ibn Kemal
{{Short description|Ottoman historian, jurist and poet (1469–1534)}}
{{Infobox religious biography
| religion = Islam
| era = 15th-century
| name = Ibn Kemal
| image = File:Kemalpashazade.jpg
| caption = 16th-century miniature of Ibn Kemal
| honorific-prefix = Shaykh al-Islam
al-Mu'allim al-Awwal (The First Teacher){{cite book|last=Atâullah|first=Nev‘îzâde|title=Hadâiku'l-hakāik fî tekmileti'ş-Şekāik|publisher=Abdülkadir Özcan|pages=185}}
| birth_date = 1468
| birth_place = Edirne, Rumelia, Ottoman Empire
| birth_name = Şemseddin Ahmed
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1534|04|14|1468}}
| death_place = Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
| occupation = Islamic scholar, Historian
| denomination = Sunni
| jurisprudence = Hanafi
| creed = Maturidi{{cite book|last=Ibn|first=Kemal|title=Resail|date=1304|publisher=İkdam Matbaası|pages=231–233}}
| ethnicity =
| region =
| main_interests = Aqidah, Tafsir, Tasawwuf, Hadith, Fiqh, Usul, Ma'aani, Mantiq, Falsafa, Ottoman history
| notable_ideas =
| works = Tevarih-i Al-i Osman ("The Chronicles of the House of Osman")
| influences =
| influenced =
}}
Şemseddin Ahmed (1469–1534), better known by his pen name Ibn Kemal (also Ibn Kemal Pasha) or Kemalpaşazâde ("son of Kemal Pasha"), was an Ottoman historian,Kemalpashazade, Franz Babinger, E. J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, Vol.4, ed. M. Th. Houtsma, (Brill, 1993), 851. Shaykh al-Islām, jurist and poet.The Reigns of Bayezid II and Selim I 1481–1520, V.J. Parry, A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730, ed. M.A. Cook, (Cambridge University Press, 1976), 78.
He was born into a distinguished military family in Edirne and as a young man he served in the army and later studied at various madrasas and became the Kadı of Edirne in 1515.History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Stanford J. Shaw, page 145, 1976 He had Iranian roots on his mother's side.{{cite book |last1=Inan |first1=Murat Umut |editor1-last=Green |editor1-first=Nile |title=The Persianate World: The Frontiers of a Eurasian Lingua Franca |date=2019 |publisher=University of California Press |page=83 |chapter=Imperial Ambitions, Mystical Aspirations: Persian Learning in the Ottoman World |quote=A preeminent scholar and madrasa professor, Kemalpaşazade was born into a distinguished family with Iranian roots on his mother's side.}} He became a highly respected scholar and was commissioned by the Ottoman ruler Bayezid II to write an Ottoman history (Tevārīh-i Āl-i Osmān, "The Chronicles of the House of Osman"). During the reign of Selim the Resolute, in 1516, he was appointed as military judge of Anatolia and accompanied the Ottoman army to Egypt. During the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent he was appointed as the Shaykh al-Islām, i.e. supreme head of the ulama, a post which he held until his death.
Kemalpaşazâde was a crucially important figure in the codification of the Hanafi school of thought in its Ottoman iteration.
Burak, Guy. The Second Formation of Islamic Law: The Hanafi School in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire. Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. doi:10.1017/CBO9781316106341.
Works
He "authored around 200 works in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic. His works include commentaries on the Qur'an, treatises on hadith, Islamic law, philosophy and theology (kalam), logic, Sufism, ethics, history, several books on Arabic and Persian grammar, literature, and a small diwan of poetry."İbrahim Kalın, "Ibn Kemal (873–940 / 1468–1534)" in Oliver Leaman (ed.), "The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy", Bloomsbury Publishing (2015), p. 198
His most famous history work is the Tevārīh-i Āl-i Osmān "The Chronicles of the House of Osman", a history of the Ottoman Empire which provides the most original and important source material now extant on the reigns during which he himself lived.
Although best known as a historian, Kemalpaşazâde was also a great scholar and a talented poet. He wrote numerous scholarly commentaries on the Quran, treatises on jurisprudence and Muslim theology and philosophy, and during his stay in Egypt he translated the works of the Egyptian historian ibn Taghribirdi from Arabic. He also wrote in Arabic, a philological work entitled Daqāʿiq al-Haqāʿiq "The Subtleties of Verities". His best poetical works include the Nigaristan "The Picture Gallery", written in Persian and modeled upon the Būstān and the Golestān of Saadi Shirazi; a poem, "Yusuf ü Züleyha", in rhymed couplets, retelling the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife; and Divān "Collected Poems", consisting mainly of lyrics.Christine Woodhead, 'Kemalpaşazade', in Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. by Kate Fleet and others, 3rd Edition (Leiden: Brill, 2007–); {{doi|10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_35404}}
In philosophy and theology, he was a Maturidi theologian-philosopher who followed some opinions of ibn Arabi and anticipated some theories of Mulla Sadra.İbrahim Kalın, "Ibn Kemal (873–940 / 1468–1534)" in Oliver Leaman (ed.), "The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy", Bloomsbury Publishing (2015), p. 199 Kemalpaşazâde also wrote a famous history of the Hanafi school of fiqh entitled Risāla fī Ṭabaqāt al-Mujtahidīn "The Treatise regarding Biographies of Jurists".Burak, The Second Formation of Islamic Law, 72.
Fatwas against the Safavids
As the Ottoman mufti for Sultan Selim I, he wrote fatwas against the Safavid dynasty during the rise of shah Ismail I. He wrote in his "Risale fî İkfâri Şah İsma‘îl" the reasons for his takfir of Shah Ismail I and his followers, his reasons including:{{cite journal |last1=Bulut |first1=Halil İbrahim |title=Osmanlı-Safevî Mücadelesinde Ulemanın Rolü Kemal Paşazâde Örneği |journal=Dini Araştırmalar |date=1 June 2005 |volume=7 |issue=21 |pages=179–196 |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/da/issue/4458/61458 |language=tr |issn=1301-966X}}
- He and his followers curse the first three rightly-guided caliphs
- They claim that following the law of the Islamic scholars is difficult, and following the new law of Shah Ismail I is easy
- They revile the four mujtahid Sunni imams
- They claim that what the Shah made lawful is lawful and what he made unlawful is unlawful. (For example) they say that wine is lawful because the Shah made it lawful.
He concluded that "In short, it has been narrated to us through tawatur that they are infidels. In this case, we never doubt their unbelief and apostasy." He declared their lands "darul harb", the abode of war, that marriage to them is invalid, their slaughter is impure, and wearing their style of red headgear (they were known for wearing a red cap) is forbidden without necessity.{{cite web |title=Osmanlı’nın Şia ile Mücâdelesinde İbn-i Kemâl (Kemâlpaşazâde)’in Rolü |url=https://darulislam.com.tr/osmanli-sia-mucadelesinde-ibn-kemal-kemalpasazade/ |website=Dâru'l-İslâm |access-date=17 April 2025 |language=tr |date=15 February 2017}}
Notes
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Bibliography
- [http://www.osmanli700.gen.tr/english/individuals/i1.html Online]
- [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/314585/Kemalpasazade Encyclopædia Britannica]
{{Ottoman historians|state=all}}
{{Maturidi}}
{{Hanafi scholars}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kemal, Ibn}}
Category:15th-century Muslim theologians
Category:16th-century Persian-language writers
Category:Arabic-language writers from the Ottoman Empire
Category:Sheikh-ul-Islams of the Ottoman Empire
Category:Turkish Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Category:16th-century historians from the Ottoman Empire
Category:15th-century historians from the Ottoman Empire
Category:Supporters of Ibn Arabi
Category:16th-century Muslim theologians