ABSTRACT
During the later Tanzimat Period, the Muslim notables of Tokat augmented their wealth and power by litigating and registering property claims, contracts, and suits before the town's Seri court. Since the early centuries of the Islamic era, Seri law had served to regulate the social customs, hygienic practices, and business relations of Muslims throughout the greater Middle East. Legal pluralism and specialization within the hybrid Seri-nizami system did not deprive Tokat's diverse population of shared venues for conflict resolution. This chapter reviews Seri court of Tokat development within a larger historical frame of Seri law. As a result, the Seri law court was predisposed to serve as one of the primary institutions for the reorganization of nineteenth century provincial Ottoman society across the spectrum of local communities, cultural groups, and social networks. The Seri court took into account outcomes from proceedings internal to the millet religious community courts.
