Early modern Ottoman politics of time: custom, temporality, and the making of ʿÂdet-i Kadîme

Abstract

This thesis examines the temporality of ʿâdet-i kadîme (ancient custom) as a lens through which to explore how time was conceptualized, invoked, and made meaningful—that is, how it was perceived—in the early modern Ottoman Empire, with a particular focus on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing on a diverse array of primary sources, including the registers of important affairs (mühimme defterleri), provincial law codes (sancak kanunnâmeleri), and judicial court records (kadı sicilleri), it conceptually and contextually analyzes temporal expressions such as “kadîmden berü” (“since ancient times”), “olıgeldiği üzere” (“as it has long continued”), and “babam/atam/ceddim zamanı” (“in the time of my father/ancestor”). While these expressions may appear vague, this study argues—through semantic and hermeneutic analysis—that they functioned as meaningful temporal signifiers that iv both reflected and shaped how communities perceived the historical depth and temporality of customs. The thesis contends that the temporal framing of ʿâdet-i kadîme—the ways in which customary practices were anchored in an imagined past—played a key role not only in transforming evolving practices into accepted custom, but also in conferring normative legitimacy and authority upon them. Rather than viewing custom as a static inheritance, the study demonstrates that it was dynamically shaped, reproduced, contested, and instrumentalized through temporal language, which in turn helped structure both state-society and intra-societal relations. This temporal discourse, far from being merely descriptive, played an active role in the maintenance of the world order (nizâm-ı ʿâlem). Ultimately, it reveals how early modern Ottoman individuals and communities situated themselves within historical time—by framing their pasts, interpreting their present, and envisioning their futures—through the idioms and temporal logic of ʿâdet-i kadîme.