Description
Book SynopsisBreaching the Bronze Wall deals with the idea that the words of honorable Muslims constitutes proof and that written documents and the words of non-Muslims are of inferior value. Thus, foreign merchants in cities such as Istanbul, Damascus or Alexandria could barely prove any claim, as neither their contracts nor their words were of any value if countered by Muslims. Francisco Apellániz explores how both groups labored to overcome the ‘biases against non-Muslims’ in Mamlūk Egypt’s and Syria’s courts and markets (14th-15th c.) and how the Ottoman conquest (1517) imposed a new, orthodox view on the problem. The book slips into the Middle Eastern archive and the Ottoman Dīvān, and scrutinizes sharīʿa’s intricacies and their handling by consuls, dragomans, qaḍīs and other legal actors.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1.1 Structure of the Book 2 Producing, Handling and Archiving Evidence in Mediterranean Societies 2.1 The 'Archival Divide' 2.2 Islamic Notions and Doctrines on Proof and Evidence 2.3 Notaries in the Cross-Confessional Middle Ages 2.4 The Case of the Outremer Notaries 2.5 New Attitudes towards the Written 3 ‘Men Like the Franks’: Dealing with Diversity in Medieval Norms and Courts 3.1 An Introduction to Siyāsa 3.2 The Crusader Marketplace 3.3 The actor sequitur forum rei Principle 3.4 Empowering One Consul over the Others 3.5 An Iberian Epilogue 3.6 Siyāsa Justice in Theory and Practice 3.7 Conflict Resolution in and out of the Courtroom 3.8 Merchants at the Islamic Courts: a Lender of Last Resort? 3.9 Mixed Cases at the Qadi Court 3.10 Mixed Cases before Siyāsa Courts 3.11 Siyāsa among the Franks 4 Ottoman Legal Attitudes towards Diversity 4.0 The ‘Witness System’: a Bronze Wall? 4.1 The Legal Grounds of the Ottoman Witness System 4.2 The Ban on Muslim Witnesses 4.3 Dhimmī Claims on Communal Exclusivity: the Carazari Clause 4.4 False Witnessing 4.5 Proving Enslavement 4.6 Legal Truth and the Governance of Frontier Zones 4.7 The Aleppo Ferman 4.8 A Death in Damascus 5 Conclusions Bibliography Index
