Islam-osmanli state law in Serbia

In: Zbornik Matice Srpske za društvene nauke: Proceedings for social sciences, Heft 120, S. 271-286

Abstract

Every state functions through its legal order and that legal order shows the nature of every state. From that point of view, the nature of the state and the authority which functioned in the regions of the Serbian lands from the moment of the Osmanli conquests till the end of that rule was best reflected through the law which regulated social relations. If one views the state which ruled in the regions of the Serbian lands in that way, one can clearly state that it, in its nature, had the basic goal to realize Islamic doctrine. All legal acts which the administration in Constantinople passed to ensure its normal functioning had the Islamic character. As most of these acts had been created long before the birth of the Osmanli state, they cannot be called Osmanli, because they were not such by their origin or their essence. It is specially important that their intention was not to maintain the Turkish national idea, as it could be concluded from a large number of historical syntheses which discuss that part of our history, but the triumph of Islam. Therefore, it is most correct to call that law Islamic-Osmanli law because its largest part had been created before the appearance of the Osmanli state and had as a goal the triumph of Islam; it is an Osmanli law because it was implemented in the territories ruled by the Osmanli dynasty.