A Poetry Fatwa of Sheikhulislam Kemalpashazade About the Gins. Analysis in Terms of Ahlât-ı Erbaa

Abstract

One of the interesting pen products in the Ottoman Empire is verse fatwas. Most of the Ottoman fatwas were given in prose, but a significant number of them were found in verse. Undoubtedly, giving fatwas in this way prepared the ground for Turkish literature to gain a new type of verse and contributed to the formation of a colorful literary environment among the ulema. It is observed that the verse fatwas given and written in the Ottoman Empire were given by the sheikh al-Islam or muftis because the question was directed in verse. In other words, these fatwas were not given ex officio in verse, but rather because a poet or a statesman who was a poet on any subject asked a mufti or sheikh al-Islam in verse. It is seen that the number of muftis and sheikh al-islams who have given verse fatwas in the Ottoman Empire and the number of couplets in verse fatwas reached a high number. Of course, since there is a high probability that there will be some that have not yet been identified, when all of them are brought together, a verse treasury that is large enough to be introduced with a voluminous book will emerge. The number of verse fatwas determined so far in the Ottoman Empire is around 60, and the number of couplets is about 500. Among these fatwas, there are some that consist of only one verse, as well as those that consist of 64 couplets. It can even be said that there are some that can be considered as a separate treatise. Among the Ottoman verse fatwas, which are estimated to have begun around 1520, there are also those given in Arabic and Persian. It can be said that the first examples of verse fatwas in the Ottoman Empire were given by the famous Şeyhülislâm Kemalpaşazâde Ahmed. One of the pioneers of the Ottoman poetic fatwa tradition is Şeyhülislâm Kemalpaşazâde Ahmed, a versatile scholar. This person, who was one of the few great sheikhulislams that marked the peak century of the Ottoman Empire, gave fatwas on many issues, and language and literature were among them. This important figure, who was also a divan of mürettep, gave fatwas on many sensitive and controversial issues of that period such as cannabis, wine, opium, raks, and devran. Since these fatwas have some contradictory views, they were corrected and explained by other Shaykh al-Islams. Especially the verse fatwa he gave about cannabis was discussed a lot and was interpreted by Ebussuud Efendi. Among the verse fatwas, there is also a fatwa he gave about jinn, which attracted attention in terms of shape, content and definition of jinn. This fatwa is also related to the theory of humoral pathology in the old medical understanding and explains the relationships between humans and jinn in the context of body chemistry. In this study, this verse fatwa is analyzed and introduced analytically.