The Famılıes Left Behınd by Prısoners in the Ottoman Empıre and The State's Approach to Thıs Issue

Abstract

This study aims to examine the socio-economic hardships experienced by the families of individuals convicted under the Ottoman penal system, based on archival documents. It is particularly evident that when the head of the household was sentenced to long-term or distant punishments such as imprisonment, exile, or hard labor, the remaining family members—mostly women and children—faced serious economic uncertainty. During this process, the families' requests for assistance from the state focused on basic needs such as food, shelter, children's education, and placement in boarding schools. Another issue frequently encountered in the archival documents is requests for the salaries of convicted persons who were civil servants to be transferred to their families, along with the responses and actions taken by administrative authorities in response to these requests.