In the present article, I examine the construction and articulation of urban and communal identities in the early modern Ottoman Empire with special reference to the complex and dynamic local Jewish identities in Edirne. I analyse the terminology used for identifying Jewish litigants at the Islamic court in Edirne based on 12 cases selected from the Islamic court registers. In other words, I scrutinize in which cases the court identified Jews by their membership of a particular congregation (Heb. kahal ; pl. kehalim ), in which cases by their residential affiliations (Ott. mahalle ; pl. mahallat , “urban quarter”), and in which by a combination of these aforementioned ascriptions. In so doing, I attempt to enhance our understanding about pre-modern people who were simultaneously members of multiple religious, spatial, ethnic or occupational sub-communities. More specifically, I examine which of the Jews’ multiple identities (i.e., kahal as religious/ethnic; mahalle as spatial) were emphasized by the judges of the Muslim courts. I suggest that various identification markers were employed by court personnel to define the Edirne Jews. While in some matters the fiscally, administratively, as well as socially defined spatial identity based on the term mahalle was employed, in other cases the ethnic/communal identity based on the Jewish kahal —that was also a taxable unit—was the prevalent concept.

中文翻译：

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城市中的重叠边界：现代奥斯曼早期城市背景下的Mahalle和Kahal

在本文中，我研究了现代奥斯曼帝国早期城市和社区身份的建构和表达，并特别提到了爱迪尔内复杂而充满活力的当地犹太身份。我根据从伊斯兰法院登记簿中选出的12个案件，分析了在埃迪尔内伊斯兰法院用于识别犹太诉讼人的术语。换句话说，我仔细审查了法院在哪些情况下通过犹太人的特定会众身份来确定犹太人（希伯来人kahal； pl。kehalim），在哪些情况下法院是通过其居住单位（Ott。mahalle； pl。mahallat，“城市区”）来确定的？ ），并结合使用上述所有名称。通过这种方式，我试图加深我们对同时是多个宗教，空间，种族或职业子社区。更具体地说，我研究了穆斯林法院的法官强调了犹太人的哪些多重身份（即，kahal为宗教/种族； mahalle为空间）。我建议法院工作人员使用各种识别标记来定义爱迪尔内犹太人。在某些情况下，采用了基于mahalle一词的财政，行政和社会定义的空间身份，而在其他情况下，则基于犹太人的kahal（也是应课税单位）的族裔/社区身份是普遍的概念。我建议法院工作人员使用各种识别标记来定义爱迪尔内犹太人。在某些情况下，采用了基于mahalle一词的财政，行政和社会定义的空间身份，而在其他情况下，则基于犹太人的kahal（也是应课税单位）的族裔/社区身份是普遍的概念。我建议法院工作人员使用各种识别标记来定义爱迪尔内犹太人。在某些情况下，采用了基于mahalle一词的财政，行政和社会定义的空间身份，而在其他情况下，则基于犹太人的kahal（也是应课税单位）的族裔/社区身份是普遍的概念。