1869 to 1876 · Civil codes

Ottoman Mecelle (Majalla)

Ottoman Empire

The first attempt to put Islamic civil and commercial law, in the Hanafi tradition, into the form of a modern code with numbered articles.

Why it matters

It was applied across the Ottoman lands and remained in force in several successor states, shaping later Arab civil codes.

Built on

No earlier text on this timeline is a documented model for it.

Went on to shape

1948

Egyptian Civil Code (Sanhuri)

Egypt

Islamic-law sources, partly through the earlier Mecelle

1976

Jordanian Civil Code

Jordan

drew heavily on the Mecelle and Islamic jurisprudence

Counting texts that borrowed from the texts that borrowed from this one, 5 later texts on this timeline trace back to it.

Countries in the Legal Families Atlas

Turkey Jordan Iraq

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TheLawToKnow Tools’s timeline lists links of influence only where the borrowing is widely documented. Historians sometimes disagree about how much one text shaped another. It is an educational overview, not legal advice.