Sheikh al-Islam Molla Khusro and the Place of his Book “Durar al Hukkam” in the Ottoman Era

Abstract

Molla Khusro was one of the most famous and intelligent scholars of ottoman era. In the 14th century during the era of Caliphate Murat II, he completed the religious education and started teaching in Shah Malik madrasa. He also worked as mufti and Qazi (justice) in different cities after serving in the army as teacher and Qazifor many years. He is not only known as Qazi or mufti but is also for being sheikh ul Islam. He is also famous for writing several books about the Arabic language, fiqh (jurisprudence), Principles of Islamic jurisprudence and literature. His most famous book is Durar al hukkam in which he reviewed the problems related to justice affairs. Later, Qazi (justice) used to refer to this book in matters of dispute. In this paper we will discuss briefly the life of Molla Khusro and the place of his book in the ottoman era. The topic is mostly written in the Turkish language so we will be focusing on such references.