Off the Straight Path: Illicit Sex, Law, and Community in Ottoman Aleppo by Elyse Semerdjia: [Review]

This is a good example of the type of documents that Elyse Semerdjian found in the protocols of Aleppo's Shari`a court while combing them for evidence concerning sexual crimes and prostitution. This document never clearly mentions sexual transgression, and to the extent that any such document reflects the ambience at court, the proceedings seem to have been matter-of-fact, with the group of plaintiffs, or "informants," raising their issues and presenting evidence of past transgressions and the defendants arguing but finally conceding the claims and accepting the verdict.