Sexual Assault Crimes in Ottoman Empire: 1869 Vakayi-i Zabtiye Newspaper Sample

In the period following the Tanzimat era, innovation and change movements were experienced in Ottoman Empire. The reflection of this innovation and change in the judicial system was establishment of new courts and the fact that the authority to rule cases in certain matters of classical fiqh was given to these courts. However, it is not easy to reach the records and archives of these courts, and moreover, because the classification of the archive was not subject-based, the desired studies cannot be done theoretically. Vakayi-i Zabtiye, a newspaper that started to be published since the press became widespread due to the innovations caused by the Tanzimat Era, makes a significant contribution in overcoming this problem. This newspaper, which was published with the aim of publicizing case records, makes it easy to reach the case records of the time. In the newspaper, the records of criminal cases ruled in Istanbul courts were published as summaries. The records show that sexual assaults, from which our society still suffers, were quite common in the period when the newspaper was published. In the study, the crimes which are considered within the scope of sexual assaults in Ottoman positive law as comparatively with Turkish positive law will be analysed over the case records and the law texts referred in these texts. In this way, it will be understood that the legal parlance we have today started to emerge in times when this newspaper was published, and that after the Tanzimat Era, a change which is fast and partly desired was experienced in the judicial system.