IS IMPRISONMENT A PUNISHMENT FOR THE CONVICT, OR FOR HIS INNOCENT FAMILY?
Punishments and Prisons in the Ottoman Empire

They say that prisoners will be allowed to meet with their families. This practice began in Belgium. Islamic law thus remained ahead of its time. According to this law, prisoners may come together with their wives at certain times. This is intended not to protect the prisoner, but the rights of the woman.

A few years ago, a music group made a song about the life of a kabadayı (local tough guy) in the Yedikule dungeon in Istanbul. Yet Yedikule was a Byzantine dungeon; it was not used as a dungeon during the Ottoman period. The ambassador of a state with which the Ottomans were at war would be lodged here as a guest. There was no sentence of imprisonment or prison in the Ottoman Empire.

Imprisonment Is for Coercion

The basic form of punishment in Islamic law is corporal punishment. Because imprisonment is contrary to the principle that crime and punishment are personal. It prevents a person from performing his religious duties and fulfilling his obligations toward those under his protection. Imprisoning the criminal harms the innocent members of his family more than anyone else. In prison, the criminal may lose his mental health. Or he may become susceptible to committing new crimes. For this reason, in sharia law, imprisonment was legitimized not so much as a punishment, but for the reform of the criminal or as a precautionary measure. This was also the case in Europe before the 1700s.

In the old days, there were people who deliberately committed crimes and went to prison so that they could spend three or four months of the winter there. In Turkish they were called "kış vardiyacısı" (winter prison lodgers). Warmth, free meals, a bed, music and conversation were things that poor people could only dream of. There is even a joke about this: A man stole a donkey. The judge sentenced him to two months in prison. When he was asked whether he had anything to say, he replied, “Your Honor, winter lasts a long time here. Either give me four months, or allow me to steal another donkey.”

A fine (financial penalty) does not affect the rich. Imprisonment does not affect the vagabond. But corporal punishment has the same effect on everyone, rich or poor, man or woman, villager or townsman, scholar or ignorant person. For this reason, it was considered more just. Corporal punishment did not involve a whip, but a stick about the thickness of the little finger. It was not administered to the face or genital area, nor was the same spot struck repeatedly.

There is imprisonment in sharia law, but not as a punishment for a crime. It is intended to isolate those whose mixing with society is harmful and to coerce them into fulfilling an obligation. Those who committed highway robbery without harming life or property; apostates (those who left the religion); and those who failed to pay their debts were imprisoned until they repented and paid their debts. The Baba Cafer Dungeon, on the site of what is now a jewelry bazaar in Eminönü, Istanbul, served this purpose. Prisons had been established since the time of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq. Imprisonment took place in a place suitable for putting pressure on the criminal. The prisoner was given a simple mat to sleep on, and enough water and bread to keep him alive. The purpose was not to take care of him in prison, but to pressure him into paying his debt. He also covered these expenses himself. He was assisted in performing his daily prayers. The prisoner was not allowed to meet anyone. However, his wife was permitted to stay with her husband for a specified period of time. Because imprisonment does not deprive a woman of the rights arising from marriage. Benefactors such as Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan would occasionally come and ensure that prisoners were released by paying their debts.

Signing In at the Police Station

There was also a sentence of exile. It was considered necessary for some criminals to distance themselves from the society in which they lived, both for their own sake and for the sake of society. Cities with fortresses were preferred. In the Ottoman Empire, exile was carried out either by confining a person to a tower (kulebendlik) or by requiring him to reside in a fortress (kalebendlik). A person subjected to kalebendlik was free to walk around during the day. He could engage in an occupation. He could not leave the fortress. At specified times, he would go to the fortress commandant and prove his presence. Sinop was a renowned place of exile.

For some crimes, the punishment was being assigned to the oars. Both prisoners of war and those convicted of serious crimes such as bloodshed, highway robbery, breaking into houses, counterfeiting and theft were brought to the naval arsenal. They rowed the galleys while the navy was on campaign and worked at the arsenal when it was not on campaign. While the navy was on campaign, for security reasons, only half of the oarsmen would be convict rowers or galley slaves; the rest were selected from among paid Muslim oarsmen. Europeans called the dungeons of North Africa banyo, from the Italian bagno, meaning “bathhouse.” For this reason, the naval arsenal was also called banyol. When oared ships disappeared, they began working in state-owned workshops. Naval arsenal dungeons also existed in Europe, and their conditions were exceedingly harsher than those in Istanbul. Banyol was closed in 1863. A state prison was established in Sultanahmed, Istanbul. Under European influence, the number of crimes punishable by imprisonment was increased.

A fine was imposed for certain minor offenses. In cases of killing other than intentional murder, as well as wounding and assault, the convicted person paid a sum of money to the victim or the victim's relatives as diyah (blood money). For crimes such as counterfeiting and black-market trading, the offender's property, or a specified portion of it, was confiscated.

For some offenses, calling the offender before the court and scolding him with words such as, “You have committed such and such a crime!” would serve as a punishment. The public exposure of persons such as false witnesses, fraudsters and gamblers for the purpose of setting an example was also a form of punishment. Public exposure could take the form of blackening the offender's face, making him ride backward on a donkey and parading him through the city, having a town crier announce his crime, or tying him to a tomruk (wooden pillory) in a public square. In the Ottoman Empire, those who committed disgraceful crimes were tied to a tomruk in public squares and exposed as an example to others.

Public Exposure at the Stone of Admonition

Because it could not be undone, the death penalty was rare. It was carried out in cases of premeditated murder if the victim's relatives wished it. A judge or ruler could also impose the death penalty on those who were harmful to society, such as people who made a habit of abducting children, committing robbery or practicing sorcery. Those sentenced to death for highway robbery were executed publicly and their bodies were displayed for about three days. Apart from this, the death penalty was carried out with the most expeditious weapon available. In the Ottoman Empire, until the Tanzimat period, it is said that the heads of some executed criminals were displayed for a while (about three days) on the Stone of Admonition (seng-i ibret) in front of Topkapi Palace.