Abstract

This article focuses the divorce oaths reflected in fatwās from Ottoman social life, oathbreakings and the remedies muftīs suggested to nullify divorce oaths. The purpose of the article is to describe the usage areas of the divorce oath in Ottoman social life, the problems within and outside of marriage it created, and the ways to solve these problems, based on the issues consulted to muftīs. The fatwās used as a data source in the article are limited to those have personally been asked to Hanafī muftīs who served in Anatolia and Rumelia between the 16th and 18th centuries. The article is a study of the history of law that uses the fatwās in the collections, most of which are found as manuscripts, as the main data source. The acceptance of conditional divorce as a kind of oath in the Hanafī legal tradition paved the way for its use in Ottoman social life for different purposes beyond divorce. A great number of fatwās indicate that the divorce oath of husband in the family was sometimes a means of restraining and educating the wife, and sometimes a counter measure some rules of the Hanafī madhhab that may cause victimization of the wife. In social life, the divorce oath was used to reinforce personal decisions, it often functioned as a verbal guarantee in debt relations, and allowed the authorities to put pressure on people. Violation of the divorce oaths would in many cases cause serious family problems. Therefore Ottoman muftīs suggested some remedies to nullify divorce oaths. These remedies generally are proxy, marriage by unauthorized person and to divorce the wife-to break the oath-to remarry the wife. The article describes and interprets numerous fatwās on which these findings are based, in the light of Hanafī legal doctrine.