Mustafa Sabri مصطفى صبرى | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 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 |
| Died | 1954 (aged 84–85) |
| Nationality | Ottoman Empire |
| Era | 19th and 20th centuries |
| Main interest(s) | Aqidah,Kalam (Islamic theology),Tawhid,Fiqh (Islamicjurisprudence),Usul al-Fiqh,Usul al-Din,logic |
| Notable work(s) | Mawqif al-'Aql wa al-'Ilm wa al-'Alim min Rabb al-'Alamin ("The Position of Reason, Knowledge, and the Scholar in Regards to the Lord of the Worlds") |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Hanafi |
| Creed | Maturidi |
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Rise(1299–1453) |
Classical Age(1453–1566)
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Transformation(1566–1703)
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Decline and Modernization(1789–1908)
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Dissolution(1908–1922)
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Mustafa Sabri (Ottoman Turkish:مصطفى صبرى افندی; 1869 – 1954) was an Ottoman theologian anduniversity professor who was the penulitimateShaykh al-Islām of theOttoman Empire.[1] He is known for his opinions condemning theTurkish nationalist movement underMustafa Kemal Atatürk.[2] Due to his resistance to Atatürk, he lived half of his life inexile in various countries, and died inEgypt.
His father was Ahmed Efendi. He was born inTokat in 1869. He began his education in his hometown and quickly memorized theQuran. He pursued his education inKayseri andIstanbul, 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) atFatih Mosque inConstantinople.
From 1898 until 1914, he attended Huzur lessons (lectures and discussions given by theUlema in the presence of the Sultan). Between 1900 and 1904, he was the librarian (hafiz-i kutub) of SultanAbdul Hamid II (r. 1876–1909).
After the re-establishment of the Constitution in July 1908, he enteredParliament 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 theFreedom and Accord Party in 1911. In 1912, he participated in the foundation of another political organization, the Cemiyet-i İttihad-ı İslamiye (Islamic Union Association).
In January 1913, after theBab-i Ali coup, he fled toEgypt and then went toRomania, where he made his living teachingTurkish. After the occupation of Romania by Ottoman troops during theFirst World War, he was arrested and sent to Turkey, where he was imprisoned inBilecik. He was exiled for a time toBursa. After the end of the war, he again enteredpolitics and joined Dar-ul-Hikmet-i İslamiye (Islamic University).
He became theShaykh al-Islām, but he resigned from this post. In 1919, he was appointed as Shaykh al-Islām in the cabinet ofDamad Ferid Pasha. Sabri served as the actingGrand Vizier during the absence of Damad Ferid Pasha while he was attending theParis 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 İslam Cemiyeti (Society for the Elevation of Islam).
In 1920, Mustafa Sabri was again appointed as Shaykh al-Islām to the second cabinet ofDamad Ferid Pasha.
In 1922, he fledTurkey once more to escape arrest by theTurkish National Movement when his name appeared on alist of 150 political dissidents. He went to Romania for a second time where he published the journal Yarın (Tomorrow).
Sabri first went toRomania and then toGreece, 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 toHejaz, 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]
As a conservative scholar, he produced a number of works. In his writings, he opposed both Westernsecularism andIslamic modernism, which is affected byWesternization. He proposed a program ofIslamization before and after the fall of theOttoman Empire. He remained within the context of the traditionalAsh'arite-Maturidite theology and Ottomanmadrasa system. InEgypt, he wrote several books inArabic in response to such modernist thinkers asMuhammad Farid Wajdi and'Abbas Mahmud al-'Aqqad[Note 1] as well asJamal al-Din al-Afghani,Muhammad 'Abduh, andMuhammad Mustafa al-Maraghi.[5]
He also criticized the views of some Egyptian intellectuals such as:Qasim Amin,Zaki Mubarak,Zaki Naguib Mahmoud,Mohammed 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 historianMuhammad 'Abdullah 'Inan against theOttoman Turks and refuted his theses. He insisted thatIslam 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 wasMahmud Shaltut, who took office in various levels and rose to prominence with his reformist thoughts. He objected thefatwa of Shaltut who used the thesis that there is no open expression inQuran and inHadith that support the ascension and descent ofJesus 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 criticizedMusa Bigiev's thought and called him the "Luther of Islam".[8] He also criticized some poets likeJamil Sidqi al-Zahawi andAhmad Shawqi.
After theabolition of the Sultanate and the position ofShaykh al-Islām in 1922, he published hisAl-Nakir 'ala Munkiri al-Ni'ma minal-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 thecaliphate 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 theKemalists and their evolving vision for post-Ottoman Turkey.
Sabri presents the Kemalists as decadents, Turkishchauvinists who colluded with the British against Islam and the caliphate, andKemal 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 theMas'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 modernTurkish rather than in their original form inArabic.
His four-volume magnum opusMawqif 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-centuryIslamic modernism.[10]
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