Poisoning Cases in the Ottoman Empire and the Most Common Poisons Used in the Nineteenth Century

Aim: This study examines how nineteenth-century transformations in pharmacy, toxicology, and poison regulation unfolded in Europe and within the Ottoman Empire’s resulting hybrid system, comparing their distinct reform trajectories. Drawing upon Ottoman court records, the research demonstrates how toxic substances impacted medicine, crime, and public health, while also revealing the gendered legal and social dynamics surrounding poisoning cases.Methods: This study analyzes twenty nineteenth-century Ottoman poisoning cases using archival court records and registers from the early nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Cases were classified by perpetrator gender and the types of poisons used. The study also evaluates how limited forensic tools, reliance on testimony, and the gradual adoption of European toxicological methods.Results: The findings show that women were the primary perpetrators in nineteenth-century Ottoman poisoning cases, responsible for fifteen of twenty incidents, mostly targeting husbands. Poisons were typically domestic and accessible, especially sıçan otu (rat poison) and aksülümen (mercuric chloride). Most cases were fatal, with 18 deaths, and evidence often relied on testimony rather than forensic proof.Conclusions: The study concludes that poisons were integral to nineteenth-century Ottoman domestic, medical, and legal life, blurring the line between remedy and harm. Women, constrained by patriarchal limits, often used accessible household toxins such as arsenic and plant-based poisons in marital conflicts. Courts struggled to prove poisoning due to limited forensic tools and reliance on testimony, yet punishments ranged widely. By the late century, Ottoman legal practice began integrating medical examinations and European toxicology, marking a gradual shift toward modern forensic justice.