SOCIAL MORAL AUTO-CONTROL SYSTEM IN OTTOMAN NEIGBOURHOOD: DETECTION AND CONCEPTUALIZATION OF CRIME AND CRIMINAL, AND EXCLUSION OF CRIMINAL

The study tells how the immoral states and crimes of the non-‘eyü adem’ (people with bad deeds) were detected and how these people and their deeds were conceptualized in the Ottoman neighborhood. While doing this, various judical registers -due to the surplus of materials, especially records of Konya- belonging to different Ottoman cities from Istanbul to Diyarbak？r, studies about these registers, and a few archival documents were used. These were selected from different time periods from the 16th century to the 19th century. Firstly, the bases and the ways the people of the neighborhood used to exclude those who disturbed them were mentioned. Then, the role of the neighborhood’s imam and its people in detecting criminal and crime was explained and the expressions and concepts to define crime and innocence were stated. Furthermore, examples from the cases that were the subject of the complaints of the neighborhood were chosen, and these cases were given in separate sections to help comprehend the cases better. As a result, it was seen that the Ottoman neighborhood created a moral auto-control mechanism by acting together against the crime and the criminal, and they demanded that the decision of exclusion be approved and it be done by court