AL-MAJALLAH (CIVIL CODE) IN ISLAMIC AND OTTOMAN
LEGISLATION
(By Asst. Assoc. Prof. Osman KAŞIKÇI)
Although Al-Majallah is a civil code inclusive of a portion of Islamic Private Legislation prepared between 1868 and 1876, it is the first and last civil code of the Islamic Legal History. As it is the civil code of Islam, it consists of no new decrees but Shariah decrees that have been applied for centuries.
Al-Majallah had been implemented until the destruction of the Ottoman State and no similar code has ever since been able to be prepared. The Islamic states of our time benefited from Al-Majallah in preparation of their civil codes. In this work you will find the summary of Al-Majallah, some provisions whereof are still in effect in the Legislation of Israel, Egypt, Hejaz, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Kıbrıs, Palestine, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and – until 1984 in Kuwait, and which had grave influence on the World’s Legal History.
The work is composed of three chapters:
The Introduction deals with the structure of the Ottoman Legislation, the place of Al-Majallah in the Ottoman Legislation, the features of Al-Majallah and the renovations it introduced.
The first chapter deals with why and how Al-Majallah was prepared.
The second chapter analyzes the provisions of Al-Majallah by studying the features of Al-Majallah, individual’s law, law of commodity, law of loans, and manner of judgment.
The third chapter deals with the attempts to amend and complete Al-Majallah, making also mention of the reasons for the amendment, the commissions formed for the amendment, and the political and legal reasons for Al-Majallah to be abrogated.
(416 pages)
