e-Makalat Mezhep Araştırmaları Dergisi

Öz

Ebu’l-Beka al-Kaffawi, who was one of the Hanafi scholars of the 17th century Ottoman Pause period, published many works in the field of Arabic language, commentary and other Islamic sciences, especially fiqh. However, although there is not much information about the life of al-Kaffawi, there is also different information about his works in the sources.

In our study, the transcription of the Islamic Akâid section in the introductory part of the catechism type written in the fiqh area of Tuhfetu’s-sahan of al-Kaffawi was performed. Together with the transcription of the work, the author's life and works, the source, content and evaluation of the work were made.

In Tuhfetu’s-sahan, the existence of God, adjectives, angels, books and prophets are discussed as in the works of the traditional catechism. Miracles are mentioned under the title of the Prophet. Afterwards, the states of the hereafter are mentioned and in this part, graves, trial balance, heaven-hell, sirat and other subjects are discussed. After the afterlife issues, the issue of predestinationis briefly mentioned. In the last part, the subject of sects has been discussed and the sects discussed here are fiqh sects.

Summary

Ebu’l-Beka al-Kaffawi, who was accepted as one of the Hanafi scholars of the
Ottoman State during the pause period, was born in a well-known family in Kefe,
which is located within the territory of Ukraine and completed his education
there. He worked as a mufti in his hometown of Kefe and then came to Istanbul
with the invitation of the Ottoman Grand Vizier. He worked as a mufti in
different regions of Anatolia. Although he lived in exile due to some negative
events, he was forgiven for the last period of his life and returned to
Istanbul and died there.

al-Kaffawi
published almost ten works in almost every branch of Islamic sciences.
Especially in Arabic, Tafsir, Hadith, Fiqh and Kalam has a distinguished place
in the sciences. His work Kulliyyat, which he wrote, bears traces from all of
the Islamic sciences.

Tuhfetu’s-sahan
is the work of al-Kaffawi written in the fiqh field and evaluated under the
title of catechism. The work is written in the form of belief, worship and
moral issues within the framework of the general characteristics of the
catechism works. The subject of faith has been dealt with as a separate chapter
under the title of Islamic Akaid. The aim of our study is to give brief
information about the life of al-Kaffawi, to reveal the manuscripts of his book
Tuhfetu’s-sahan and to transcribe the Islamic Akaid section based on one of
these manuscripts.

As
a result of our researches in the libraries of manuscripts about Tuhfetu’s-sahan,
we identified twenty-five manuscripts. However, the work was also printed in
different dates and places. This situation reveals the value of the work before
the Ottoman ulema, but also shows that it is one of the most widely read works
in the Ottoman madrasas. However, there are limited number of studies on this
work of al-Kaffawi in ​​our country. Especially in the thesis,
articles and encyclopedia articles, it is seen that only brief information
about the work is given in the subtitle of al-Kaffawi’s works. However, in a
thesis on history in Hungary in 2018, this work was referred to as the Vampire
Catechism because of some information contained in it.

In
our study, firstly the life of al-Kaffawi was briefly mentioned. Then,
information was given about the content of Tuhfetu’s-sahan and the manuscripts
were presented in a table. However, the methods and principles to be applied
when transcribing are mentioned in the articles. In the last part, the
transcription of the Islamic Akaid section, which deals with the belief in the
work, is given. When transcribing the work, the manuscript in the Istanbul
Metropolitan Municipality Atatürk Library was taken into consideration.
Transcription is based on the simple transcription method. The work, written in
17th century Ottoman Turkish, has been translated in today’s Turkish language
so that it can be easily understood by the reader.

The meaning of the verses in the text is given in the footnotes. This process
is based on the Holy Quran Portal of the Presidency of Religious Affairs.

In
the section of Islamic Akaid, which consists of seventeen leafs, the pleasure
of knowing God, the existence of God, adjectives, books and prophets are
discussed. Afterwards, the prophet mentioned information about the family of
the Prophet Muhammad. After the prophets, saints were mentioned and the first
four caliphs in Islamic History were stated to be the most virtuous people. An
important part of the chapter is devoted to the hereafter. In this section, the
grave, angels and the day of judgment and their characteristics are given.
Again, the issue of predestination is another issue addressed. In the last
part, the subject of heaven-hell is mentioned and information about those who
will enter here is given.

The
last subject of the Akaid is the sects. In this issue, fiqh sects are
especially discussed. It is emphasized that the Abu Hanifa sect is right and
the others are superstitious. The subject of ijtihad under the title of sect
was mentioned, and because of the ijtihad issue, people stated that they
adopted Hanafi, Shafi, Maliki, and Hanbali sects but they were all Ahl al
Sunnat wal-Jamaat. Since al-Kaffawi is a member of the Hanafi sect, he briefly
gave some information about Abu Hanifa and finished the section. At the end of
the Islamic Akaid section, there is a verse consisting of six couplets.

While
al-Kaffawi’s Tuhfetu’s-sahan was transcribing, the similarity between the
Risale-i Birgivī of Imam Birgivī , who lived about a hundred years
ago, drew our attention. The titles, language and content used in both works
are very similar. The only difference in the content is the way the subject is
expressed. The issue in one is the addition or subtraction of only a few words.
Similarities are the same in almost every title. Since al-Kaffawi wrote the
work after Birgivī, the introductory part of the work was examined carefully.
However, neither the entrance nor the other chapters found any information
about the bond or relationship between them.

Although
Ebu’l-Beka al-Kaffawi did not have detailed information about his life in the
relevant sources, it was seen that the available information sometimes did not
coincide. In Halil Çiçek’s words, the most important reason for this situation
is the limited number of biographical works about him. The majority of his
studies have been in the field of hadith, tafsir and fiqh.

However,
since the Tuhfetu’s-sahan, which he wrote in the fiqh field, was overshadowed
by another work called Kulliyyat, the work on this work remained limited and
could not go beyond giving information about it. This work, which has been
widely read in Ottoman madrasas for a period, should be examined, transcribed,
and brought into today’s scientific world, especially by the researchers who
work in the field of fiqh. In addition, the negative image of the vampire
catechism about this work in the West should be eliminated. In this study, we
wanted to unearth the work by transcribing the belief part at the beginning of
the work. However, there are many sections waiting to be discovered.