Mullā Khusraw’s 'Kitāb al-Jihād' in Its Historical Context / Tarihî baglami Içerisinde Molla Hüsrev’in Kitâbü’l-Cihâdi

Melis, Nicola

2012-01-01

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Abstract

Learned jurists, in applying the norms of fiqh to a particular set of circumstances during their time, may interpret it in different ways. That was the case of the Ottoman law, which was not abstracted from the real world but constituted an essential part of it, thanks, inter alia, to the flexibility of the Islamic legal system, based on devices such as darura, maslaha, istihsan, 'urf etc. Legal fictions were upheld in order to conform to purely literal anaf theory. This means that to be acceptable to statesmen, Hanafi legal discourse on international and inter-communitarian relations based on peace and war, had to be set in the traditional Ottoman frame. To test the argument that the interpretation of the norms on jihad differ over time, I shall analyze the structure of the Kitab al-Jihad included in Durar al-hukkam fi Sharh Ghurar al-Ahkam. I shall also show as the meanings of jihad, as part of “a spiritual, intellectual and moral struggle” to establish personal and social equilibrium within the Islamic community, shifts in Mulla Khusraw’s wor