Shari’a sijills and their representation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

In her work, the researcher was dealing with Shari’a sijils or recordbooks of kadis which covered certain territorial and administrative areas under the Ottomans as well as organization of social life according to Shari’a. Until the time of Tanzimat, kadi had wide jurisdiction and was directly responsible to sultan for his work. All orders and instructions, of Shari’a and legal-executive nature, issued by sultan were kept by kadis in ther sijils. Thanks to their efforts, these documents of great historical value have been preserved until today and help in understanding political and legal, economic and social, humanitarian and cultural circumstances in Bosnia and Herzegovina during Ottoman rule and in the Ottoman Empire in general. Apart from these, sijils contain valuable information about military expeditions, internal and external trade relations as well as agrarian developments.

The work contains a complete list of sijils kept in the Oriental Institute and other similar institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.