[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. Although the present volume does not name the compiler, the work is identifiable on the basis of the contents. The fetva normally regarded as the last is situated in the margin to the right of the colophon (f 313v), which has further additions beneath. 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-5r), the 53 kitablar are written in red, while the bablar are in black. A few folios, such as 313, have rectangular incisions in the margins; probably some unwanted fetava or annotations were removed in this way. 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. Of the three Fetava-yı Ali Efendi held by the library (Or 14130 and Or 14782), the present volume appears to have the greatest amount of such annotations. Many of these are the same as those used in Salih ibn-i Ahmed el-Kefevi's printed edition. Begins: Besmele ve bismih nesta'in, elhamdülillah Rabb'il-Alemin ve's-salat ve's-selam ala hayr halkih Muhammed ve alihi't-tayyibin el-tahirin Kitabu't-Tahare, Zeyid cünüp iken zikir ve tespih ve salat ala'n-Nebi ... itmek caiz olur mu? el-Cevab: Olur Ends:car murat ettikte Emin-i Beytü'l-Mal tarlaları Ben zapt ederim diye Zeydi bi-gayri vecih men'e kadir olur mu? el-Cevab: Olmaz. The colophon is on f 313v and carries the date of 13 Rebiyülahir 1139 AH/8 December 1726 CE.

Available for research unless otherwise stated

For other copies of the work in the British Library, see Or 14130 and Or 14782. 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 and Danişmend, İOK III, 539. On his 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).