XXXII Международный конгресс ИИСАА. 26–28 апреля 2023 г.

Россия и Восток. К 300-летию СПбГУ. Материалы конгресса 31 Книга в истории и культуре Востока Yılmaz F. (Marmara University, Turkey) An Important Collection in the St. Petersburg National Library: The Crimean Khanate Court Registers The Crimean Khanate Court Registers ( Kırım Hanlığı Kadı Sicilleri ) constitute one of the most important collections owned by the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg. This collection was formed without any alien influence within the structure and bureaucracy of Crimean Khanate between 1608 and 1786, that is why it is the most important and comprehensive source for the legal, political, social and economic history of the Black Sea region in general, and the Crimean Khanate in particular. After the collapse of the Soviet Union this source became accessible through articles, dissertations and books; new studies began to be conducted mostly in Turkey and also in the West on the Crimean Khanate, which was almost ignored both in Russian andWestern literature. Court registers, as the name implies, are the records belonging to the qadi courts. Qadis were not only responsible for legal judgment but also served as a notaries and mayors at the same time. Especially because of their notarial functions all kinds of information about the state and society were recorded in large notebooks ( defters ), that is, they were registered like the contemporary muslim Ottoman Empire. The Qadi was in charge of a certain administrative region called kaza . In other words, there was a Qadi at each kaza site. There were 20–25 kaza in the Crimean Khanate as an administrative region.All qadis were responsible to the chief Qadi , called Kadıasker who was located in Bahçesaray, the capital of the khanate. Kadıasker also had a court in Bahçesaray. These courts were completely independent institutions and formed the basic framework of Islamic law. But an important point to be noted is that the qadis did not have jurisdiction. They would only report events, issues or problems in detail over to kadıasker at the Khanate administration. The trial and judgment were given by the Khanate court. If we accept that the Crimean Khanate had an institutional lifespan of about 350 years, at least 5000 defters should have remained up to the present. However only 122 of them have survived to this day. The vast majority of them were burned down during the temporary occupation of Crimea by the Russian army in 1736. At the moment this very important collection is located in the Manuscripts department of the St. Petersburg National library. This study focuses on the story of the Crimean Qadi registrers, the importance of the data and information contained in them for the regional and world history.