Bir Mirasın Gölgesinde Velâ Tartışması: Müzellef Ahmed Efendi’nin Terekesi ve Ganîzâde Mehmed Nâdirî’nin Şeyhülislâma Mektubu

Abstract

This article is about the right of patronage (walā) over a manumitted person, which is one of the most controversial issues among the Ottoman scholars from second half of the 9th/15th century to the midst of 11th/17th century. Although this right that gives to ex-master and his/her relatives a right of inheritance from the manumitted per- son is generally accepted by Muslim legal scholars, if both of parents of the manumitted are originally slaves, but the patronage of whom their mother is originally freeborn, was a topic of debate among the scholars. Muzallef Ahmed Efendi, the mudarris of Taşlık Medresesi in Edirne died leaving a great amount of estate behind him. Since he had no heir, the officer of the bureau of inheritance seized all the estate for the public treasury. But Ganizāde Mehmed Nādirî, the ex-chief judge (qādī al-askar) of Rumeli, demanded the estate, relying on his patronage rights over him. However, embracing the opposite opinion, the Sheikh al-Islām Yahyā Efendi issued a fatwā refusing this right of patronage. Then, Ganizāde wrote a letter to him to criticize his fatwā severely. Here, I have prepared critical editions of the letter and court register of the estate. These documents shed light on the structure and nature of Ottoman legal theory and practice. I also explain the background of the debate on the issue correlating between these two separate texts and accommodating the data given in some historical sources.