News

We are kicking off the semester with our Roundtable on Transformation and Adaptation of Ottoman Land Law in 19th-Century Successor States! Throughout the month of February, scholars of Islamic law and history will be publishing essays on the Islamic Law Blog on the interpretation and adaptation of Ottoman land law in 19^th century successor states and administrations. The roundtable features case studies that focus on Greece after the War of Independence (1821-1830), the situation of Bosnia-Herzegovina under the rule of Austrian Empire, Serbia, and Bulgaria after the Berlin Treaty (1878), exploring the impact of transformations and translation processes on the privatization of estates and agricultural lands, the legal rights of landholders, and the link between land ownership and sovereignty. The discussion aims to understand continuity and change between Ottoman and successor state legal systems by analyzing bureaucratic interactions and the use of Ottoman and European legal sources. By considering the political and economic reasons behind these legal changes, including how new administrations used them for nation-building, the roundtable offers new perspectives on legal continuity and adaptation in post-Ottoman regions and, by focusing the situation of land regimes before and after the promulgation of the Ottoman Land Code in 1858, a chance to observe the transformation of Ottoman land law in the long 19th century. The scholars will convene on March 4, 2024 at 12:30pm EST, in a live webinar over Zoom, to discuss the findings in their essays.

(Image Credit: Public Domain)