Latinisation of Zileli Muharrem Efendi's work titled 'Umdat al-nisā, edition critique and evaluation

Biologically, women experience special states such as menstruation and postpartum, which are different from men. These special states of women necessitated women need for special rulings and fatwas on the jurisprudential aspects of worship. Seeing this need, Zileli Muharrem Efendi wrote a work in Turkish, in a simple, understandable and popular dialect in order to answer the questions of 16th century Ottoman women about these special states that they were ashamed to ask and to inform them about these issues. This work, 'Umdat al-nisā, was chosen as the subject of this thesis because it is the first Ottoman catechism written in Ottoman Turkish, it has the feature of answering the questions of today women also about their special situations, and it is available in manuscript form. In this article, information about the author of this work, which is found as a manuscript in libraries, is given, its copies are read, examined and evaluated. The author of the work, Zileli Muharrem Efendi, was an Ottoman Sufi and jurist who lived in Zile in the 16th century. He wrote many works in different fields in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Zileli Muharrem Efendi's work consists of four chapters, six section, and a khatima (conclusion). He dealt with menstruation, postpartum, istihadah, rights between husband and wife, and medicines for childless and miscarried women. Although he gives the rulings mainly according to the Hanafi sect, from time to time, he also deals with the different views within the sect and the different sects. He also referred to classical Hanafi sources when giving his views. Key Words: Fıqh, Catechism, Women Catechism, Muharrem Efendi, 'Umdat al-nisā