Bir Endülüs Yahudisinden Osmanlı Başdefterdârlığına: Abdüsselâm el-Mühtedî el-Muhammedî ve Risâletü’l-Hâdiye’si Üzerine Bir Araştırma/From An Andalusian Jew to the Ottoman Başdefterdarlık: A Study on Abdussalām alMuhtadī al-Muhammadī and his Risālat al-hādiyah

Abstract

Like the Islamic societies before it, the Ottoman Empire has been a state harboring a significant amount of religious and ethnic differences from its beginning until its collapse. Criticizing the nonIslamic religions (mostly Judaism and Christianity, which share the same religious tradition) is acknowledged to be started with the revealing of the Quran. By time from this critizing a literature has emerged that tries to reveal that the prophet was mentioned in the texts of these religions. This tradition, which is called the Reddiye literature, continued its existence in the Ottoman period with the examples it produced. Until the nineteenth century, a significant part n such texts were written by Muslims, and by converts of Jewish and Christian origin. One of these texts which are generally conjunctural, is the Risālat al-hādiyah. It was written by Abdussalām al-Muhtadī, an Andalusian Jewish-Convert Muslim who rose to the position of Başdefterdâr, in the context of the increase in numbers and social visibility in the Ottoman Jews. It had a significant impact on what was written after him. The text, which was still used in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, explains the existence of abrogation (nesḫ) in Judaism. It deals with the proclamation (tebşîrât) of the Prophet in the Bible and changing (taḥrîf) the words of the Torah and adding supplements to it.

Keywords

• ottoman jews
• refutations
• abdussalām al-muhtadī
• abrogation
• tabshīrat
• taḥrīf
• andalusian jews.