Abstract
OTTOMAN BRIDE'S DOWRY
Culture, as a living organism, has been passed down from generation to generation. Various cultural elements have undergone changes while being transferred from generation to generation, and some cultural elements have survıved unchanged until today. Dowry appears as a part of the marriage culture in Turkish societies. The foundations of the dowry culture, which changes from region to region, date back to pre-Islamic. The dowry tradition shaped according to the social and economic status of the family appears as a part of the social life in the Ottaman Empire. The tradition, which continues today, varies from region to region, but generally consists of kitchen utensils and furnishings. In order to see the continuity and the change of the dowry in the line extending from the past to the present, and to determine the content of the dowry in the Ottoman Empire, we have found 58 provisions in which ‘dowry’ is included as a result of our scanning in the Istanbul Kadı Registers. The oldest of these provisions is the 1518-1521 Üsküdar Court; the newest one belongs to the 1825-1827 Mahmudpaşa Court. As a result of these provisions, we have obtained information about the content of dowries in the Ottoman Empire. In this article, the contents of the dowry are analyzed by categorizing. According to this; there are three main categories: Coin/money, house/garden/vineyard/land and goods.
Keywords
Dowry, furnishings, fabrics, Ottoman Empire, Istanbul Kadi Registers.
