104 chapter 3
1.1 Dede Cöngi Efendi and the Legitimization of Kanun
It is interesting that a justification of the right of the ruler to intervene in
Islamic law precepts was sought and found in the work of Ibn Taymiyya (1263–
1328), a strong opponent of Sufism and of “innovations” who (in the words of
E. I. J. Rosenthal) advocated “a reform of the administration in the spirit of
the ideal Sharia” and argued that “the welfare of a country depends on obedi-
ence to God and his Prophet, on condition that there is a properly constituted
authority which ‘commands the good and forbids the evil’ ”.14 Ibn Taymiyya’s
work became increasingly popular throughout the sixteenth century; the
translation by Aşık Çelebi (d. 1572), a prolific translator (among other activi-
ties) of Arab political treatises such as those of al-Ghazali and of Husayn Vaiz
Kashifi (Davvani’s Timurid continuator), was widely read.15 Ibn Taymiyya’s
ideas seem closer to those expounded by Mehmed Birgivi, the great opponent
of Ebussu’ud and the precursor of the Kadızadeli movement in the seven-
teenth century, since he is generally seen as the forefather of Islamic funda-
mentalism. There were, however, points in his work that facilitated an Islamic
justification of the Ottoman synthesis. Although he stressed the need for the
ruler to follow the Sharia strictly as being the ultimate reason and object of his
power, Ibn Taymiyya allowed him discretion over crimes and punishments not
prescribed by the by it, such as bribery and abuses in administration; the same
was valid for revenue sources provided the consensus of the ulema was not for
prohibiting them.16 In this respect, it is not surprising that, when translating
Ibn Taymiyya, Aşık Çelebi added a section on the Ottoman landholding and
taxation principles as set out by Ebussu’ud Efendi,17
the imam and şeyhülislam of both ulema and commoners of our time, the
consummation of jurisconsults and the upholder of the pious old virtues.An interesting example of the affinity between the two jurists is the confisca-
tion of the properties of Christian monasteries in 1568 on the pretext that they
were not proper and legitimate vakfs, about a hundred years after the Mamluk
authorities had done the same in Egypt following a similar fetva by Ibn
Taymiyya. Furthermore, Ebussu’ud’s assertion that monks should not pay the
14 On Ibn Taymiyya’s work see Rosenthal 1958, 51–61; Lambton 1981, 143–151; Fakhry 2000,
101–104; Black 2011, 158–163.
15 See Yılmaz 2005, 55–56, and more particularly Terzioğlu 2007.
16 Black 2011, 161ff.
17 Terzioğlu 2007, 260 (and cf. ibid., 262 for another reference to Ebussu’ud).