Note 519 — Chapter VI · THE RULING INSTITUTION: AS GOVERNMENT

In Turkey at the present day the courts of the Sacred Law (Sheriyeh) have sole cognizance of the following classes of cases: “in civil law, questions concerning marriage, alimony, education of children, liberty, slavery, inheritance, wills, absence, and disappearance; in criminal law, suits concerning retaliation, the price of blood, the price of laming a limb, the price of causing an abortion, damages for disfigurements, the division of the price of blood” (Heidborn, 255). The Nizamiyeh, or secular courts, have sole cognizance of commercial and penal cases, and a few other groups. All other causes are taken before the Sheriyeh courts if the parties agree; otherwise before the Nizamiyeh courts. Thus the courts of the Sacred Law still retain a great deal of importance in Turkey.