Although there are certainly unaccountable issues regarding the experience of slavery found in Ottoman Cyprus, very few studies concerning the slavery institution have been carried out. Hence, the primary matter to be investigated in this article is the main indicators of this institution of slavery as reflected in the Qadi registers. These registers are the richest and most reliable resources, since they are basically the court minutes recorded during the Ottoman period. This research, which looks at the Qadi registers of the institution of slavery across all of Cyprus that emerged during the 17th and 18th centuries, carries out the study of this subject from an all-inclusive perspective. It attempts to shed light on the reality of this institution, and on other various issues related to it such as the attempts of freeing such slaves, for very high costs, in the path of God, but also at the enslaving of free people through fraud and deceit. The study demonstrates how people were bought and sold as slaves, and in what way they were made to labor. Moreover, their family relationships, their claims through lawsuits, the alleged crimes that they were involved in, and their relationships with their individual lords are revealed within the framework of these historical documents. Some of the findings disclose that the main contributor for people taking the incentive to free the slaves were Islamic references found in the Qur'anic verses and the hadiths. The study also reveals that people whose requests for freedom were denied went onto defend their rights by applying to the courts; in fact, many of them won cases against their proprietors. However, even though in the legal literature concerning this subject there were general appraisals for freeing slaves at the end of a seven year long enslavement, no such case was observed in Ottoman Cyprus. Furthermore, there were clear written down conventions concerning the institution of slavery that a non-Muslim slave should be set free if he/she accepts Islam, and that he/she would obtain their freedom if their proprietor died; however, based upon this research these conventions do not reflect the social-historical reality on the ground. It is clear from the Qadi registers that at times the enslaving of free persons was attempted in various ways, but they all won their lawsuits. Slaves were bought and sold as commercial property and sometimes they were made to work. The records inform the reader that in most cases the slaves were used in simple home services, farms, fields and gardens as a member of the house; so slavery here was more humane than the one in the West known as the transatlantic slavery or the one found in ancient Rome. Moreover, in some studies related to the slavery institution during this Ottoman period it is suggested that non-Muslims living on the island were unable to own slaves; conversely, after researching the registers it is evident that this information turned out to be false since some of the non-Muslims living on the island did own slaves, though they were few in number. The findings also reveal that in some marriage contracts, concubines were defined as mahr or sometimes they were given as gifts, indicating that concubines were generally used as domestic servants by the ladies. Female slaves and concubines are not mentioned as being involved in any crime whatsoever, but, male slaves are mentioned in relation to thefts, extortions, wounding and murder. Sometimes their crimes were settled, fines were paid out by their owners; and no physical penalty took place. Although, the slaves sometimes did escape from the island, in the registers this is only recorded as just twice, not tens of times as mentioned in other sources. It seems from the Qadi registers that the slaves were not exposed to any physical violence by their lords; however, sometimes foreigners committed such crimes against them, which were prosecuted and recorded. In the slave deaths that are recorded, no one was involved; yet, these deaths sometimes occurred naturally and sometimes, it seems, due to the fault of the slaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]