Hasan Fehmi Efendi

Hasan Fehmi Efendi (1210 AH/1795-96 – 1881) was an Ottoman scholar of the ilmiye (Ottoman hierarchy of religious scholars and judges) hierarchy who served twice as Shaykh al-Islam (şeyhülislâm), the highest religious office of the empire, under Sultan Abdülaziz. He was the third and last holder of the office to carry both the titles muallim-i sultânî (teacher of the sultan) and şeyhülislâm, and for this he received the epithet câmiu'r-riyâseteyn, "gatherer of the two leaderships", after Hoca Sâdeddin and Seyyid Feyzullah Efendi.¹ His two tenures together lasted 5 years, 2 months, and 10 days.² The Persian Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam and the ADEMDER register count him as the 110th Ottoman Shaykh al-Islam.^{3 • 2}

Life, education and ilmiye career

Hasan Fehmi was born in 1210 AH (1795-96) in Akşehir, in the Ilgın district of Konya province, the son of Ilgınlı Osman Efendi.^{1 • 4} He studied first in Akşehir, then in Konya, then in Istanbul, where he took lessons from Vidinli Mustafa Efendi and received an icazet, the license authorizing him to teach.^{1 • 4}

Climbing the ulema ladder. He proved his qualification in the ruûs examination, placed first, and became a dersiam and müderris (professor), beginning to teach at the Ayasofya Mosque.⁴ He was appointed müderris at the ibtidâ-i hâric rank in 1263 AH (1846-47) and rose through the hierarchy to the mûsıle-i Sahn rank.^{1 • 4} Between 1261 and 1271 AH (1845-1855) he took part in the Huzur Dersleri, the Ramadan Qur'an commentary sessions held before the sultan, as muhatap (interlocutor), and as mukarrir (reciter/expounder) from 1272 to 1279.⁴

His path to the meşihat ran through the palace. He became tutor to Şehzade Abdülaziz, and when Abdülaziz acceded to the throne he became the sultan's teacher; an irâde-i seniyye (sovereign decree) dated 29 Ramazan 1278 (30 March 1862) granted him the muallim-i sultânî title.¹ He joined Abdülaziz's 1863 journey to Egypt in that capacity, where he met the Azhar preacher Ibrâhîm es-Sekkā.¹ In Zilhicce 1279 (May-June 1863) he received the Mecca rank and, seven months later, the Istanbul rank, then served as Anadolu kazasker and finally Rumeli kazasker in 1284 (1867-68).^{4 • 5}

First tenure (1868-1871)

He was appointed Shaykh al-Islam on 7 Muharrem 1285 (30 April 1868), to the seat vacated when Hacı Mehmed Refik Efendi was chosen for membership of the Meclis-i Âlî.¹ The İstanbul Ansiklopedisi gives the appointment as 5 Muharrem 1285 (29 May 1868); the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi date is followed here.^{1 • 5} The appointment fell within the reign of Sultan Abdülaziz, and his first tenure coincided with the fifth grand vizierate of Âlî Paşa, his patron.¹

Resistance to restriction. The tenure coincided with westernizing reforms that continually restricted the office's powers in law and education, and Hasan Fehmi resisted them.^{1 • 6} His best-documented conflict concerned the Mecelle, the Ottoman civil code prepared under Ahmed Cevdet Paşa. His opposition was directed not at codification itself but at its preparation under the Sublime Porte (Bâb-ı Ali) rather than the Office of the Shaykh al-Islam (Bâb-ı Meşihat), on two grounds: the erosion of the office's authority, and the view that codification was a scholarly task unsuited to a bureaucratic office.^{6 • 1} He tried to keep the Mecelle project under the Shaykh al-Islam's supervision.³ After Cevdet Paşa's dismissal in late Muharrem 1287, the Mecelle society did return to the meşihat.³

The al-Afghānī affair. In 1870 the reformer Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī visited Istanbul and lectured at the Dârülfünun. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, when al-Afghānī remarked placing philosophy and prophethood among the arts (crafts), Hasan Fehmi declared him an unbeliever (tekfir) and stirred public opinion against him through preachers; the resulting disturbance led to the Dârülfünun's closure and al-Afghānī's departure to Cairo.¹ The Persian encyclopedia states that Hasan Fehmi obstructed the reopening of the Dârülfünun (which opened a second time on 19 Dhu'l-qa'da 1286) and that he reportedly had a role in the disturbance at the inaugural speech.³

His first tenure ended with his patron's death. Âlî Paşa died, and ten days later, on 2 Receb 1288 (17 September 1871), Hasan Fehmi was dismissed.¹

Second tenure and fall (1874-1876)

He was reappointed on 4 Cemâziyelâhir 1291 (19 July 1874) and served about one year and ten months, much of it under the grand vizierate of Mahmud Nedim Paşa.¹ About eight and a half months of the tenure fell under Mahmud Nedim, whose close association with Russia led the public to hold Hasan Fehmi partly responsible for the crisis of 1875-76.³

The student protests. On 10 May 1876, medrese students of the Fâtih, Beyazıt, and Süleymaniye medreses demonstrated before the Bâbıâli demanding the dismissal of the grand vizier and the Shaykh al-Islam. On 16 Rebîülâhir 1293 (11 May 1876) both were dismissed, the grounds against Hasan Fehmi including his inability to restrain his student followers and his loss of ulema support.¹ The TEİS database gives the departure date as 13 Rebiülahir 1293 (April-May 1876); the TDV date is followed here.^{4 • 1}

After Sultan Abdülaziz's deposition, Hasan Fehmi was sent to Medina in 1877 (BA, İrade-Dahiliye, nr. 63332), where he remained in worship and study until his death in 1881 (1298 AH by the TEİS reckoning). He is buried in Cennetü'l-bakī, the historic cemetery in Medina.^{1 • 4 • 3}

Works and religious outlook

He was learned in Arabic and Persian, with deep knowledge of fiqh (jurisprudence), kalām (theology), Arabic literature, and logic, and wrote in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian.^{1 • 6} His known works include:

• Risâletü'l-imtiḥân li'r-ruʾûs (Istanbul 1275/1858), written for ruûs examination candidates at the request of Meşrepzâde Mehmed Ârif Efendi.¹
• Ḥâşiye ʿalâ Şerḥi'l-ʿAḳāʾid, a gloss on Teftâzânî's Şerḥu'l-ʿAḳāʾid, of which a manuscript copy is held in the Süleymaniye Library (Yozgat collection, nr. 344, 117 folios).¹
• A Taʿlîḳa on Siyâlkûtî, and er-Risâle fî keyfiyyeti îmâni Firʿavn, which defends the view of Ibnü'l-Arabî on the faith of Pharaoh, a Hanafi theological question.¹
• An unfinished twelve-part work, an unpublished Şerḥ ʿalâ ṣalâti'l-feyżiyye, an Arabic divan, and a tahmîs (fivefold expansion) on a munâcât of Mevlânâ Celâleddîn-i Rûmî.¹

Some of his Arabic risâles were lithographed in Istanbul in mecmûatü'r-resâil (collected treatises) format in 1285 (1868) and 1292 (1875), together with works of his son Ali Haydar ez-Zühdî Efendi, who printed them.^{1 • 3} The Islamic Law Blog account gives the lithograph dates as 1869 and 1876; the discrepancy is unresolved.⁶

The office in his era

The Şeyhülislamlık, reorganized after the abolition of the Janissary corps in 1826 and systematized with the Tanzimat, functioned as a külliye (a comprehensive institution) administering duties later split among the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı), the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of National Education. Its units included the Fetvâhâne-i Âlî (the fetva office), the Anadolu and Rumeli Kazaskerliks, the Istanbul Kadılığı, the Mecelle-i Ahkâm-ı Adliye Cemiyeti (the Mecelle drafting society), the Cerîde-i İlmiye directorate, and the Meclis-i Mesâyih.⁷

As Shaykh al-Islam, Hasan Fehmi influenced the opening and closing of the Dârülfünun and the preparation of the Mecelle, and the fetvas he issued by virtue of the office reflect the political rivalries of his period.⁸ His career thus illustrates the office's shrinking authority in law and education relative to the Sublime Porte: the Mecelle was prepared under the Porte rather than the Office of the Shaykh al-Islam, and he opposed the Mecelle's preparation under the Porte rather than the Office of the Shaykh al-Islam, and al-Afghānī's Dârülfünun lectures.^{1 • 6}

References

1. HASAN FEHMİ EFENDİ, TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi
2. 110. Hasen Fehmi Efendi (1795-1881), ADEMDER
3. دانشنامه جهان اسلام، ج 1، ص 6182 (Encyclopaedia of the World of Islam)
4. HASAN FEHMÎ, Türkiye Edebiyatı İsmi Yâd Ediyorum (TEİS)
5. İstanbul Ansiklopedisi: Hasan Fehmi Efendi
6. Jāmi‘ al-Riyāsatayn Shaykh al-Islām Hasan Fahmi Efendi, Islamic Law Blog
7. Meşihat arşivi belgelerine göre Şeyhülislamlığın bürokratik yapısı (thesis)
8. Bir Osmanlı Hukuk Adamı: Ilgınlı Şeyhülislam Hasan Fehmi Efendi, TRDizin

Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Religion and spirituality › Religious biographies › Jewish, Islamic, and Dharmic religious leaders › Islamic religious leaders and scholars › Sunni imams and classical Islamic scholars › Pre-modern Sunni religious officials and court scholars › Ottoman şeyhülislams › 19th-century şeyhülislams

Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026

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