The Transcription of Manastırlı İsmail Hakkı's Vesâilü'l-Felâh fî Mesâili'n-Nikâh and its comparison with the family law decree (Hukûk-ı aile kararnâmesi)

As a result of the legal modernization process that began during the Tanzīmāt period, the Mekteb-i Ḥukūk, established in 1878, adopted a modern educational approach distinct from the classical Ottoman madrasa system. In 1896, the course Kitābü'nNikāḥ was added to the curriculum of this institution. This course was taught by Süleymān Ṣırrı Efendi and later by Maḥmūd Esʿad Seydişehrî, who would subsequently serve on the commission responsible for preparing the 1917 Ḥukūk-ı ʿĀile Kararnāmesi. Although Manastırlı Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqı did not directly teach the marriage course at this institution, he served as a professor of fiqh and, around the time the marriage course was introduced into the curriculum, authored Wasāʾil al-Felāḥ fī Masāʾil an-Nikāḥ, the first family law treatise written in the style of the Majalla. The primary aim of this study is to contribute to the academic literature by providing a transcription of Manastırlı Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqı's significant work on the issues of marriage (nikāḥ) and divorce (ṭalāq). Another objective is to examine the extent to which the rulings adopted from outside the Ḥanafī school in the 1917 Ḥukūk-ı Âile Kararnâmesi, based on necessity and hardship were already present in earlier legal texts; and whether the need to incorporate rulings from other Islamic legal schools was discussed within the scholarly circles of that period. In this context, Manastırlı Ismāʿīl Ḥaqqı's Wasāʾil al-Felāḥ fī Masāʾil an-Nikāḥ is taken as the central source. To broaden the scope and strengthen the validity of the study, the relevant works of Maḥmūd Esʿad Seydişehrî and Süleymān Ṣırrı Efendi have also been included in a comparative analysis with the Ḥukūk-ı Âile Kararnâmesi. Furthermore, this study aims to determine the extent to which adherence to the Ḥanafī school was maintained in both scholarly writings and legal practices during the final period of the Ottoman Empire.