The super-commentaries on talwih in the XV th. century Ottoman thought: Debates on taklif

Tawdhīh is one of the most influential texts in the post-classical period of the Hanafī tradition of legal theory. Its author Sadr al-Sharīa works through the issues of taklīf and criticizes arguments put forward by the post-classical representatives of theologian tradition. Later, Taftāzānī deals with Sadr al-Sharīa's arguments in his Talwīh, and criticizes many of them. In the 15th century Ottoman scholarly circle, Tawdhīh has been read through the comments and criticisms of Taftāzānī, who is considered a scholarly authority figure in this period. Ottoman scholars compose quite a few super commentaries on Talwīh, thereby find a common ground to get in contact with as well as to discuss the scholarly heritage. One of the hotly debated topics in these super commentaries is the issues of legal obligation (taklīf). This dissertation aims to reveal the debates on the issues of taklīf that took place in the super commentaries of Talwīh written in the 15th century Ottoman scholarly circle and attempts to contextualize them historically as well as intellectually. This study shows that the discussions within the super commentaries were based on arguments (adilla) rather than opinions of school (akwāl) and the Ottoman scholar found a common ground in super commentaries to get involved in dialogue with Taftāzānī and his scholarly legacy. To achieve this, they developed three methodological tools namely criticism, interpretation and paraphrasing/compilation. In this dialogue, the authors seem to attempt to prove their scholarly competence. Lastly, though usually characterized by argument evaluation, super commentaries shed light on the intellectual tendencies of the authors as well.