THE SOCIOECONOMICS OF PUNISHMENT: TA’ZIR IN THE OTTOMAN LEGAL CULTURE This paper examines the link between socioeconomic status and legal status concentrating on Ta’zir punishments in the context of the Ottoman Empire from sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Ta’zir means discretionary punishment by the judge for the minor offenses for which no textual punishment (hudud) is specified. As evidence I cite the compilations of şeyhülislam fatwas - El-Muhtarat Minel Fetava (originally dated 1525), Fetava-yı Ebussuud Efendi (o. dated 1574), Fetava-yı Ali Efendi (o. dated 1692), Fetava-yı Feyziye me'an-nukul (o. dated 1703), Fetava-yı Abdurrahim (o. dated 1715), Behçetü'l-fetava (o. dated 1743), and Neticetü'l-fetava me'an-nukul (o. dated 1800) as well as several works of Ottoman moral literature and court records. Through an examination of the aforementioned sources, I will demonstrate that there was a direct correlation between one’s socioeconomic status, the application of the law, and the social order by examining the ways in which different punishments were applied according to social status through the lens of jurisprudence in the Ottoman Empire. My discussion is based on two interrelated pillars: how people of different socioeconomic status received different punishments for the same crime and how the punishment’s severity was harsher when the victim was from a higher socioeconomic group, for example members of the ulama. Three distinctions of social status will occupy the analysis to show the varying positions of Ottoman individuals vis-a-vis law according to their status: Being a member of the Ottoman ruling class, either from the religious institution or military ranks, being a descendant of the Prophet, and being an honorable woman (muhaddere). Furthermore, I observe that mufti rulings were in tandem with the exhortations of the Ottoman literati who demanded the preservation of the empire’s social hierarchy. An examination of fatwas in the Ottoman Empire is sorely lacking. I seek to ameliorate this trend and in doing so I observe that they, in addition to court records, confirm my finding that Ottoman legal structures sought to preserve the empire’s social hierarchy.