Brigandage and Space in Ottoman Anatolia (1565-1566): An Evaluation on the Number 5 Mühimme Defter

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Crime has affected many areas of the today’s and past’s societies and states in terms of social, economic, political and psychological fields. There are some differences in the value judgments of the society in terms of the way the states view crime and the criminal and the punishments imposed on crime. The crime phenomenon, which is handled by different disciplines, is one of the important research topics in the geography. In addition to contemporary crimes, it is important to investigate historical crimes and their spatiality. Within the scope of this study, transcription of the number of 5 Mühimme defter, which contains the decisions taken by the Court and approved by the sultan, was used as the main source. In the study, the crime that occurred in the Ottoman Anatolia between 1565 and 1566, the criminal, the places where the crime was committed, the distribution of the crime and the nature of the crime were evaluated. Activities of bandit and suhte groups in the mentioned period; It has been determined that things such as roadblocking, killing, robbery, house raid and rebellion of various tribes took place. The penalties for crimes were generally prison and exile sentences. The fact that these punishments were not dissuasive and that the bandit thrown in prison found a way and escaped from prison led to insufficiency in preventing crimes.

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Historical geography , geography of crime , bandit , suhte , Mühimme defters

Aegean Geographical Journal

43

Aegean Geographical Journal