Kazasker (chief military judge)

The kazasker, or chief military judge, heard disputes among soldiers. In the Ottoman state he was among the highest judges, a member of the imperial council (Divan-i Humayun), and responsible for part of the appointment, dismissal and training of the scholarly class. The office began in early Islam as an army judgeship, became a formal institution in the Ottoman state, and divided into the kazasker of Rumelia and the kazasker of Anatolia. ¹

The entry says that Umar ibn al-Khattab (may God be pleased with him) created the institution: he appointed Abu al-Darda army judge in Syria, and at Qadisiyya he appointed Abd al-Rahman ibn Rabia judge of the army. In Egypt Sulayman ibn Anz was army judge under Amr ibn al-As (may God be pleased with him). The office continued under the Umayyads and the Abbasids, and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Baghdadi held it in the Abbasid period. ¹

Many Turkish-Islamic states had the office: the Qarakhanids, the Ghaznavids, the Seljuks, the Zengids, the Khwarazmshahs and the Turkmen dynasties. Among the Seljuks the sultan had his own army judge, and under Sencer a judge was appointed to the army and told to judge by the Qur'an and the Sunna. ¹

The entry says the Ottomans probably took the office from the Anatolian Seljuks. Its formal start is placed in the early reign of Murad I, in 762 or 763 AH (1361 or 1362 CE). The first holder was Candarli Kara Khalil, who had gone from the judgeship of Bursa to the kazaskership and then to the vizierate, a move that became usual in his family. ¹

In the interregnum, after Musa Celebi proclaimed himself ruler in Edirne, he appointed Sheikh Badr al-Din, son of the judge of Simavna, as kazasker. Mehmed Celebi, who made Amasya his seat, appointed Candarli Ibrahim, so the state had two kazaskers for a time, until this ended in 816 AH (1413 CE) when Mehmed Celebi reunited the state. ¹

The post became an institution under Mehmed II. At the end of his reign the kazaskers of Rumelia and Anatolia were created, on the proposal of Karamani Mehmed Pasha. Under Selim I an Arab and Persian kazaskership was created for a time, then abolished and joined to the kazasker of Anatolia. ¹

Until the end of the sixteenth century the grand vizier proposed the kazasker, and from the seventeenth century the shaykh al-islam did so with the grand vizier's agreement. The sultan approved the appointment, and it was recorded in the ruûs register. Dismissals grew in number from the late sixteenth century. ¹

The entry quotes Koci Bey, who complained that kazaskers used to stay in office ten to fifteen years and then received a pension, and that this was no longer observed. ¹

A kazasker was first given revenue from assigned lands, and Mehmed II's regulation gave a salary of 500 akçe a day. Each kazasker also had a share of the army's inheritance revenue, fees on some appointments, and gifts at a sultan's accession. After retirement a kazasker received a pension or an assignment, and sometimes income from large endowments. ¹

In the early state the kazasker settled military disputes and judged in the army. Later he handled the appointment, dismissal and transfer of judges and professors, and the probation (mülazemet) system. In the sixteenth century the kazasker had courts and staff of his own: deputies, notaries and the officials of the bedestens. ¹

In the imperial council the kazasker decided religious and legal questions and his decisions were written in his name. He tried some soldiers and scholars there, and in some cases a death sentence was given in his name. Soldiers could ask to be tried before the kazasker, not the city judge. ¹

The entry says a kazasker held court in his house on set days of the week. Late sixteenth-century registers record endowment cases, estates, social and economic matters, timars and tax-farms, and the treasury. Most of the parties were from the military class. ¹

In the council the kazasker sat with the viziers and the defterdar, and he preceded the governors of provinces (beylerbeyi). On Fridays he wore the twisted turban called the örf. Kazaskers led the ceremonies of accession, festivals and the funerals of sultans, and rode with the sultan on campaign. ¹

The courts of the Rumelian and Anatolian kazaskers were merged in 1914 into one court, which continued until the end of the state. The entry says the office does not exist now, and its work was spread among modern courts. ¹

• TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "KAZASKER", Mehmet İpşirli, vol. 25, pp. 140–143. ²