15 Topic Modelling in the Ottoman Kadi Registers
Sümeyye Akça · 2024
The Qāḍī/Qadi/Kadi is the judge who renders decisions in Islamic Shariah law. The registers documenting the court decisions by the Kadis also describe daily events in the life of the Ottoman Empire and are of great importance for Ottoman research. The data recorded in the registers highlighted the problems of social life of the period and provide modern-day researchers and interested people the opportunity to penetrate the details of the cultural life of the Ottoman state. Using computational methods enables a close reading of the records by historians and other social researchers which significantly enhances the value of the registers and leads to improved research outcomes. Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods like topic modelling and clustering have been used to identify topics in large document collections and the relationships between them. This chapter outlines the work undertaken in a project which used topic modelling to analyse the Kadi registers. The resulting modelling identified connections between the descriptive words used to record the subject matter in each record within the register and the connections were used to form a subject clustering list. Topics identified were compared with previously determined subjects and the semantic links between registers revealed. The project goal was to enable an effective approach for ensuring effective searching and information retrieval in the Kadi registers database.