Islamic Law in Constantinople - The Fall of Constantinople

The Fall of Constantinople

Clearly the destruction or convergence of the Patriarchal Church would have been in violation of the Shari’a, particularly the dhimma law. So to avoid these direct violations Shari’a authorities released a firman (Persian meaning law) that claimed:

“In the time of the conquest the Muslim community used the so-called Patriarchal Church for the performance of Muslim prayers. It was only right and proper, then, that this church would be made into an exalted mosque. And an exalted mosque it did indeed become. As it stands now, this should not be regarded as an arbitrary action of converting it illegally into a mosque (Peri 101-02).”

As stated in the firman, what would be viewed as an illegal action in the Shari’a of confiscating the Church and converting it into a Mosque; but due to the fact that it was used for Islamic prayer, which, regarded by this source, has no proof to support the premise or the validity of such a claim, restoring the church into a Mosque is perfectly legal.

So in regard to the Shari’a, it can be seen that it, as well as the Patriarchal Church, took somewhat of a syncretism action. Thought the Shari’a wasn’t that monumental factor of a change, excluding the Patriarchal church, it still was an adaptation of a religious belief to establish authority and limit the rulings of the Christian aristocratic theocracy of Constantinople. The Converting of the Patriarchal Church not only promoted Islamic jurisprudence; but symbolized the ailing aristocracy of Constantinople and the entering of a new bureaucracy and law.

The politics of Constantinople under the Shari’a showed great advancements towards trade as a means of diplomacy between Christians and Muslims. The Byzantine aristocratic theory, though in shambles, pleased Ottoman rulers. To maintain a secure relation, as well as prevent political uprising, luxury gifts were shared. Many of the gifts included exotic animals such as giraffes and elephants, mechanical contraptions and Oriental textiles, kept relatively peaceful relations between the two sects. Because of the artisan background of Constantinople, the more exotic artifact that could be presented, the better it was for relations. Contrary to their Christian allusion, these works pandered to the Western taste for marvels of the East. It is well known that the Arabic scripture appeared and many medieval Byzantine and European work's of art, often without any knowledge on the part of its users that it enshrined Islamic political messages (Hillenbrand 389).

It is distinguishable that diplomatic ties must have been intact for Constantinople to flourish under Islamic Law. More or less, these relations were upheld by economic trading factors, not just solely by force. So for Constantinople, it still maintained an aristocracy, granted it was disenfranchised and subdivided; but the old system of elites from the philosophical background was intact even though the formal regulation was under the Shari’a. This presents of economic relations not only showed tolerance of both factions; but it also details that the foundation of a political structure can be built on one premise, greed. The acculturation can also be attributed to the close cultural ties with the Muslims and the Christians within Constantinople, with regards to the shared tastes of craftsman tailored artifacts.

Sectors of Constantinople’s economic and political structures underwent important structural changes after the fourth crusade, particularly the mid-fifteenth century time frame. The main factors contributing to this evolution were constant interplay between micro- and macroeconomic factors, as well as between private initiative and political factors; geopolitical developments within and outside of Constantinople; and, finally, the border economic systems within the province were integrated, thus diversifying political, aristocratic, structure of Constantinople. After the conquest of Constantinople, the economy swiftly geared itself to Western demand, yet also took advantages of conjuncture to develop its bilateral exchanges with other religions. Credit was a major factor stimulating a growth in export-oriented products, as well as in short-and medium-range trade and transportation. In this respect, the political and economic factors were dynamic in regard to a new foundation of laws and political ideologies. In addition to the factors just mentioned, the intensification of local, regional, and trans-Mediterranean trade and shipping and the supply of services in their framework generated substantial infusion of cash into Constantinople, which from their major ports trickled through the various sectors of its economy. As a result, the whole region experienced an ever stronger economic and political interaction between the countryside, the cities, and maritime trade, as well as acceleration of monetary circulation (Jacoby 233).

The Ottoman Turks and the subjects of Constantinople found common interests in the arts that blinded them together. One side of the argument begins with the foundation of Constantinople political rulings after the fourth crusade: it was based more on the merchant, and less on an aristocratic ruler. This is the base of how the Ottoman Empire established authority and ruling, not much so by an aristocracy. Being that Islamic ruling served as the main authority of the people of Constantinople; the Shari’a had been the main way of jurisprudence for the Byzantine Empire. To gather an overall comprehensive idea of how Constantinople was ruled under the Turks and what system of governance was implemented, we must examine the ruler of Constantinople, or under the Turks, Istanbul, to see how the policy was directed towards the people, as well as the state of Constantinople during this time frame.

When in the spring of 1453 the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II appeared with his immense army before its walls, Constantinople was a half ruined city whose population probably numbered fifty thousand (Inalick 231). From the time the Latin occupation after the fourth crusade, the city had progressively declined into the effect that it was no more than a collection of villages. Already by the seventh decade of the fourth century Constantinople and its immediate neighborhood had formed only a small islands surrounded by territories under Ottoman rule. Economically the Ottoman capitals of Brusa and Adrianople had begun to overshadow the aristocratic center of Constantinople. The old silk route from Persia via Trebizond to Constantinople had, by the end of the fourth century been diverted to Brusa, which lead Brusa to become the trading epicenter for Oriental products for the west and near east region. In short, Constantinople was the dead center of a dead empire, in which can be described as a city of ruins, poor, and largely uninhabited.