Even Norman lawlessness in some sort took a legal shape.
The decline of the Ottoman power, which began towards the end of the 17th century, was marked by increasing anarchy and lawlessness in the outlying portions of the empire.
Elaborate legal enactments codified in Babylonia by the 10th century B.C. find striking parallels in Hebrew, late Jewish (Talmudic), Syrian and Mahommedan law, or in the unwritten usages of all ages; for even where there were neither written laws nor duly instituted lawgivers, there was no lawlessness, since custom and belief were, and still are, almost inflexible.
The troubles were not ended, by the accession of Ahmed III., and many high dignitaries of state were sacrificed to the lawlessness and insubordination of the Janissaries.
It enabled the king to curb the lawlessness of the Magyar nobility, and explains why none of the numerous rebellions against him ever succeeded.
