Ebussuud Efendi ( tr, Mehmed Ebüssuûd Efendi, 30 December 1490 – 23 August 1574)İsmail Hâmi Danişmend, ''Osmanlı Devlet Erkânı'', Türkiye Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1971, p. 114. was a Hanafi Maturidi Ottoman jurist and Qur'an exegete, who served as the Qadi (judge) of Istanbul from 1533 to 1537, and the

Shaykh al-Islām Shaykh al-Islām ( ar, شيخ الإسلام, Šayḫ al-Islām; fa, شِیخُ‌الاسلام ''Sheykh-ol-Eslām''; ota, شیخ‌ الاسلام, Şhaykḫu-l-İslām or ''Sheiklı ul-Islam''; tr, Şeyhülislam) was used in the classical e ...

of the Ottoman Empire from 1545 to 1574. He was also called "El-İmâdî" because his family was from Imâd, a village near Iskilip. Ebussuud was the son of Iskilipli Sheikh Muhiddin Muhammad Efendi. In the 1530s, Ebussuud served as judge in

Bursa ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the ...

, Istanbul and

Rumelia Rumelia ( ota, روم ايلى, Rum İli; tr, Rumeli; el, Ρωμυλία), etymologically "Land of the Names of the Greeks#Romans (Ῥωμαῖοι), Romans", at the time meaning Eastern Orthodox Christians and more specifically Christians f ...

, where he brought local laws into conformity with Islamic divine law (''

sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

''). Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent promoted him to

– supreme judge and highest official – in 1545, an office Ebussuud held until his death and which he brought to the peak of its power.Schneider, 192. He worked closely with the Sultan, issuing judicial opinions that legitimised Suleiman's killings of Yazidis and his successor

Selim Salim, Saleem or Selim may refer to: People *Salim (name), or Saleem or Salem or Selim, a name of Arabic origin *Salim (poet) (1800–1866) *Saleem (playwright) (fl. 1996) *Selim I, Selim II and Selim III, Ottoman Sultans * Selim people, an eth ...

's attack on Cyprus. Ebussuud also issued legal rulings ('' fatwās)'' which labeled the Qizilbash, regardless of whether they lived on Iranian or Ottoman soil, as "heretics", and declared that killing them would be viewed as praiseworthy, other than just being allowed according to law. Together with Suleiman, the "Lawgiver", Ebussuud reorganized Ottoman jurisprudence and brought it under tighter governmental control, creating a legal framework joining ''sharia'' and the Ottoman administrative code ('' qānūn''). While the previously prevailing opinion held that judges were free to interpret ''sharia'', the law that even the ruler was subject to, Ebussuud instituted a framework in which the judicial power was derived from the Sultan and which compelled judges to follow the Sultan's ''qānūn-nāmes'', "law-letters", in their application of the law. In addition to his judicial reforms, Ebussuud is also remembered for the great variety of ''fatwās'' he issued. His opinions allowing Karagöz plays and the consumption of coffee, a novelty at the time, are particularly celebrated.Schneider, 193. He is also known for a widely-contested ''fatwā'' permitting monetary dealings involving '' riba'' (interest) in certain situations. This opinion is often referenced by contemporary Muslim modernists.

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