Abstract
Lutfi Pasha’s İlm-i hâl Called Tuhfetü’t-Talibin and Its Section of “Sebeb-i Telif”
With the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, ilm-i hâl genre, which have a widespread use in obtaining religious information on subjects such as faith, worship, daily life and morality, were systematically published in order to make this information reach to the public. Until the Tanzimat Period, Arabic, Persian and sometimes Turkish works were written to continue the tradition of ilm-i hâls without any fundamental comprehensive change. While the transition period of the ilm-i hâls systematization was ongoing in the Ottoman Empire, the ilm-i hâl called Tuhfetu't-Tâlibîn, dedicated to Suleiman the Magnificent and written by his vizier Ishkodrali Lutfi Pasha, stands out from the rest. Tuhfetu’t-Tâlibîn has an importance among the Turkish works of Lutfi Pasha, who was a devshirme of Albanian origin and known as the author of Âsafnâme and Tevârih-i Âli Osman. The sebeb-i telif part of the work, which is registered in The Suleymaniye Library, Fatih Section No. 1507, explains the reason why he wrote it in Turkish in two parts: Firstly due to the suitors who came to him and asked him to write a Turkish book on the knowledge of fiqh, and secondly, because of the Prophet's hadith, "Speak to people according to their understanding." Again in the sebeb-i telif part, he wrote “the Muftis gave their fatwas, the professors gave their lectures, preachers gave their sermons all in Turkish, and again the scholars expressed their Quranic commentary, the Hadith professors expressed their hadiths in Turkish'. Then he expressed that "It is appropriate for the people of every country to be dressed in the clothes of their own places." In the light of this information, our research will examine the reasons why Lutfi Pasha wrote his work in Turkish with the examples.
Keywords
İlm-i hâls, Lutfi Pasha, Tuhfetü't-Talibîn, sebeb-i telif.