Evaluations on Reflections of Problems Among Rayah on Imperial Council in Ottoman Empire in the Light of Examples From Provinces in Anatolia and Rumelia During the Period of Sultan Murad III

It constitutes the subject of this article; disruption of kanun-i kadim (ancient law) during the period of Sultan Murad III; banditry events were taken place in the country (in the rural), at villages, in particularIy; reflection of problems brought about by negative developments in state and society structure upon village life and peasants on the divan (the council in Ottoman Empire); and determination of place and importance of the divan in resolving problems. Due to the fact that peasants in the country, they had submitted their petitions (arz-i haller) to divan-？ hümay？n (imperial council in Ottoman Empire). The fact that Ehl-i ？rf (seyfiye class: military-administrative officials) and ehl-i ？er (ilmiyye class: government officals responsible for religion, justice, jurisprudence and medrese education) either malpracticed their duties or could not resolve the problems on the scene by remaining incapable against brigandage events had an impact for peasants on submitting petitions to the divan . Peasants who had felt hard done by for these reasons went to the capital city and sought their rights by submitting their petitions to the divan. In this context, we researched in which subjects peasants submitted the petition to the divan at the most and how did the divan give a ruling. We mentioned the effect of petitions the rayah submitted to the divan on giving a ruling of the divan like a court, as well. That is to say, registration books (mühimme defterleri; private registries) are different from ？eriyye registries (Sharia Court records) in terms of content. However, the unjust treatment-relieving rulings were given in the divan, the decisions (rulings) given were sended to ehl-i ？rf and ehl-i ？er in the country and it was also registered into registration books that the decisions should be fulfilled by stating what judicial and penal actions are. These reasons necessitated for the subject to be researched only according to registration books, and for role and importance of divan-？ hümay？n in resolving peasants’ problems to stud