In Islam, believers have a personal obligation to live their individual lives as is commanded by the word of God. And, believers have a social obligation to live their social lives as is commanded by the word of God. This way of life is drawn from several sources including the Quran, the shari’a, the fiqh and many others. Written a couple of years ago, Elyse Semerdjian’s book appropriately titled Off the Straight Path takes a deep look at the way Ottoman officials and citizens acted when a person deviated from the “right path” by committing a crime. She does not expect much prior knowledge on the matter from her intended audience, but an overall interest in Middle-Eastern tradition and culture, especially pertaining to law of governance is …show more content…
Thus, it is possible to say that the interpretation of the shari’a has changed and was altered with a given situation, as the empire saw …show more content…
That is why they established their own arrangement of imperial laws which included clauses on taxation policies, responsibilities of Ottoman officials, land regulations, and criminal codes.17 These early Ottoman legal codes were called the Kanunnames;18 an attempt to bundle shari’a and organize it into a formal code which would encompass and unify a diverse population. Naturally, this means that the Kanunames was introduced to Islam and was not part of the religion before the first one was issued under Mehmet II.19 Interestingly, the Kanunnames, composed mainly in the imperial Ottoman Turkish language which has a combination of Arabic and Persian,20 sometimes varied from one sultan to another but in general all dealt with a variety of laws ranging from taxation to land ownership and crime.21 Therefore, it is clear how the Kanunnames was altered in order to fit the need of the empire. The book explicitly states that the importance of Kanunnames shifted throughout the period under its study; ultimately, they decided to get rid of