The Second Formation of Islamic Law The Second Formation of Islamic Law is the first book to deal with the rise of an official school of law in the post-Mongol period. Guy Burak explores how the Ottoman dynasty shaped the structure and doctrine of a particular branch within the H￵anafıﻼ school of law. In addition, the book examines the opposition of various jurists, mostly from the empire’s Arab provinces, to this development. By looking at the emer- gence of the concept of an official school of law, the book seeks to call into question the grand narratives of Islamic legal history that tend to see the nineteenth century as the major rupture. Instead, an argument is formed that some of the supposedly nineteenth-century developments, such as the codification of Islamic law, are rooted in much earlier cen- turies. In so doing, the book offers a new periodization of Islamic legal history in the eastern Islamic lands. Guy Burak is the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Librarian at New York University’s Bobst Library. Previously, Burak was a postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, and in the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School. His articles have appeared in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, the Mediterranean Historical Review, and the Journal of Islamic Studies. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization Editorial Board David O. Morgan, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin–Madison (general editor) Shahab Ahmed, Harvard University Virginia Aksan, McMaster University Michael Cook, Princeton University Peter Jackson, Keele University Chase F. Robinson, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York Other titles in the series are listed at the back of the book. The Second Formation of Islamic Law The H￵anafıﻼ School in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire Guy Burak New York University 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107090279 © Guy Burak 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2015 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Burak, Guy, author. The second formation of Islamic law : the H￵anafıﻼ school in the early modern Ottoman empire / Guy Burak. pages cm. – (Cambridge studies in islamic civilization) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-09027-9 (hardback) 1. Islamic law – Turkey – History. 2. Hanafites – History. 3. Turkey – History – Ottoman Empire, 1288–1918. I. Title. KBP295.B87 2015 340.5∙901811–dc23 2014043072 ISBN 978-1-107-09027-9 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents Acknowledgments page xi Note on Transliteration and Dates xv Introduction 1 The Madhhab 6 The Official Madhhab 10 The Official School of Law and the Imperial Legal Order 13 The Rise of an Ottoman Official Madhhab and the Grand Narratives of Islamic Legal History 17 1 Muftıﻼs 21 Muftıﻼ: A Very Brief Introduction 24 The Institution of the Muftıﻼ in the Late Mamluk Sultanate 26 The Ottoman Perception of the Institution of the Muftıﻼ 38 The Emergence of the Provincial Muftıﻼ and the Reorganization of the Muftıﻼship in the Ottoman Province of Damascus 49 Al-Naﻺbulusıﻼ Responds to al-H￵askafıﻼ (and an Imaginary Dialogue with Al-Muraﻺdıﻼ) 58 Conclusion: The Ottoman Muftıﻼ, K￲ânûn, and the Ottoman H￵anafıﻼ Legal School 62 2 Genealogies and Boundaries: Situating the Imperial Learned Hierarchy within the H￵anafıﻼ Jurisprudential Tradition 65 T￵abaqaﻺt: A Very Short Introduction 68 Early Stages: Kemâlpasazâde’s Risaﻺla fıﻼ T￸abaqaﻺt al-Mujtahidıﻼn 71 Kınalızâde’s T￳abaqaﻺt al-H￵anafiyya 74 vii viii Contents Mah￲mûd b. Süleymân Kefevî’s Kataﻺʾib Aʿlaﻺm al-Akhyaﻺr min Fuqahaﻺʿ Madhhab al-Nuʿmaﻺn al-Mukhtaﻺr 80 Edirneli Meh￱med Kâmî’s Mahaﻺmm al-Fuqahaﻺʾ 89 Recontextualizing Tasköprüzâde’s al-Shaqaﻺʾiq al-Nuʿmaﻺniyya 94 Concluding Remarks 99 3 Genealogies and Boundaries II: Two Responses from the Arab Provinces of the Empire 101 Ibn T￳u﻽lu﻽n’s al-Ghuraf al-ʿA﷽liyya fıﻼ Taraﻺjim Mutaʾakhkhirıﻼ al-H￵anafiyya 102 Taqiyy al-Dıﻼn al-Tamıﻼmıﻼ’s al-T￳abaqaﻺt al-Saniyya fıﻼ Taraﻺjim al-H￵anafiyya 111 Concluding Remarks 118 4 Books of High Repute 122 A Methodological Note on Textual Canons and Their Formation 127 “The Reliable Books”: The Imperial Hierarchy and Its Canon Consciousness 130 A Case Study: The Integration of al-Ashbaﻺh wa’l-Naz�aﻺʾir into the Ottoman Imperial Canon 135 The Transmission and Canonization of Texts Outside the Ottoman Learned Hierarchy 139 Comparing Jurisprudential Canons 144 The Emergence of the Greater Syrian “Ottomanized” Canon 155 A Damascene Critique of the Imperial Jurisprudential Canon 157 Concluding Remarks 159 5 Intra-Madhhab Plurality and the Empire’s Legal Landscape 163 Using the Officially Appointed Muftıﻼs’ Rulings 166 Writing Ottoman Fataﻺwaﻺ in Arabic 181 Nonappointed Muftıﻼs and the Imperial Jurisprudential Landscape 191 Establishing Authority 192 The Nonappointed Muftıﻼs’ Rulings 198 Concluding Remarks 204 Conclusion: The Second Formation of Islamic Law 207 Looking East: The Ottoman Case in a Comparative Perspective 208 The Chinggisid Heritage 214 Situating the Post-Mongol Period in the Grand Narratives of Islamic Legal History 220