A systematic analysis of legal practice in a sharia court in the Ottoman Empire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Metin Cögel is Professor of Economics and Department Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Connecticut. He has published widely on the Ottoman Empire.

Introduction; Part I. Methodology and Background: 1. Quantitative approaches in research on Ottoman legal practice; 2. Kastamonu: the town and its people; Part II. The Court and Court Clients: 3. The court, its actors, and its archive; 4. Court use: a preliminary analysis; Part III. To Settle or Not to Settle: 5. Dispute resolution in Ottoman courts of law; 6. Trial vs settlement: an economic approach; 7. Which disputes went to trial? Case-type- and period-based analyses; Part IV. Litigations: 8. Rules and tools of litigation; 9. Economics of litigation: what affects success at trial?; 10. Who won? Case-type- and period-based analyses; Conclusion.