Toplumsal Trajedi: Osmanli İmparatorluğunda Tefecilik (1848-1864)
Social Tragedy: Usury in the Ottoman Empire (1848-1864)

Summary/Abstract: The topic of this article is the usury labelled as murabaha in the Ottoman Empire between 1848-1864. Examining the effects of usury activities on society, we will explain how usury led to emergence of social tragedy. Usurers known as murabahacılar practiced usury arbitrarily and this was why Ottoman subjects experienced injustices. This arbitrariness caused proclamation of usury regulation in 1848. Although Ottoman aimed to remove injustices with this regulation, they did not succeed in that because officials neglected their duties. For this reason, the second usury regulation was announced in 1864. However, this regulation could not solve the problems of the people who became indebted with high interest rates. In this context, this article argues that usury led to emergence of a social tragedy.

• Details
• Contents