Time is the only phenomenon that encompasses the past, present, and future, giving vitality to all living beings. Throughout history, people have tried to understand this phenomenon by determining its cycles and dividing them into segments. In pre-modern societies, the powerlessness of people against nature made them view time and space as closely connected (time-space continuum). In traditional Ottoman society, it was thus difficult to measure time. People made calculations using lunar movements. Court astrologers observed the moon and stars, advising sultans when to hold imperial accession ceremonies, celebrate princely births and weddings, or launch ships. In larger towns, at least the prayer times could be determined with assurance: However, villagers were mostly aware only of the day, month, season, and year. Hence, the understanding of time was quite different on the higher and lower rungs of the social ladder. In this paper, I attempt to answer the following questions: To what extent is it possible to measure time by studying the phases of the moon? What were the meanings that the Ottoman ruling class attached to the moon? For what reasons did ordinary people try to document in the qadi court at what time they saw the new moon, finding witnesses and having the court scribes record their testimonies? My sources are the qadi court records of Anatolian and Crimean cities, with additional information from travelogues and chronicles.

中文翻译：

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Moonstruck：在17世纪的奥斯曼世界中观看月球

时间是唯一一种包容过去、现在和未来的现象，赋予所有生命以生命力。纵观历史，人们一直试图通过确定其周期并将其划分为多个部分来理解这种现象。在前现代社会，人们对自然的无力感使他们将时间和空间视为紧密相连（时空连续体）。因此，在传统的奥斯曼社会中，时间是难以计量的。人们利用月球运动进行计算。宫廷占星师观察月亮和星星，建议苏丹何时举行皇室登基仪式、庆祝王子的出生和婚礼，或发射船只。在较大的城镇，至少可以有把握地确定祈祷时间：然而，村民们大多只知道日、月、季和年。因此，在社会阶梯的上层和下层，对时间的理解大不相同。在本文中，我试图回答以下问题：通过研究月相可以在多大程度上测量时间？奥斯曼统治阶级赋予月球的意义是什么？普通人出于什么原因试图在卡迪法庭记录他们看到新月的时间，寻找证人并让法庭抄写员记录他们的证词？我的资料来源是安纳托利亚和克里米亚城市的卡迪法庭记录，以及来自游记和编年史的其他信息。通过研究月相可以在多大程度上测量时间？奥斯曼统治阶级赋予月球的意义是什么？普通人出于什么原因试图在卡迪法庭记录他们看到新月的时间，寻找证人并让法庭抄写员记录他们的证词？我的资料来源是安纳托利亚和克里米亚城市的卡迪法庭记录，以及来自游记和编年史的其他信息。通过研究月相可以在多大程度上测量时间？奥斯曼统治阶级赋予月球的意义是什么？普通人出于什么原因试图在卡迪法庭记录他们看到新月的时间，寻找证人并让法庭抄写员记录他们的证词？我的资料来源是安纳托利亚和克里米亚城市的卡迪法庭记录，以及来自游记和编年史的附加信息。