Research Information System
Electronic Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, vol.7, pp.68-77, 2020 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
This paper considers the history of Islamic family law and its current applications in Turkey. As the heir of the last
Muslim empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey chose an abrupt revolution in its legal system; in
1926, it cut all ties to Islamic law, which was the main law of the land during the Ottoman Empire. Secularization
of the law was not uncommon among modern nation states including those, which had Muslim majority populations.
However, most of these Muslim majority states allowed Islamic law to govern the private law area, especially
family laws. By contrast, the young Republic of Turkey did not allow this to happen and adopted the Swiss civil
code including family law with limited revisions. Despite this rushed revolution, practices emanating from Islamic
family legal norms did not cease among the people and continued until now. This created a dichotomy in the lives of
people between applying Islamic family law and abiding by the secular civil code, which has caused several multidimensional
legal problems in the areas of marriage and divorce, as well as their legal consequences in the areas of
financial support and child custody. For the first time in republican history, in 2017, the government authorized
muftīs to solemnize marriages. This is seen as the only direct authority given to muftīs in a legal matter, which
indirectly opens a door for applying Islamic family law in modern legal life in Turkey. In addition, family mediation
will soon have some presence in the legal system. There is no direct reference, however, to Islamic family law in
government official documents congruent with these recent developments. There also is significant potential for
incorporating the principles of family mediation and arbitration (taḥkīm) based on Islamic legal principles. This
paper first gives a brief history of Islamic family law in Turkey as well as its effect on the civil codes and applications
and then evaluates these recent changes. These are preceded by a brief note on the constitutional and legal
frameworks currently in force in Turkey.