The Manuals for the Court Records: Sakk Mecmuas
The registration of judicial affairs was of great significance in the Islamic societies and there had been specific books written on how registration should be made. Although in the pre-Ottoman period “şurût” was the term used for these works, “sakk” was the term used during the Ottoman Period. Apart from the change in their names that occurred during the transition from şurût to sakk, in the period from the 16th to the 19th century there appeared considerable modifications in the contents and forms of the sakk mecmuas. While formerly the periodicals were comprised of works that contained hüccet and ilams, later they came to include also maruz, emir (imperial decrees), firman, murasele, mahdar, elkab, dibace and forms of signitures. Similarly, there was a shift from short hüccets to long ilams. Furthermore, the works formerly contained exemplary cases only on particular topics, but later the exemplary cases were exten- ded so as to embrace considerable parts of the topics that are mentioned in the fıkh books. Lastly, Ottoman Turkish, instead of Arabic, came to be used. This article not only reviews the sakk periodicals in the historical timeline from 16th to 19th century, but also compares them with şurût, fıkh and fetwa books. Finally, the literature on sakk periodicals that are located by the author is presented at the end of the article.
SÜLEYMAN KAYA
