Wearing the Shirt of Fire: Guardians Managing the Orphan Estate in the 16th Century Ottoman Empire

In Ottoman history, the task of protecting the orphaned minor’s inheritance was not left to the relatives alone; it was instead an institutionalised practice monitored under the supervision of the sharia court. The guardian (vasi) was the person in this situation responsible for protecting the orphan’s estate and providing for the orphan’s maintenance until the orphan reached maturity. This institutional practice continued to exist for centuries in the Ottoman Empire. The richness of the Ottoman primary sources enables us to trace this practice in detail. This paper analyses the economic activities in which the guardians were involved whilst protecting the orphan estate. It uses sharia court registers (the sharia sicills) as the primary archival source. Different records regarding guardian activities were compiled for a century-long period in the 16th century. This study mainly employs records from İstanbul, the imperial capital, and other regions of the empire like Bursa, Konya, Trabzon, Cyprus, and Sarajevo. The first impression is that the credit relations have the most significant share in this compilation of economic activities. Other activities include selling estates and sustaining alimony to the orphans. As a general rule, orphans’ money was extended as loans with rate of return to cover expenses and protect the money from diminishing. In cases of need, orphans’ shares in real estate were sold with the permission of the sharia court. In most cases, when the orphan reaches maturity and settles accounts with the guardian, both sides appear to leave the court satisfied. Such records provide valuable insights into the Ottoman socio-economic history of the era. For instance, changes in alimony payments and fluctuations in the rate of return of credits throughout the 16th century are significant and will be evaluated in this paper. Along with these analyses, this paper will highlight the possible differences between İstanbul and other regions in the Ottoman Empire.