Behcet ül-Fetâvâ (Collection of Fatwas)

Manuscript in Ottoman Turkish
Copied by El Hac Mustafa bin Ismail, 1169 [1755/56]
268 leaves, 29 x 17.5 cm.

Order No.: MSS_104
Status: available
Price: 7 000 € (excl. VAT)

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The fatwas of Ebu'l-Fazl Abdullah, also called Abdullah Efendi, was Şeyh ul-Islam of Sultan Mahmud I, are important in that they made possible the reformist developments of the time.

Among his fatwas, special mention should be made of his approval of the establishment of the first printing press of Ibrahim Müteferrika. This fatwa can be found on sheet 229b of the manuscript.

The word Fatwa carries in it the meaning of consultation. Specifically it refers to an Islamic legal opinion issued by an expert scholar (Mufti) in response to a question by a lay person.

Hilmar Krüger has examined the fatwas of Ebu'l-Fazl Abdullah in detail his book Fetwa und Siyar.

- Hilmar Krüger, Fetwa und Siyar. Zur internationalrechtlichen Gutachtenpraxis der osmanischen Şeyh ul-Islam vom 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des "Behcet ül-Fetava". (Schriften der Max-Freiherr-von-Oppenheim-Stiftung).
- The fatwas of Ebu'l-Fazl Abdullah have been printed in two editions, under the title "Behcetü'l-fetava maan-Nükul 1266 and 1289 [1849 / 1872]" by Matbaa-i Âmire in Istanbul, ÖZEGE 1777.