the case was heard in the kadı’s court and decided according to sharia and customary (örfi) rules.
What Changed with the Tanzimat?
According to the encyclopedia, the law of 1838, issued in the reign of Mahmud II, established that state officials would not be sentenced to death by siyaset. For officials, the death penalty was limited to hadd and kısas offenses. The Penal Code of 1840 extended this principle to all subjects. The law listed the offenses requiring the death penalty as the hadd offenses, treason against the sultan, rebellion and murder. The sultan’s power was limited to approving death sentences.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long did a sentence of exile last in the Ottoman Empire?
The duration was usually not specified. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, exile for offenses against honor could be limited to one year.
Where were the places of exile in the Ottoman Empire?
Bursa, Edirne and Gelibolu; islands such as Chios, Lesbos, Lemnos, Rhodes and Cyprus; and distant places such as Baghdad, Fezzan, Taif and Acre.
What is kalebentlik?
It is a ta‘zir punishment in which the convict was obliged to live in a fortress and forbidden to leave it.
Who decided on executions in the Ottoman Empire?
For the death penalty by siyaset, the authority lay with the sultan, the grand vizier and the viziers they authorized. Hadd and kısas cases were heard in sharia courts.
Why were princes executed by strangling?
According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, in the old Turkish tradition it was believed that the blood of members of the dynasty must not be shed.
Conclusion
Exile and execution were the heaviest sanctions the Ottoman state resorted to in order to protect public order. Exile was both a ta‘zir punishment and an instrument of settlement policy; kalebentlik was its form applied within a fortress. The death penalty was imposed not only for hadd and kısas offenses but also, under the name “siyaset,” for serious crimes and rebellions. The laws issued in the Tanzimat period restricted this broad power.
