[Fetava-yı Ali Efendi]

This volume contains the collected fetava of Çatalcalı Ali Efendi (Born 1041 AH/1631-32 CE, died 1103 AH/1692 CE). Ali Efendi held a number of judicial positions before his appointment to the position of Şeyhülislam in Zilkade 1084 AH/February 1674 CE. He held this position for over twelve years until Zilkade 1097 AH/September 1686 CE, when he was exiled to Bursa by Sultan Mehmed IV. He was reinstated as Şeyhülislam by Ahmed II, but died in Edirne just forty days after assuming office, on 2 Şaban 1103 AH/19 April 1692 CE. The Fetava-yı Ali Efendi consists of fetava issued by Ali Efendi during his long period as Şeyhülislam. It includes 4412 rulings related to issues encountered or discussed in daily life in the eleventh century AH/seventeenth century CE Ottoman Empire, and therefore sheds light on the religious, social, and cultural life of the period. The basis of the many printed editions of the work (the first one in 1245 AH/1830 CE) was a copy prepared by Salih ibn-i Ahmed el-Kefevi, which links each fetva to a supporting transmission from one of a number of Arabic-language Hanafi sourcebooks. The work consists of fifty-three kitablar, starting with Kitabü't-tahara and ending with Kitabü'l-Feraiz. Each kitab is subdivided into bablar. In the table of contents of the present volume (ff 1v-5v), each of the kitablar and the bablar are written and numbered, coming to 201 in total. Additional fetva were written on top of an empty contents frame on f 1r. The volume also contains numerous marginal annotations throughout, which mostly consist of quotes from Arabic-language textbooks of the Hanafi school. These offer proofs and additional detail to supplement the brief, one-word answers of the main text. Other copies of the Fetava-yı Ali Efendi held by the British Library (Or 14130 and Or 16146) appear to have a greater number of such annotations. A number of annotations in the present volume can be found in Salih ibn-i Ahmed el-Kefevi's printed edition. The colophon can be found on f 207v, where the copyist signs his name as Musa ibn-i Yahya ibn-i Kamil in mid-Muharrem of 1152 AH/April 1739 CE.

Available for research unless otherwise stated

Purchased on 2 March 1993 from Ms M. Allaf.

For other copies of the work in the British Library, see Or 14130 and Or 16146. On Çatalcalı Ali Efendi, see Mehmet Ipşirli, 'Çatalcalı Ali Efendi,' TDVİA 8:234-235, and the references provided there. See also SO III, 519-20; Danişmend, İOK III, 539. On Ali Efendi's Fetava, see Cengiz Kallek, 'Fetâvâ-yı Ali Efendi,' TDVİA 12:438.

The Fetava-yı Ali Efendi was published several times, first in one volume (1245 AH/1830 CE) and then in two (Istanbul 1258). For a recent annotated edition, see Açıklamalı Osmanlı fetvâları. Fetâvâ-yı Ali Efendi, edited by H. Necati Demirtaş (İstanbul: Kubbealtı Akademisi Kültür ve Sanat Vakfı, 2014). A new edition, prepared by Esra Kilavus and published in two volumes by İSAR, is forthcoming (2021). See also See also Ali Efendi, El-Muhtarat minel fetava: seçme fetavalar, edited İbrahim Ural and M. Ali Sarı (İstanbul: Fey Vakfı, 1996).