Holidays, Vacations and Working Hours during the Second Constitutionalist Period of Islamic Law in Archival Documents

Abstract

Islamic law was taken as a basis on the issues of holidays, vacations and working hours in the Ottoman State, however some amendments occurred in practice according to changing conditions. Diff erent days and periods were used for vacations in the state offi ces and education institutions from the beginning of the Ottoman State until the 19th Century. It is seen that working practices diff ered and even offi cer vacations were cancelled during the periods when the state matters intensifi ed or the wars and economic depression occurred, as well as in summer and winter times. It is a fact that eff orts to set standards for week-end holidays, vacations and working hours intensifi ed with the Tanzimat (Reforms) period, towards the mid-19th Century when the bureaucracy spread. In the meantime the process to provide unity and continuity still went on even in the beginning of the 20th Century. Legislations of the Second Constitutionalist Period, when the concepts of holidays, vacations, working hours for offi cers were formed, constituted the essentials of the Republican Turkey. This study, covering the period between the Second Constitutionalist Period when the bureaucratic procedures accelerated and the Proclamation of the Republic, deals with the topics of holidays, vacations, working hours and problems encountered on the implementation of these issues in the light of particularly the Decisions of the Council of Ministers and the documents of the Ottoman Archives and Republican Archives containing government practices.