After the collapse of the Ottoman State that lasted for more than 600 years, the new Turkish Republic adopted a new constitution that had a mix of different European Laws and not Islamic Law. This change was not widely accepted by the Turkish Muslim people. The government of the time worked on convincing people that the Ottoman State was not using Islamic Law (Shari’a Law), but Sultans’ Laws to make them adopt the changes of the new constitution and accept it. The book is here to correct the wrong view about the Ottoman State`s law and prove that the Ottoman State used Shari’a Law NOT Sultans’ Law.

The story of this book (Ottoman Laws and Its Legal Analyses) started in 1969 when the author Prof. Dr. Ahmed Akgunduz read fiqh and Kanunname from the widely spread and distorted Islamic Encyclopaedia (Turkish Version of Islamic Encyclopaedia by Brill) of that time. The author was just a 4th grade primary school student, but promised to write a book about Ottoman Law. The first attempts to write this book started at the time of the former Prime Minister of Turkey Turgut Ozal. In writing this book, the author has faced many difficulties and obstacles, but eventually, the book has been written after a lot of research by the author in the Ottoman Archive in Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey.

This book will help you to better understand the implementation of Islamic law during the Ottoman State. It will help you understand how majorities and minorities used to live and had their rights reserved in the Ottoman State. It will also help you to understand the difference between the real implemented Ottoman Law and the distorted “Qanunname”.