Models of Social Life in Mardin According to Sharia Record No. 238 of 1865

(A Historical Documentary Study)

Abstract

The social life in Kurdistan has been characterized by its diversity and richness in different cultures. Such characteristics have expressed the various components including the impact of peaceful coexistence based on the acceptance of the other.This has included multiple races, languages ​​and traditions, although it has been dominated by the Kurdish character in the majority. Further, Kurdistan has contained heavenly and non-heavenly religions that have been rooted in the region from the first human settlement and different civilizations. All of these have led to richness of Kurdistan social heritage.

 The current paper sheds light on different samples of the nature of social life and pictures of the diaries experienced by the people of Mardin, one of the important historical Kurdish cities, and its areas. One of these topics is the complaints raised by the inhabitants of those areas to each other. Through these complaints, focus is put on some various issues such as the identification of the old names of residential neighborhoods of the city of Mardin and the cities that were administratively affiliated with it, the old names of the Kurdish villages, which were mostly changed after the establishment of the modern Turkish Republic, as well as the reasons behind marital problems and divorce cases, theft cases and problems related to inheritance, debt and other social issues of this kind. On the other hand, these complaints reflect the demographic structure of the region, religions embraced by its inhabitants, the names of plaintiffs and witnesses, the names of tribes living there, and other information that has its special importance to the social part of the history of modern Kurds in the second half of the 19^th century.