Justice as the requirement of toleration: contemptuous tolerance and punitive intolerance in the sixteenth century Ottoman Empire

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2011

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Eğilmez, Devrim Burcu

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This dissertation investigates the historical knowledge of the idea/practice of Ottoman toleration/intolerance, in terms of a conceptual-theoretical framework and methodology derived from philosophical theories of toleration, theories of religious toleration of Western historiography and critical theories of toleration, which are in turn revised and reformulated according to “way of reasoning” of the Ottomans. The objective of deriving a conceptual-theoretical framework is related with the attempt to clarify different linguistic uses of the toleration, the semantics of the concept and presenting circumstances, requirements, levels, degrees and forms of the category. Methodologically, the objective is to abolish the hierarchy between kâfir (infidel) and zındîk/ilhâd (heretic) in terms of identification of subjects of toleration/intolerance in the Ottoman Empire. In order to apply this conceptual-theoretical framework and methodology concerning the idea/practice of toleration, this study focuses on the sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire, particularly its laws (firmans, fetvâ, Ottoman criminal law) and its conception of justice, which is conceptualized as the most important requirement of toleration. The objective is to argue how justice primarily regulated society in order to sustain public order and to v prevent political and economic instability. The idea/practice of toleration/intolerance, in this sense, is discussed as the policy that was incorporated into the discourse of the Ottoman Empire to the extent that it contributed to the regulation objective of justice as the art of government, which was pragmatic and prudent in essence. In accordance with this framework, the idea/practice of tolerance in the sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire is conceptualized as contemptuous tolerance, followed by the analysis of its laws. Intolerance, on the other hand, is named as punitive intolerance which aims for either the reform or the incapacitation of the heretics and infidels in the Ottoman lands.

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Social Sciences.

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http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613865/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/20903

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

D. B. Eğilmez, “Justice as the requirement of toleration: contemptuous tolerance and punitive intolerance in the sixteenth century Ottoman Empire,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2011.