Description

The original Arabic text, of what was to become the most important law text of the Ottoman Empire, titled Multaqā al-Abḥur (ملتقى الأبحر / Confluence of the Seas) was written by a late 15^th and 16^th century Hanafi scholar Ibrahim al-Halabi (إبراهيم الحلبي). It was translated an annotated by Mehmet Efendi (died 1065 AH / ca 1648 AD), who gained his nickname Mevkufati for his work on the field of the law (wakf).

The text discusses various fields of the law, Islamic law and also delas with issues such as alcohol consume and hermaphrodites.

The text, usually known as Multaqā (or Mülteka Tercümesi in Turkish), written in 923 AH or 1519 AD, soon gained an immense popularity under sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-1566), who was called by the Ottomans Suleiman Kanuni or “The Lawgiver”.

The text, which “presents Islamic law in its final, fully developed form“ (Joseph Schacht, An Introduction to Islamic law, 1964, p. 112) became one of the most influential legislative texts of the Ottoman Empire. In 1876, James Lewis Farlex observed in his work Turks and Christians: “The Sultan rules over the Turks, but the Koran and the Multeka rule over Sultan”.

The book includes the following chapters: ritual purity, ritual prayer, alms tax, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca, marriage, fosterage, repudiation, manumission of slaves, oaths, the fixed punishments, theft, the conduct of war, foundlings, found property, runaway slaves, missing persons, partnership, religious endowments, sales, exchange, suretyship, transfer of debts, administration of law, testimony, procuration, claims, acknowledgements, amicable settlements, sleeping partnerships, deposits, loans, gifts, hire and lease, slaves who have concluded a contract of manumission, relationship of client and patron, duress, interdiction, slaves who have been given permission to trade, usurpation, pre-emption, division, lease of a field, lease of a plantation, ritual slaughter, sacrifice, reprehensibility, cultivating of waste land, unlawful drinks, hunting, pawning, crimes against persons, blood money, bequests, hermaphrodites and inheritance.

This is the first printed edition. The second edition was printed two years later, in 1256 (1840/41 AD), and the original Arabic version was printed by the same press in Bulaq in 1263 AH ( 1846/47 AD) (see: Hsu Cheng Hsiang, The First Years of Arabic Printing in Egypt 1238-1269. 1822-1851. The Checklist; no. 281).

The test is still published today under the title Mavkufat. Mülteka Tercümesi and is considered the basis of the Islamic law.

Worldcat lists one institutional example (Boğaziçi University Library).

Bulaq Press

The Bulaq Press, the first Muslim official and governmental printing press established in Egypt, was founded in 1820 by the viceroy of Egypt Muhammad Ali (1769-1849) and is still active today.

Already in 1815, the first delegation was sent from Cairo to Milan to learn the printing techniques. After the construction of the press was finished in the autumn of 1820, it took another two years to transport the machines and school the employees. The first book, an Arabic-Italian dictionary, was published in 1822. In the next decades the Bulaq Press became the leading publishing house for the Arab world.

References: OCLC 949546528. Hsu Cheng Hsiang, The First Years of Arabic Printing in Egypt 1238-1269. 1822-1851. The Checklist; no. 259 – Edn1.)