Mustafa Sabri

Mustafa Sabri
مصطفى صبرى
Effendi
Mustafa Sabri; مصطفى صبرى Effendi
Shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman Empire
	In office; 1919–1920
Preceded by	Haydarizade Ibrahim Efendi
Succeeded by	Medeni Mehmet Nuri Efendi
Personal life
Born	1869; Tokat, Sivas Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	1954 (aged 84–85); Cairo, Egypt
Nationality	Ottoman Empire
Era	19th and 20th centuries
Main interest(s)	Aqidah, Kalam (Islamic theology), Tawhid, Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Usul al-Fiqh, Usul al-Din, logic
Notable work(s)	Mawqif al-'Aql wa al-'Ilm wa al-'Alim min Rabb al-'Alamin
Religious life
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Jurisprudence	Hanafi
Creed	Maturidi/Ash'ari
Muslim leader
	Influenced by Abu Hanifa;
	Influenced Sa'id Foudah;

Mustafa Sabri Effendi (Ottoman Turkish: مصطفى صبرى افندی; 1869 – 1954) was the second last Shaykh al-Islām of the Ottoman Empire.^[1] He is known for his opinions condemning the Turkish nationalist movement under Kemal Atatürk.^[2] Due to his resistance to Atatürk, he lived half of his life in exile in various countries, and died in Egypt.

Life

His father was Ahmed Efendi. He was born in Tokat in 1869. He began his education in his hometown and quickly memorized the Quran. He pursued his education in Kayseri and Istanbul, where he studied under Ahmed Asim Efendi and received his certificate of proficiency (icazetname). He married the daughter of his master Asım Efendi. He passed the Rüus-ı Tedris examination (teaching qualification exam) and became a teacher (müderris) at Fatih Mosque in Constantinople.

From 1898 until 1914, he attended Huzur lessons (lectures and discussions given by the ulema in the presence of the Sultan). Between 1900 and 1904, he was the librarian (hafiz-i kutub) of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r. 1876–1909).

After the re-establishment of the Constitution in July 1908, he entered Parliament as the representative of Tokat. From 1908 to 1912, he was the chief editor of the journal Bayan-ul-Haq (the Exposition of Truth), an intellectual journal published by the Cemiyet-i İlmiye (Religious Scholars’ Association). Although he thanked the CUP (Committee of Union and Progress) and the army in an article in the first issue of Bayan-ul-Haq for ending the Hamidian regime, shortly afterwards he joined the opposition to the party.

He became the founding member of the Ahali fırkası in 1910 and the Freedom and Accord Party in 1911. In 1912, he participated in the foundation of another political organization, the Cemiyet-i İttihad-i Islamiye (Islamic Union Association).

In January 1913, after the Bab-i Ali coup, he fled to Egypt and then went to Romania, where he made his living teaching Turkish. After the occupation of Romania by Ottoman troops during the First World War, he was arrested and sent to Turkey, where he was imprisoned in Bilecik. He was exiled for a time to Bursa. After the end of the war, he again entered politics and joined Dar-ul Hikmet-i İslamiye (Islamic University).

He became the Shaykh al-Islām, but he resigned from this post. In 1919, he was appointed as Shaykh al-Islām in the cabinet of Damad Ferid Pasha. Sabri served as the acting Grand Vizier during the absence of Damad Ferid Pasha while he was attending the Paris Peace Conference, and he was nominated to the senate after the fall of Ferid Pasha's cabinet. He became the first president of the Cemiyet-i Müderrisin (Society of Islamic Scholars), which later became the Teali-i Islam Cemiyeti (Society for the Elevation of Islam).

In 1920, Mustafa Sabri was again appointed as shaykh al-Islām to the second cabinet of Damad Ferid.

In 1922, he fled Turkey once more to escape arrest by the Turkish National Movement when his name appeared on a list of 150 political dissidents. He went to Romania for a second time where he published the journal Yarın (Tomorrow).

Sabri first went to Romania and then to Greece, where he published an anti-Kemalist newspaper in which he violently attacked the new Turkish regime and its founder, Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938). He later went to Hejaz, before settling in Egypt, where he continued his intellectual activities.

In the early 1930s he went to Egypt, where he stayed until his death on 12 March 1954.^[3]^[4]

Works

As a conservative scholar, he produced a number of works. In his writings, he opposed both Western secularism and Islamic modernism/reformism, which is affected by Westernization. He proposed a program of Islamization before and after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. He remained within the context of the traditional Ash'arite-Maturidite theology and Ottoman madrasa system. In Egypt, he wrote several books in Arabic in response to such modernist thinkers as Muhammad Farid Wajdi and 'Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad^{[Note 1]} as well as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Muhammad 'Abduh, and Muhammad Mustafa al-Maraghi.^[5]

He also criticized the views of some Egyptian intellectuals such as: Qasim Amin, Zaki Mubarak, Zaki Naguib Mahmoud, Muhammed Hussein Heikal, Taha Hussein, and 'Ali 'Abdel Raziq, who remained under the influence of Westernization and interpreted the Islamic religion according to Western thought and values.

He responded to the allegations of the Arab historian Muhammad 'Abdullah 'Inan against the Ottoman Turks and refuted his theses. He insisted that Islam was not in conflict with science and it was a religious obligation to cover women according to certain conditions.^[6]

One of the persons that he debated on scholarly issues was Mahmud Shaltut, who took office in various levels and rose to prominence with his reformist thoughts. He objected the fatwa of Shaltut who used the thesis that there is no open expression in Quran and in Hadith that support the ascension and descent of Prophet Isa in such as extend to form the basis of faith and the person who rejected this belief would not be in trouble with in terms of faith. He criticized Shaltut and he gave answers to his assertions and the evidences he used.^[7]

Mustafa Sabri criticized Musa Bigiev's thought and called him the "Luther of Islam."^[8] He also criticized some poets like Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi and Ahmad Shawqi.

After the abolition of the Sultanate and the position of Shaykh al-Islām in 1922, he published his Al-Nakir 'ala Munkiri al-Ni'ma min al-Din wa-al-Khilafa wa-al-Umma (Arabic: النكير على منكري النعمة من الدين والخلافة والأمة). Completed before the abolition decision was made, Sabri's book mentioned the fate of the caliphate very briefly at the conclusion of his work, only as an additional proof for the arguments already advanced in the book. This work is a strong attack on the Kemalists and their evolving vision for post-Ottoman Turkey.

Sabri presents the Kemalists as decadents, Turkish chauvinists who colluded with the British against Islam and the caliphate, and Kemal Atatürk as a concealed Jew. Although the caliphate is not the main focus of the book, Sabri defends the last Sultan/Caliph and describes the separation of the Turkish government from the caliphate as a premeditated step on the part of the Kemalists to establish a non-Islamic government in Turkey.^[9]

In the Mas'alat Tarjamat al-Qur'an (Arabic: مسألة ترجمة القرآن, lit. 'The Issue of translating the Qur'an'), Mustafa Sabri takes up the issue of using the translation of Qur'anic verses in ritual prayers. The book is a direct response to Atatürk's attempt to have all prayers performed in modern Turkish rather than in their original form in Arabic.

His four-volume magnum opus Mawqif al-'Aql wa-al-'Ilm wa-al-'Alim min Rabb al-'Alamin wa-'Ibadihi al-Mursalin (Arabic: موقف العقل والعلم والعالم من رب العالمين وعباده المرسلين, lit. 'The Position of Reason, Knowledge, and the Scholar in regards to the Lord of the Worlds and His divinely Sent Servants') is devoted to a detailed analysis and criticism of many issues of twentieth-century Islamic modernism.^[10]

Notes

^ According to Oliver Leaman, he criticized 'Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad, the author of a literary work on the prophet Muhammad, for praising him because of his "genius" ('abqariyya) rather than because he was a prophet sent by God. Sabri considered such modern readings of Islam as devaluing its divine origin and mission. But he accepted the general outlines of political modernism, especially in regards to such concepts as parliamentary democracy, the rule of law, freedom, and equality.

References

^ "Mustafa Sabri Efendi". Oxford Reference.
^ "Al-'Alam by al-Zirikli". al-maktaba.org.
^ Oliver Leaman (2015). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472569462.
^ Ahmet Şeyhun (2014). Islamist Thinkers in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic. Brill Publishers. pp. 44–45. ISBN 9789004282407.
^ Oliver Leaman (2015). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472569462.
^ "MUSTAFA SABRİ EFENDİ". TDV İslâm Araştırmaları Merkezi.
^ "The Critiques of Mustafa Sabri Efendi to the Fatwa of Mahmûd Şeltût about the Ascension and Descent of Prophet Isa [2014]". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
^ "Ректор МИИ выступил на Международной исламской конференции в Албании". islamobr.ru.
^ Madawi al-Rasheed, Carool Kersten, Marat Shterin (2012). Demystifying the Caliphate: Historical Memory and Contemporary Contexts. Oxford University Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 9780190257408.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Oliver Leaman (2015). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472569462.

External links

[5] According to Oliver Leaman, he criticized 'Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad, the author of a literary work on the prophet Muhammad, for praising him because of his "genius" ('abqariyya) rather than because he was a prophet sent by God. Sabri considered such modern readings of Islam as devaluing its divine origin and mission. But he accepted the general outlines of political modernism, especially in regards to such concepts as parliamentary democracy, the rule of law, freedom, and equality.

[1] "Mustafa Sabri Efendi". Oxford Reference.

[2] "Al-'Alam by al-Zirikli". al-maktaba.org.

[3] Oliver Leaman (2015). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472569462.

[4] Ahmet Şeyhun (2014). Islamist Thinkers in the Late Ottoman Empire and Early Turkish Republic. Brill Publishers. pp. 44–45. ISBN 9789004282407.

[6] Oliver Leaman (2015). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472569462.

[7] "MUSTAFA SABRİ EFENDİ". TDV İslâm Araştırmaları Merkezi.

[8] "The Critiques of Mustafa Sabri Efendi to the Fatwa of Mahmûd Şeltût about the Ascension and Descent of Prophet Isa [2014]". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

[9] "Ректор МИИ выступил на Международной исламской конференции в Албании". islamobr.ru.

[10] Madawi al-Rasheed, Carool Kersten, Marat Shterin (2012). Demystifying the Caliphate: Historical Memory and Contemporary Contexts. Oxford University Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 9780190257408.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[11] Oliver Leaman (2015). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472569462.

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v t e Sheikh-ul-Islams of the Ottoman Empire
15th Century	Molla Fenari Fahreddin-i Acemi Molla Hüsrev Molla Gürâni Molla Abdülkerim Efendi Alâeddin Arabî Efendi Efdalzade Hamîdüddin Efendi
16th Century	Zenbilli Ali Efendi Kemalpaşazade Ahmet Şemsettin Efendi (İbn-i Kemal) Sadullah Sadi Efendi Çivizade Muhiddin Mehmed Efendi Abdülkadir Hamidî Çelebi Fenarîzade Muhyiddin Çelebi Ebussuud Efendi Çivizade Damadı Hamid Efendi Kadızade Ahmed Şemseddin Efendi Malûlzade Mehmed Efendi Çivizade Hacı Mehmed Efendi Abdülkadir Şeyhî Efendi Bostanzade Mehmed Efendi Bayramzade Zekeriya Efendi Hoca Sâdeddin Efendi Cafer Mustafa Sunullah Efendi
17th Century	Hocazade Mehmed Efendi Ebülmeyamin Mustafa Efendi Hocazade Esad Efendi Zekeriyazade Yahya Efendi Ahizade Hüseyin Efendi Ebusaid Mehmed Efendi Muid Ahmet Efendi Hacı Abdürrahim Efendi Bahai Mehmet Efendi Karaçelebizade Abdülaziz Efendi Hüsamzade Abdurrahman Efendi Memikzade Mustafa Efendi Hocazade Mesud Efendi Hanefi Mehmet Efendi Balizade Mustafa Efendi Bolevi Mustafa Efendi Esiri Mehmet Efendi Sunizade Seyit Mehmet Emin Efendi Minkarizade Yahya Efendi Çatalcalı Ali Efendi Ankaravi Mehmet Emin Efendi Debbağzade Mehmet Efendi Feyzullah Efendi Ebusaitzade Feyzullah Feyzi Efendi Sadık Mehmet Efendi İmam Mehmet Efendi
18th Century	Paşmakçızade Ali Efendi Yekçeşm Hüseyin Efendi Sadık Mehmet Efendi Ebezade Abdullah Efendi Mehmed Ataullah Efendi İmam Mahmud Efendi Mirza Mustafa Efendi Menteşzade Abdürrahman Efendi Ebu İshak İsmail Efendi Yenişehirli Abdullah Efendi Mirzazade Şeyh Mehmed Efendi Paşmakçızade Abdullah Efendi Damatzade Ebulhayr Ahmet Efendi Ebuishakzade İshak Efendi Dürri Mehmed Efendi Feyzullahzade Mustafa Efendi Pirizade Mehmed Sahib Efendi Hayatizade Mehmet Emin Efendi Seyit Mehmet Zeynelabidin Efendi Ebuishakzade Mehmed Esad Efendi Mehmed Said Efendi Seyyid Murtaza Efendi Abdullah Vassaf Efendi Damatzade Feyzullah Efendi Dürrizade Mustafa Efendi Mehmed Salih Efendi Çelebizade İsmail Asım Efendi Veliyyüddin Efendi Ebubekirzade Ahmed Efendi Pirizade Osman Sahib Efendi Mirzazade Seyit Mehmet Sait Efendi Şerifzade Seyit Mehmet Şerif Efendi Dürrizade Mustafa Efendi İvazpaşazade İbrahim Bey Efendi Salihzade Mehmet Emin Efendi Vassafzade Mehmet Esat Efendi Mehmet Şerif Efendi Seyit İbrahim Efendi Dürrizade Seyit Mehmet Ataullah Efendi İvazpaşazade İbrahim Bey Efendi Arapzade Ahmet Ataullah Efendi Dürrizade Seyit Mehmet Arif Efendi Müftizade Ahmet Efendi Mekkî Mehmet Efendi Seyit Mehmet Kamil Efendi Hamitzade Mustafa Efendi Seyit Yahya Tevfik Efendi Mustafa Aşir Efendi
19th Century	Sâmânizade Ömer Hulusi Efendi Salihzade Ahmed Esad Efendi Şerifzade Ataullah Mehmed Efendi Arapzade Mehmed Arif Efendi Dürrizade Abdullah Efendi Mehmed Zeynelabidin Efendi Mekkizade Mustafa Asım Efendi Çerkes Halil Efendi Yasincizade Abdülvehhab Efendi Ahmed Reşid Efendi Kadızade Mehmed Tahir Efendi Ahmed Arif Hikmet Bey Efendi Meşrepzade Mehmed Arif Efendi Mehmed Sadeddin Efendi Atıfzade Hüsameddin Efendi Mehmed Refik Efendi Hasan Fehmi Efendi Ahmed Muhtar Molla Bey Efendi Turşucuzade Ahmed Muhtar Efendi Hasan Hayrullah Efendi Hasan Fehmi Efendi Hasan Hayrullah Efendi Kara Halil Efendi Uryanizade Ahmed Esad Efendi Bodrumlu Ömer Lütfi Efendi Mehmet Cemaleddin Efendi
20th Century	Mehmed Ziyâeddin Efendi Mehmed Sahib Efendi Çelebizade Hüseyin Hüsnü Efendi Musa Kazım Efendi Abdurrahman Nesib Efendi Mehmed Esad Efendi Ürgüplü Mustafa Hayri Efendi Ömer Hulusi Efendi Haydarizade İbrahim Efendi Mustafa Sabri Efendi Dürrizade Abdullah Beyefendi Medeni Mehmed Nuri Efendi

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