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
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named a ...
Maturidi
Māturīdī theology or Māturīdism ( ar, الماتريدية: ''al-Māturīdiyyah'') is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, reformer (''Mujaddid''), and scholastic th ...
Ottoman jurist and
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
exegete, who served as the
Qadi (judge) of
Istanbul
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
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
Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
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
Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, Ḳ ...
promoted him to
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 ...
– 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
Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking Endogamy, endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran ...
and his successor
Selim's
attack on Cyprus.
Ebussuud also issued legal rulings (''
fatwā
A fatwā ( ; ar, فتوى; plural ''fatāwā'' ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (''sharia'') given by a qualified '' Faqih'' (Islamic jurist) in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist i ...
s)'' which labeled the
Qizilbash
Qizilbash or Kizilbash ( az, Qızılbaş; ota, قزيل باش; fa, قزلباش, Qezelbāš; tr, Kızılbaş, lit=Red head ) were a diverse array of mainly Turkoman Shia militant groups that flourished in Iranian Azerbaijan, Anatolia, the ...
, regardless of whether they lived on
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
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
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
S ...
, a novelty at the time, are particularly celebrated.[Schneider, 193.] He is also known for a widely-contested ''fatwā'' permitting monetary dealings involving ''riba
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
'' (interest) in certain situations. This opinion is often referenced by contemporary Muslim modernists.
Footnotes
References
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebussuud
1490 births
1574 deaths
Hanafis
Maturidis
Political people from the Ottoman Empire
Sheikh-ul-Islams of the Ottoman Empire
Quranic exegesis scholars
Grand Muftis of Istanbul (Ottoman)
16th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
Jurists from the Ottoman Empire
16th-century jurists
People from İskilip
Islamic scholars from the Ottoman Empire
Shaykh al-Islāms