TAʿZĪR PROVISIONS APPLIED TO MURDER AND THEFT CRIMES IN OTTOMAN CRIMINAL LAW DURING THE TANZIMAT PERIOD (Example of the Murder and Theft Book No. 471)

In Ottoman criminal law, intentional homicide and theft were classified under the category of "hudud" (fixed punishments), and their penalties were predetermined and unchangeable. On the other hand, ta'zir punishments may be applied in cases where the elements of the crime were not fully established to warrant hudud punishments or where the offense had no fixed penalty under the law. This study aims to examine the discretionary punishments (ta'zir) that were applied instead of the prescribed penalties (hudud and qisas) for crimes that have established rulings under the fundamental principles of Islamic criminal law as documented in the 'Katl ve Sirkat Defteri' (Murder and Theft Book). The research will explore how these punishments were implemented in practice, and under what conditions and circumstances discretionary punishments were applied for crimes with fixed penalties. The study will explore the procedures for bringing such cases to court, the investigative and decision-making stages, and whether the sentences maintained a balance between the crime and punishment. Additionally, it will seek to identify the factors that either mitigated or aggravated the severity of the imposed punishments. This article, enriched with documents from various classifications in the Ottoman archives, examines both the 1256 Penal Code and the scope of the 1267 reforms. It aims to analyze how the processes of change and adaptation in Ottoman criminal law during the Tanzimat era influenced the application of crime and punishment.