AI Summary & Key Takeaways
AI InsightConsidering the legal opinions and laws mentioned in the treatise, one can observe that Kānūn-i Cedīd that regulate the Ottoman land and tax regime and Üskübī Pir Mehmed Efendi’s Ẓahīr al-quḍāt are also among the sources of the treatise.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
Abstract
Following the example of the distinguished Ḥanafī scholar Abū Yūsuf, whose book titled Kitāb al-Kharāj was commissioned by Abbasid Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd (d. 193/809), monographs on financial law, and on land property law in particular, were penned by scholars of various schools. The works that were usually titled Kitāb al-kharāj, Kitāb al-amwāl, al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya and Aḥkām al-arāḍī are typical examples of this literature. These works were continuously produced because Islamic land law was one of the most dynamic subjects of Islamic jurisprudence and legal principles were dispersed in various sections throughout doctrinal books. This article is a critical edition of a treatise titled al-Nūr al-bādī fī aḥkām al-arādī, written by a Ḥanafī scholar, ‘Ubaydullāh ibn ‘Abd al-Ghanī, who lived in Ottoman Egypt in the eighteenth century. This treatise is one of the last examples of the classical monographs on land law. We have no information on the author’s life in the sources except for, as expressed in the prologue, the school he belonged to and that he was alive at the time this treatise was issued. Based on our extensive research, the treatise has three different manuscripts in Dār al-Kutub al-Ẓāhiriyya, al-Maktabat al-Azhariyya and Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University. We compared all three manuscripts in this critical edition. ‘Ubaydullāh ibn ‘Abd al-Ghanī organized his treatise on the Ottoman land regime as a prologue, three main chapters and a conclusion. In the prologue, he states that he composed the treatise in the late Jumada II of 1211 (December 1796) upon the request of a friend. He introduces his chapters in three parts, each based on tithe (‘ushr), tribute (kharāj) and state (mīrī) lands. He examines the definition of the tithe lands and briefly the rules on these lands in the first chapter, and then discusses the tribute lands in the second chapter. The principal issues of the second chapter include the legal status of Egypt and Syria, the sultan’s authority to sell state lands and whether endowed lands are valid (ṣaḥīḥ) and binding (lāzim). He examines state lands (arāḍī-i mīriyya), also called “confiscated lands” (arāḍī-hawz) and “sultanic lands” (arāḍī-i mamlakat), in the third chapter. Among the many issues discussed in this chapter, the rights of the sultan, fief holders and cultivators on state lands seem to be the most critical. The third chapter is the most comprehensive one probably because, as Shaykh al-Islāms and the Egyptian and Syrian scholars state, the majority of the Ottoman lands were state lands and people frequently appealed to the scholars for their legal opinions in cases of conflicts on lands. ‘Ubaydullāh ibn ‘Abd al-Ghanī’s treatise is important for two reasons: First, it is a text that includes primarily the opinions of the later Ḥanafī jurists, the legal opinions of Shaykh al-Islāms and the laws promulgated by the sultans; and second, it was written by a jurist from Ottoman-Arab territory. The work shows that a scholar from this background appealed to the opinions of Shaykh al-Islāms and the sultanic laws. In fact, it is very rare for scholars from the same geographical background to write a book of this sort. As a matter of fact, the treatise seems to be the only example of its kind. However, unlike the scholars from Ottoman Arab lands, it is known that some scholar-bureaucrats who lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the core lands of the empire, such as Üskûbî Pir Mehmed Efendi, Ahmed Akhisârî al-Rûmî and Ayn Ali Efendi, wrote works on land and tax law. The main sources of the treatise include the works of those prominent Ḥanafī scholars in Egypt and Syria from sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: Ibn Nujaym’s (d. 970/1563) al-Tuḥfa al-marḍıyya, Haskafî’s (d. 1088/1677) al-Durr al-mukhtār and al-Durr al-muntaqā, Hayreddin al-Ramlī’s (d. 1081/1671) al-Fatāvā al-Khayriyya and ‘Abd al-Ghanī al-Nablusī’s al-Ḥadīqa al-nadiyya. The treatise occasionally quotes pages from these sources. In addition, the legal opinions of some Shaykh al-Islāms are recorded by citations of their names. These Shaykh al-Islāms include: Kemalpaşazāde (d. 940/1534), Ebussuūd Efendi (d. 982/1573), Mehmed Bahāī Efendi (d. 1064/1654), Zekeriyazāde Yahya Efendi (d. 1053/1644) and Minkārīzāde Yahya Efendi (d. 1088/1678). Considering the legal opinions and laws mentioned in the treatise, one can observe that Kānūn-i Cedīd that regulate the Ottoman land and tax regime and Üskübī Pir Mehmed Efendi’s Ẓahīr al-quḍāt are also among the sources of the treatise.
Özet
Bu makale, XVIII. yüzyıl Osmanlı dönemi Mısır’ında yaşamış bir Hanefî hukukçusu olan Ubeydullah b. Abdülganî’nin (ö. 1211/1796’dan sonra) en-Nûrü’l-bâdî fî ahkâmi’l-arâzî adlı risalesinin tahkikli neşrinden oluşmaktadır. Klasik Osmanlı toprak rejiminde yer alan öşür, haraç ve mîrî toprakların tanımı ve hükümlerini konu edinen eser, esas itibariyle şu iki problemi tartışmaktadır: Anadolu, Mısır ve Bilâdüşşam topraklarının hukukî statüsü ve sultan, sipahi ve çiftçilerin mîrî topraklar üzerindeki haklarının doğası. Risale, ağırlıklı olarak Mısır ve Bilâdüşşam kökenli müteahhir dönem Hanefî hukukçularının konuya ilişkin görüşleri ile şeyhülislam fetvaları ve Osmanlı kanunlarının bir derlemesi niteliğindedir. Bu derleme, Osmanlı-Arap coğrafyasında yaşayan ve muhtemelen Arap asıllı olan bir Hanefî hukukçusunun şeyhülislam fetvalarına ve Osmanlı kanunlarına duyduğu ilgiyi göstermesi bakımından özel bir öneme sahiptir. Zira söz konusu coğrafyanın uleması tarafından toprak hukuku alanında yazılmış bu türden başka bir eserin varlığı bilinmemektedir. Risale, bu açıdan değerli olmakla birlikte çeşitli hatalar içermektedir. Bu hatalar, çalışmanın dirâse kısmında “fetva ve kanunların Arapça’ya yanlış tercüme edilmesi”, “fetvaların yanlış şahıslara nispet edilmesi”, “metinde çelişkili hükümlere yer verilmesi” ve “kanunlara aykırı fetvaların zikredilmesi” şeklinde türlerine göre gruplandırılarak örnekler üzerinden ayrıntılı bir biçimde incelenmiş ve ayrıca tahkikli metinde dipnotlarda tashih edilmiştir.