Osmanlı Hukukunda Gedik

Gedik in Ottoman Law

The guild organization is one of the units that played a key role in the Ottoman economic system. Ensuring that guild carry out their activities smoothly has been one of the issues that the Ottoman Empire specifically pursued, especially in crowded cities such as Istanbul, in order to prevent people from experiencing food shortages. In this respect, tradesmen’s un-ions have generally found state support while practicing their profession. In addition, the control and supervision of the state has been over the guild’s unions. Guild unions, which were so important for the Ottoman economic system, mostly practiced their profession as tenants in foun-dation shops. When tradesmen members entered the foundation shop as tenants, they brought their professional tools with them and placed them there. The placement of professional tools in the foundation shop provid-ed certain special usage rights in favor of the tenant guild, based on legal decision-making. In addition, the need for repair of foundation shops was partially effective in the guild’s ability to obtain these savings rights. The scope of the study includes the legal analysis of the gedik system, which emerged and became widespread in Istanbul guild’s unions in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The aim of the study is to examine the histori-cal adventure of the gedik in detail by identifying the factors that were effective in the emergence of the gedik system throughout the historical process. In addition, the aims of the study are to analyze the different meanings that the concept of gedik has acquired over time and the lease agreement that provides the right to gedik from a legal perspective. The method followed in the study is; It consists of source scanning, classifi-cation, analysis and synthesis stages. This study is expected to contribute to the Ottoman economic history literature and shed light on future re-search.

Keywords: Gedik; Guild Organization; Alât-ı lâzıme; Privilege; Ottoman State