Ebussuud Efendi

Shaykh al-Islam of the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, jurist and Qur'an commentator. He is known by the titles "Mufti of mankind, sultan of the commentators, seal of the commentators, the second teacher, Hoca Çelebi, the second Abu Hanifa". Since in the preface of his commentary he calls himself Ebüssuûd Mehmed, his actual name was Mehmed; Ebüssuûd is a kunya or title.

According to the common view he was born on 17 Safar 896 (30 December 1490) in the village of Metris (Metris-Müderris) near Istanbul. His father, Muhyiddin Muhammad, known as Shaykh Yavsi and a nephew of Ali Qushji, had been born in the village of İmad (Direklibel) near İskilip; he had won the friendship of Prince Bayezid during his governorship of the sanjak of Amasya, and when Bayezid became sultan he was invited to Istanbul and a lodge was built for him near Sultanselim (later known as the Sivasi Tekke). Because of his closeness to Bayezid II he was also called the "sultan's shaykh". Ebüssuûd received his first education from his father, reading with him works of al-Sayyid al-Sharif al-Jurjani on theology and rhetoric as well as various commentaries. He then studied with Müeyyedzade Abdurrahman Efendi, Mevlana Seydi-i Karamani and, according to some sources, Kemalpaşazade. He married Zeyneb Hanım, daughter of his teacher Seydi-i Karamani.

Under Selim I he was appointed in 922 (1516) to the Çankırı madrasa and, when he hesitated to go there, to the İshak Paşa madrasa at İnegöl. When his term there ended in 926 (1520), he taught the following year at the Davud Paşa madrasa, a year later at the Mahmud Paşa madrasa, and then at the madrasa of the vizier Çoban Mustafa Paşa at Gebze (931/1525). After the rank of Bursa Sultaniye he became in 934 (1528) professor at the madrasa of the Sahn-ı Seman known as the "Mufti Madrasa". Five years later he became judge first of Bursa and then, in Rabi al-Akhir 940 (November 1533), of Istanbul. In Rabi al-Awwal 944 (August 1537) he became chief military judge of Rumelia and at once joined the campaign; he was with the sultan on the Moldavian, Esztergom and Buda campaigns and led the first Friday prayer in Buda after its conquest. After eight years as military judge he became Shaykh al-Islam in Sha'ban 952 (October 1545).

As military judge and Shaykh al-Islam he sought to bring the scholarly ranks and grades into a systematic order: he fixed the number of candidates (mülazım) that scholars of each rank might nominate and made a seven-yearly mülazemet procedure law. In his time the office of Shaykh al-Islam rose above all other scholarly institutions: the daily salary of 200 akçe was raised by 300 akçe to 500 akçe when he presented part of his commentary to Süleyman, and by a further 100 akçe to 600 akçe when he completed it; the power to appoint senior professors and judges of the major cities was given to the Shaykh al-Islams. The İlmiye Kanunnamesi was probably also drafted by him. The source notes that the first signs of decline in the scholarly profession likewise began to appear during his tenure.

The sources describe him as tall, cheerful of face and dignified; it is related that as a professor he never neglected his lesson except in the festival holidays, and that as mufti he issued hundreds of fatwas every day. Süleyman held him in great respect and had him lay the foundation of the Süleymaniye Mosque for blessing; his opening a letter from the Szigetvár campaign with "my companion in state, my peer in years, my brother in the hereafter" shows this esteem. His saying, in response to a decree issued in favour of the tenants of the Hagia Sophia endowments, "No! By the sultan's command what is unlawful does not become lawful; what is forbidden cannot become permitted" is, according to the source, proof that he upheld the dignity of his learning. He made his weight felt in certain political events and supported the opening of the Cyprus campaign with his fatwa.

After 28 years and 11 months as Shaykh al-Islam he died on 5 Jumada al-Ula 982 (23 August 1574). His funeral prayer was led in the Fatih Mosque by Muhashshi Sinan Efendi, and he was buried in the enclosure of the primary school he had built near the Eyüp Mosque. Funeral prayers in absentia were also held for him in the Two Holy Sanctuaries, and many elegies and chronograms were composed on his death. He had three sons, Ahmed, Mehmed and Mustafa, and three daughters, Hatice, Rahime and Kerime. Ahmed Efendi, professor at the Şehzade madrasa, died in 970 (1562-63) aged twenty-six and was buried in the enclosure where his father was later buried; Mehmed Çelebi (d. 971/1563-64) rose to be judge of Aleppo and Damascus, and the youngest, Mustafa Çelebi (d. 1008/1599), became military judge of Anatolia and Rumelia. His line continued through Mustafa Çelebi for ten generations until the middle of the XIX century; the most important documents on this are two Arabic endowment deeds dated 973 (1565) and 977 (1569) held by his descendants.

His Circle of Influence — He was the teacher of many scholars who served as Shaykh al-Islam, military judge and in other scholarly posts under Süleyman, Selim II, Murad III and Mehmed III. Among his students are counted the Shaykh al-Islams Kadızade Ahmed Şemseddin, Malulzade Mehmed, Abdülkadir Şeyhi, Hoca Sadeddin, Bostanzade Mehmed, Ebülmeyamin Mustafa and Sunullah Efendi, together with Zenbillizade Fudayl Çelebi, Cenabi Mustafa Efendi, the poet Baki, the biographer Aşık Çelebi and Kınalızade Hasan Çelebi.

His Poetry and Sufi Line — Ebüssuûd's line is scholarly and juristic. According to the source his fatwa collections show an understanding of law of practical rather than doctrinal value, able to produce different solutions as conditions changed; he tried to solve problems by preference (tarjih) and derivation (takhrij) among the differing views within the Hanafi school. The source links his insistence that courts follow the established Hanafi views to the aim of judicial unity and equality before the law. He adopted the view that a girl who has reached puberty may marry only with her guardian's consent, and issued fatwas permitting coffee-drinking and the shadow play on condition that it be watched for edification. He objected to a sultanic permission concerning the testimony of müstemins with the words "There is no sultanic command for what is unlawful". His systematizing of the principles of the miri land regime and casting them as fatwas made him stand out as the architect of that regime; eight of the nine fatwas in the preamble of the kanun-ı cedid are his. In exegesis he stands at the head of the Ottoman scholars who commented on the whole Qur'an. He was the son of a Bayrami shaykh who wrote a commentary on Shaykh Bedreddin's Varidat; according to the source he always showed respect for Sufism in conformity with the rulings of the Sharia and for Sufis who stayed within its bounds, believed that extraordinary states such as tayy al-makan appeared in great Sufis, and accepted that such states had been seen in his own father; for him what the shaykhs call tariqa and haqiqa is the essence and quintessence of the Sharia. He wrote poems in Turkish and Arabic, but the source says it is hard to attribute artistic talent to him; the best known of his Arabic poems is al-Qasida al-mimiyya, written in emulation of Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri.

His Works — ① Irshad al-aql al-salim ila mazaya al-Kitab al-Karim: his famous commentary, begun after he became Shaykh al-Islam and completed in about twenty years (probably 953-973/1546-1566), and presented to Süleyman. Some rank it above the commentaries of al-Zamakhshari and al-Baydawi; the author himself drew extensively on these two and on the commentaries of al-Razi and al-Nasafi. A critical edition based on the author's copy was published by İSAM in nine volumes (Istanbul 2021). ② Fetava-yı Ebüssuûd Efendi: collections of fatwas attributed to him; M. Ertuğrul Düzdağ arranged and published two of them (Istanbul 1972, 1983). ③ Ma'ruzat: fatwas submitted to Süleyman which, carrying the sultan's will, bound the judges. ④ Laws and Fatwas on Kharaji and Ushri Lands. ⑤ Risala fi waqf al-manqul wa-l-nuqud: on cash endowments. ⑥ Bida'at al-qadi: a collection of deed formulas on the procedure judges were to follow. ⑦ A treatise on the tithe. ⑧ Galatat-ı Ebüssuûd: on words commonly misused among the people. ⑨ al-Qasida al-mimiyya and his Arabic odes, his Turkish elegy for Süleyman and his Münşeat. He also wrote glosses on al-Hidaya, commentaries on individual suras and treatises on legal theory.

His Tomb and Complex — In his complex at Eyüp Sultan, consisting of a lodge (zaviye), a primary school and a fountain-house, lies the family enclosure that also contains his own grave; his son Ahmed Efendi was buried there as well. Besides this he built in Istanbul a fountain and a bath bearing his name in the Macuncu Odabaşı quarter; in İskilip, next to his father's tomb, a mosque, a soup kitchen and a school (its Arabic endowment deed dated 977 is registered with the Istanbul Evkaf Administration); a mosque in Kefe, a masjid in Lepanto (İnebahtı) and a primary school in Şehremini.