Imam Birgivi (27 March 1522 – 15 March 1573) 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 aft ...

scholar and

moralist Moralism is any philosophy with the central focus of applying moral judgements. The term is commonly used as a pejorative to mean "being overly concerned with making moral judgments or being illiberal in the judgments one makes". Moralism has st ...

who lived during the height of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

and whose texts are used to this day as manuals of spiritual practice throughout the Muslim world. His full name, in Arabic, is Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Pīr ʿAlī al-Birgawī.

Life

Born Muḥammad ibn Pīr ʿAlī, in Balikesir, Ottoman Empire, in 1522, Muḥammad was sent to the capital Istanbul to study theology as a young man. Later, he studied law under the chief military judge (''

kazasker A kazasker or kadıasker ( ota, قاضی عسكر, ''ḳāḍī'asker'', "military judge") was a chief judge in the Ottoman Empire, so named originally because his jurisdiction extended to the cases of soldiers, who were later tried only by their ...

'') of the Ottoman Empire. After working as a judge for a short period in

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

, Birgivi became an

ascetic Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...

, resigning from his government post and returning his salary. However, he was instructed by ʿAṭāʾ Allāh Efendi to become a teacher of religion and morals instead. Through the gift of a

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

, a ''

medrese Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...

'' was founded in the town of Birgi near Izmir and Muḥammad was appointed as its head teacher (''müderris''). Now known as Imam Birgivi, his fame quickly spread as a result of his teaching and his books. Birgivi and his disciples were vocal critics of corruption within the Empire and without, particularly decrying the twisting of Islamic teachings for the benefit of the rich. At one point Birgivi traveled to the capital of the Empire and personally took the prime minister to task. This reprimand was taken well by the minister, who consulted him on how to cure the degeneration of the Islamic virtues. Imam Birgivi lived in Birgi until his death from the plague at the age of fifty-one.

Works

Imam Birgivi is known to be the author of some the twenty-seven works,A list of his works is in C. Brockelmann, ''Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur'' (Leiden: Brill, 1937–1949), G II 583, S II 654. dealing with theolog Scholars of the Ottoman Empirey, the art of reciting the Qurʾān, dogmatics and various legal issues. He is most famous for his catechism in Turkish entitled ''Risale-i Birgivi'', also known as the ''Vasiyetname'', available in many printed editions, and translated into several European languages. He also wrote ''Dhukhr al-Muta'ahhilin wa Nisa' fi ta'rif al-Athar wa al-Dima'', an authoritative work on: menstruation, lochia, and related issues in the Hanafi school of fiqh (jurisprudence), which the majority of Muslims follow. Ibn Abidin wrote a commentary on it and attached great importance to it.

References

External links

An extensive biography of Imam Birgivi
Hanafis Maturidis Mujaddid 1522 births 1573 deaths Proto-Salafists People from Balıkesir 16th-century scientists from the Ottoman Empire 16th-century writers from the Ottoman Empire 16th-century Muslim scholars of Islam Islamic philosophers Ottoman Sufis Islamic scholars from the Ottoman Empire Scholars of the Ottoman Empire {{Islam-bio-stub