Contesting the authority of Armenian Administration at the Height of Tanzimat

A Case of Incest, Adultery and Abortion

Abstract

This article discusses the limits of the Armenian juridical mechanisms within the Ottoman Empire based on a collective petition known as arz-ı mahzar, sent in 1856 by the Armenian local administration of Akşehir, Konya, to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It reports to the Patriarch an unresolved court case involving an incident of incest, adultery, and abortion, asking for advice. This period of the 19th century at the height of Tanzimat is envisaged as the most progressive period of the Ottoman Empire. The cases discussed in this article show that the Ottoman Armenian millet’s juridical authority remained a limited and constantly contested one, as the millet was not always able to make judgements according to its ecclesiastic law as it was supposed to be entitled to do.