The fatwa collection of an Ottoman provincial mufti, Vani Mehmed Efendi (d. 1685)

Abstract

This study analyzes Vani Mehmed Efendi’s fatwa collection, which was compiled by Vani himself following his appointment as the mufti of Erzurum in 1657. The collection is a typical example of Ottoman provincial fatwa collections, compiling legal rulings issued in response to the local people’s request for legal guidance concerning their local affairs. Through an analysis of selected fatwas in the collection, this thesis provides valuable information for understanding the mentality of an influential religious figure associated with the Kadızadeli movement. It illustrates that even before he moved to Istanbul, Vani Efendi held views on religious “innovations” that closely paralleled those of the Kadızadelis and which in certain cases, were even stricter than those of the latter. The particularities of Vani’s legal opinions are explained and analyzed both with reference to the religious and more broadly socio-cultural landscape of Erzurum, and with reference to the Hanafi legal school, to which he belonged. The analysis of the scholarly references given in the fatwas reveals that Vani was strongly indebted to the legal opinions of Hanafi scholars of the Bukhara-Transoxiana region. In this regard, Vani can be said to have been a not atypical representative of the broader Ottoman scholarly community.