Citation

Tan TY. Islam Arastirmalari Dergisi 2022; 2022(48): 111-146.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022)

DOI

10.26570/isad.1134028

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Individual treatises in the Hanafi jurisprudential tradition provide an opportunity and space of legitimacy for the madhhab's legal positions. Jurists (fuqahā') mainly refer to the literature to consult texts (mutūn), collections on legal opinions (fatāwā), and treatises for examining social changes. The treatises addressed various subjects, including coffee, tobacco, cash waqfs, and hunting with firearms. Tobacco drew the attention of Ottoman scholars (ulema), who began writing on the matter in the seventeenth century. The government's strict measures against tobacco use and challenges among some scholars over their legal opinions on tobacco further kindled debates in the eighteenth century. Scholars, including Shaykh al-Islams, articulated various opinions on tobacco in their treatises and fatāwā. The variety of these opinions reflected methodological issues in jurisprudence. Notably, the scholars' positions on various issues such as independent reasoning (ijtiģād), the divisibility of ijtiģād, imitation (taqlīd), and derivation of rules from legal principles or sources (takhrīj) all factored into the outcome and legitimacy of a jurist's studies as well as to the level of a madhhab's bindingness in the society. Therefore, treatise authors supporting the permissibility (ibāģa) of tobacco argue, "No jurist capable of practicing qiyās (analogical reasoning) exists in their own times and thereby the item whose permissibility is discussed is permissible by the principle of original permissibility." The others holding the opposite argument emphasized that qiyās was possible and still applied. Cabizade Halil Faiz (Jābīzāde Khalīl Fā'iz, d. 1134/1722) wrote a short treatise on methodological issues that other authors too commented on in their works about "gulping opium", drinking coffee, and "smoking." Although these three issues were included within the treatise, opium and coffee mostly faded away as significant issues while the tobacco use remained under debate during the author's life. Cabizade began teaching after he completed his studies in Istanbul, and it is reported that he "attracted many scholarly students" to his classes. Among his students were Mehmed İsmet Efendi (Meģmed 'İŝmet Efendi, d. 1160/1747), who was famous for his skills in poetry and in various sciences, and Salih Efendi Mimari (Ŝālih Efendi Mi'mārī, d. 1188/1775), who was known for his astronomic tables. Cabizade's failure to pass on scholarly certificates (ijāzah) due to his unexpected death accounts for his inability to attain the fame he deserved, as it was later noted that "nobody took an interest in publishing his works." It is also reported that he took a break from teaching due to his experience with melancholic malady (sawdā), and committed suicide by hanging himself in the house near Yedikule on 11 Jumādā I, 1134 (27 February 1722). He is well known among contemporary scholars for his works on astronomy and mathematics as well as his mastery of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Turkish. He wrote treatises on Qur'ān commentary, literature, astronomy, mathematics, algebra, and uŝūl al-fiqh along with his poetry. The treatise titled al-Kalimāt al-uŝūliyya fī maŝŝ al-dukhān wa shurb al-qahwa wa bal' al-afyūn is included in a manuscript collection of Cabizade's treatises, which bears an ownership statement for his student Mehmed İsmet Efendi. Only a unique manuscript copy of the treatise has been found, and it is cataloged in the collection of Veliyyüddin Efendi in the Beyazıt State Library [nr. 3212, vr. 51b-53a]. Its colophon reveals that it was written in the year 1127/1715. As various treatises of the author are catalogued in the collection of Veliyyüddin Efendi, this treatise is likely an autographed manuscript copy. The fact that the script that Cabizade himself copied is the same as the script of this treatise supports this argument. In his treatise, Cabizade reproduces al-Ījī's commentary on Mukhtaŝar al-Muntahā and the glosses on this work by Taftazānī and Sayyid Sharīf al-Jurjānī, as well as Ibn al-Humām's work Sharģ Fatģ al-qadīr. Cabizade, who seems to have benefited from Ibn al-Ģājib's work Mukhtaŝar al-Muntahā, outlines his views on uŝūl al-fiqh in bullet points. The first point is on the definition of ijtiģād, the second is on the definition of taqlīd, the third one is on the duty of the one lacking capacity to make legal reasoning to imitate other mujtahids, the fourth is about the possibilities of the imitators (muqallid) on taqlīd, the fifth is on the possibility of a mujtahid imitating other mujtahids, and the sixth is on the permissibility of imitating a less capable jurist (mujtahid mafēūl). After briefly outlining his views on these six points, Cabizade expresses his views by analyzing new issues such as coffee, opium, and tobacco, thereby solidifying his arguments. Each of these points does not exist in the treatises discussing the issues of tobacco. Unlike the treatise touching on similar subjects, in addition to legal reasoning and extraction of legal opinions, Cabizade tries to ground the jurisprudential debates around these issues in the context of theoretical jurisprudence. This article briefly examines the biography of the treatise's author, Cabizade Halil Faiz Efendi, and his works. It then discusses and analyzes the content of the treatise titled al-Kalimāt al-uŝūliyya fī maŝŝ al-dukhān wa shurb al-qahwa wa bal' al-afyūn. It also reproduces the treatise as an appendix. © 2022, Istanbul 29 Mayis University - ISAM, TDV Centre for Islamic Studies. All rights reserved.

Language: tr

Keywords

tobacco; coffee; Ottoman; Cabizade Halil Faiz; fatwā; Ijtihād; nawāzil; opium; taqlīd