What was the name of the Ottoman legal code compiled under Suleiman I? The answer is Kanunname.
A kanunname was a compilation of the sultan’s secular regulations, known collectively as kanun. Under Suleiman I, these rules were organized and expanded alongside Islamic law, or sharia, to govern taxation, landholding, criminal penalties, administration, and social order.
Suleiman’s legal reputation earned him the epithet Kanuni, meaning “the Lawgiver.” His legal reforms did not replace Islamic law; instead, they supplied state regulations for areas in which the sultan had legislative authority. Ottoman judges and administrators used both systems together.
The term can be confusing because several related names appear in historical sources, including Kanun-i Osmani and Kanunname-i Ali Osmani. “Fatwa” means a legal opinion issued by a qualified Islamic scholar, while the Mecelle was a much later Ottoman civil code compiled in the 19th century. Sharia was the broader Islamic legal tradition, not the specific code named in this question.