Intergenerational Mobility in Ottoman Istanbul: Evidence from Court Records

We draw on Istanbul court registers from the 16th-19th centuries to establish long-term trends in intergenerational mobility. The dataset covers more than 270,000 individuals appearing in court in various capacities—litigants, witnesses, representatives, and others—and crucially records honorific titles for both individuals and their fathers. We use these titles as indicators of socioeconomic status. We have three aims. First, we show that honorific titles are reliable proxies for social status in this context. Second, we analyze the relationship between fathers’ and sons’ titles to assess intergenerational mobility. Third, we determine whether any observed shifts reflect horizontal movements within social strata or increased mobility across class boundaries. We find that titles remained strongly and consistently correlated with wealth between the 16th and 19th centuries. During the same period, the intergenerational transmission of titles declined, indicating increased mobility. However, this rising mobility occurred primarily within the elite strata, suggesting a consolidation of power and status among the upper classes rather than a broad opening of the social hierarchy.