Kara Halil Efendi
Kara Halil Efendi (1804-1880) was an Ottoman şeyhülislam (chief Islamic jurist) born in Mecitözü. According to the TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi entry by Mehmet İpşirli (Turkey’s standard reference encyclopedia of Islamic studies), his father’s name was Mustafa; after studying for a time in Amasya, he went to Konya, where he attended the same medrese as Hasan Fehmi Efendi, who would later also become şeyhülislam.
Education and Career
After obtaining his diploma (icazet) in Konya, Kara Halil Efendi travelled with Hasan Fehmi Efendi to Istanbul, where he attended the lessons of Vidinli Hoca Mustafa Efendi and Dersiâm Abdurrahman Efendi; he received his own icazet in 1834 and passed the ruûs examination the following year to enter the scholarly (ilmiye) class. In 1839 he began teaching at the Sırrîzâde Mosque, later working as a scribe (müsevvid) in the fatwa office. Between 1861 and 1871 he moved through a series of judicial and scholarly ranks — deputy chief judge of Istanbul, chief scribe of the fatwa office, provincial judgeship (mahreç mevleviyeti), military inheritance judgeship, and the judgeships of Yenişehir and Edirne, followed by the ranks of Haremeyn and Istanbul. At the end of 1868 he was appointed inspector of the Evkāf-ı Hümâyun (imperial pious foundations). He left this post in 1870 to go on the hajj pilgrimage; on his return he was appointed to the Meclis-i Tetkîkāt-ı Şer’iyye and to the committee compiling the Mecelle-i Ahkâm-ı Adliyye (the Ottoman civil code), and in 1871 was appointed fetva emini (deputy to the şeyhülislam) for a second time, a post he held for seven years until he himself became şeyhülislam.
Şeyhülislam and the Mecelle
In 1873 Kara Halil Efendi received the rank of Anatolian kazasker (chief military judge), and in 1877 he became a member of the newly formed Meclis-i Âyân (Senate). On 26 July 1877 (15 Receb 1294) he was appointed şeyhülislam by Abdülhamid II; he was dismissed roughly nine months later, on 4 December 1878. The dismissal is generally attributed to Abdülhamid II’s distrust of him after he drafted, as fetva emini, the fatwa deposing Sultan Abdülaziz; according to Cevdet Paşa’s Ma’rûzât, he prepared this fatwa at the request of Midhat Paşa. He also worked closely with Cevdet Paşa for a long period as a member of the committee compiling the Mecelle, and his seal, under the title fetva emini, appears on books 7-11 and 13-16 of the code, and without title on book 12.
A Note on the Official Record
The official list published by the Çorum Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism states that Kara Halil Efendi became “a senator in the Ottoman parliament in ‘877.’” Compared with the TDV entry, this appears to be a shortened or garbled rendering of 1877, the year he both joined the Meclis-i Âyân and was appointed şeyhülislam.
Death
Kara Halil Efendi died on 30 December 1880 (27 Muharrem 1298) while still a member of the Senate, and was buried in the cemetery of the Fatih Mosque.