kaziasker

kaziasker, (from Arabic qāḍī, “judge,” and ʿaskar, “army”), the second highest officer in the judicial hierarchy of the Ottoman Empire; he ranked immediately after the shaykh al-Islām, the head of the ʿulamāʾ (men of religious learning). The title was created by Sultan Murad I (reigned 1360–89), who appointed Çandarli Kara Halil as the first kaziasker. In that office he accompanied the army in campaigns and dispensed justice in camp. After the conquest of Istanbul (1453),...