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Chapter 32 - ‘The Discretion of the İmâm’

Ârif Efendi (d. 1274/1858) and the Preface to his Translation of Dede Cöngi’s Siyâsetnâme

from Part V - Judicial Manuals and Reference Books

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

By
Kübra Nugay
Edited by
Omar Anchassi  and
Robert Gleave
Omar Anchassi
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Robert Gleave
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

This chapter concerns the preface to an 1844 (Ottoman) Turkish translation of al-Siyāsa al-Sharʿiyya by Kemalüddin İbrahim b. Bahşi b. Dede Cöngi (d. 975/1567). The translator, Meşrebzâde Mehmed Ârif Efendi (d. 1274/1858), examines the use and application of the technical Arabic term siyāsa in its Muslim legal and political contexts. The translated work reflects the need to legitimate sultanic intervention in law in the wake of the addition of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina to the Ottoman Empire in 1517; it aims to conceptualise Ottoman criminal law in religio-legal terms, in an attempt to bolster the religious credibility of the Ottoman state. Its translation in the 19th century reflects changes in administration that led to the redefinition of the broad powers and discretionary (taʿzīr) authority given to administrators in the field of politics, as well as the mission descriptions of governors and judges.

Keywords

Discretionary punishment (taʿzīr)Exectuive authority (siyāsa)Ottoman empireSultanic authorityLegal reformJudge (qāḍī)Customary law (ʿurf)Criminal punishment (jināyāt).
Type
Chapter
Information
Islamic Law in Context
A Primary Source Reader
 , pp. 338 - 348
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Primary Sources

Ârif Efendi, Meşrebzâde Mehmed. Tercüme-i Siyâsetnâme (Istanbul: Taqvimhāna-i Amira, 1275/1858); also available as ‘Dede Cöngi Efendi’nin Siyâset-i Şer’iye Isimli Eserinin Tercümesi (Siyâsetnâme)’, in Osmanlı kanunnâmeleri ve hukukî tahlilleri, ed. Ahmed Akgündüz (Istanbul: FEY Vakfı Yayınları, 1992), 4: 122–212.Google Scholar
Khalīfa, Ibrāhīm b. Yaḥyā (al-mashhūr bi-Dadah Afandī). al-Siyāsa al-Sharʿiyya (Alexandria: Muʾassasat Shabāb al-Jāmiʿa, 1411).Google Scholar

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