An Attempt at Using Sakk Majmuas as a Source of History Studies

Abstract

It is not possible to claim that there is an adequate number of studies on sakk majmuas, which show how and in which frame the regulations of accounts pertaining to the cases in the Ottoman courts were drawn up. As the documents in the sakk majmuas are selected from formerly prepared shari'a court registers, they should be evaluated as shari'a court registers. This article analyzes a sakk majmua of Tokat and attempts to determine the dates of the documents by means of comparing several institutions and historical events. Almost all the accounts in the majmua include a wide range of information about the Tokat province and its environment in the 17(th) century. This majmua becomes doubly important considering the fact that the first of the shari'a court registers of Tokat preserved in the National Library is dated 1772: the majmua sheds light on an unknown era when there weren't any court registers. The sakk majmua, which constitutes the basis of our study, contains ample information about a variety of subjects like the state institutions, human relations, mosques, madrasahs, guilds, the plague as one of the most dangerous diseases of the time, and the seriously destructive fires in Tokat.