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This edition of the only surviving copy of a court register from Skopje (late 18th century) is based on the author's dissertation submitted to the University of Heidelberg. The actual register was housed in the Oriental Institute in Sarajevo but vanished after the 1992 burning of the library during the war. The limitations of a review will not permit me to duly address every aspect of this edition of approximately 900 pages. Nevertheless, I would like to express my general opinion that this edition, which is in fact the first complete edition-cum-translation of a court register, distinguishes itself as a very courageous attempt: it is not only accompanied by a substantial introduction in which the author analyzes the data in the register, but also by the transliteration and translation of most of the entries in the register into German (some entries were summarized, e.g., p. 282-83; cf. p. 6). A complete facsimile of the register is also included. There are six different indices, composed of listings of the districts within Skopje, the villages of the same administrative unit, all other place names, proper names, and technical terms, and the items mentioned in the inheritance records.
When one is handed such an edition, the first thing one is curious to learn is the dates covered by the register. It is unfortunate that the date is not included in the title of this edition; it is necessary to turn to the introduction to find out that most of the cases recorded in the register are from 1792 to 1794. The register's 199 entries, the details and variety of which I cannot get into here, are chronologically reorganized in this edition.
The 157-page introduction is valuable in many respects. It gives an overview of the court register editions and translations to date. In particular, the sections on the provincial administration of Skopje in the...