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Abstract
This dissertation examines disputes over non-Muslim communal spaces in greaterIstanbul in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. In Chapter 1, a historical
background is drawn to illustrate the transformation of the western Bosphorus villages, such as
Istinye and Yeniköy, into suburbs, the absorption of migrants in these suburban villages, and the
state's imposition of uniform tax regulations in Istanbul's hinterland. Chapter 2 brings up a legal
debate between the judge of Galata Taşköprüzāde Kemāleddīn Efendi (d. 1621) and the chief
jurisconsult Ḫocazāde Meḥmed Efendi (d. 1615) over a Christian religious parade in the streets
of Yeniköy. This debate is analyzed with respect to the standardization of Ottoman document
formulation and the emergence of a prohibitive and restrictive legal language in dealing with
non-Muslim communal affairs. Chapter 3 evaluates a legal procedure in the early modern
Ottoman judicial administration that subjected public law issues to a process of imperial
ratification. Chapter 4 deals with a protracted legal dispute over the Jewish cemetery of
Kasımpaşa in the late sixteenth century and demonstrates interactions between various clashing
interests at the individual, local, communal, and imperial levels in the processing of public issues
concerning non-Muslim communal affairs.