Abstract
Imams in Ottoman State were in quite an important position due to their
religious, social and official duties since they occupied the largest place
among the institutions serving the Muslim community. For this reason, the
profession of imam is the most prominent institution of Ottoman Islam
community; and it displays a great importance with the transformations and
changes it has experienced. Based on the abovementioned importance, the
problems that imams of Ottoman community faced in their professional life have
been handled in this study, which has not been the subject of any studies so
far. The aim of the study is to reveal the problems that the imams faced in
their professional life in the related period within the context of XVIII
century Diyarbekir Ahkam Books and also Diyarbekir (Amid) Sharia Registry
Books. As a result of the investigation, it was established that the problems
that imams faced in their professional life were recorded in a total of 60
different records. According to classification, one of the most frequently
faced problems was about foundations. Problems related to illegal tax
collection, improper interferences in imams due to their duties, performing
marriage contract and dead washing and few problems that are faced in social
life are the subsequent problems.
Summary
Imams in Ottoman State were in quite an important position due to their religious,
social and official duties since they occupied the largest place among the
institutions serving the Muslim community. For this reason, the profession of
imam is the most prominent institution of Ottoman Islam community; and it
displays a great importance with the transformations and changes it has
experienced. Based on the abovementioned importance, the problems that imams of
Ottoman community faced in their professional life have been handled in this
study, which has not been the subject of any studies so far. The aim of the
study is to reveal the problems that the imams faced in their professional life
in the related period within the context of XVIII century Diyarbekir Ahkam
Books and also Diyarbekir (Amid) Sharia Registry Books. As a result of the
investigation, it was established that the problems that imams faced in their
professional life were recorded in a total of 60 different records. According
to classification, one of the most frequently faced problems was about
foundations. Problems related to illegal tax collection, improper interferences
in imams due to their duties, performing marriage contract and dead washing and
few problems that are faced in social life are the subsequent problems.
The problems faced by the imams in their professional lives during the
relevant period were reflected in 60 different documents. According to the
classification, the foundation related issues were found to be the most common
among these problem with a rate of 33,3%. These have mainly arisen from the foundation
managers or sometimes from the tenant of the foundations. Problems arising from
the managers of the foundations were related to the facts that the imams did
not get their salaries or their salaries were cut without a legitimate
justification. Sometimes the mismanagement of the foundation caused
difficulties for the imams who received their salaries from the foundation. The
problems related to the tenants were often caused by the desire of the tenants
to seize the property or by their attempts not to pay the rent. The problems of
the imams in such cases arise due to the fact that the relevant foundation
property itself or its income is allocated to the imam.
The unlawful tax collection is the second biggest problem faced by the
imams with a rate of 30 %. Generally, the village officers and some customary
people, imposed pressure on the imams and demanded illegal taxes from them.
Although it was clearly stated in the documents of that period that the imams
are “the leaders and guides of the society” and they were exempted from the
taxes, these people willingfully subjected the imams to oppression and
harassment in this regard, probably due to their personal interests.
With a remarkable rate of 21.6 %, the illegal interventions were the
third most common problem faced by the imams. These problems generally arose
due to the attempt to seizure the duties of the imams illegally while they were
professing. The persons who took place in such interventions were typically the
colleagues of the imams such as khadi and mufti and only sometimes civilians.
Even illegally issued imamate certificates were found in the relevant
period. These certificates issued by some state officials in an illegitimate
manner posed a problem to the imams who performed their duties legally.
In this period, it was revealed that some people who did not have the
authority to intervene the duties of the imams caused difficult situations for
the imams when they intervened through the remedy of imamate. These people
involving in the work of imams were generally the residents of the place where
the imams performed their duties.
With a rate of 11,6 % the fourth most common problems faced by the imams were the issues
of performing the marriage ceremony and the bathing of the deceased. It was revealed
that these problems generally occurred among the imams themselves and according
to the document some tyrant imams put unlawfully pressure on the other
colleagues.
Apart from some relatively simple violations such as intervening in the
work of the imams, it can be said that the imams were rarely confronted. In
this respect, the problems they faced with the society were simple issues
encountered in daily life generally and these happened very rarely.
As a result of the research, the problems that were understood to have
occurred in the relevant period and to have come to the forefront are the
mentioned issues. During this period, imams were confronted mostly with the
village officers and civil servants or with the management and tenants of the
foundations or with the other imams. As it can be seen, the imams did not have
many problems. Especially the problems faced with the rayah were quite limited
and simple. No matter what, they were always able to communicate their problems
easily and directly to imperial council. The imperial council did not remain
indifferent to the problems of the imams and tried to solve their problems with
some instructions. However, especially the foundations, illegal imamate
certifications and the problems related to taxes pointed out that the problems
were deep and the functioning of the related institutions were deteriorated.
The problems that occurred within this scope and the commands sent continuously
showed that the mentioned problems could not be eliminated permanently.
