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Qadi and the Fortune Teller

The Qadi and the Fortune Teller

The novel The Qadi and the Fortune Teller written by Nabil Saleh is the translation of a diary by Abu Khalid. Abu Khalid writes this journal over a ten month span from January 1843 to October 1843. The diary takes place in Beirut and follows the life of a Qadi or Muslim judge. 1843 was a year of relative calm but was a transition period to more change in the Ottoman Empire. It is a period which followed the bitter fighting in the Lebanese mountains between Christians and Druzes as well as foreign intervention into the Middle East. This is approximately the time of the Tanzimat which began in 1845 when Mustafa Reshid returned to office as grand vizir. During the Tanzimat period many reforms occured and were initiated by a bureaucracy as opposed to the sultan. Some of these reforms included the Hatt-i-sherif, which granted civil equality for all Ottoman subjects. Along with this came other legal reforms such as mixed tribunals. With the increase in...

Posted by: Jason Cashmere

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