Ahmet Cevdet Pasha and His Contributions into The Islamic Law (The case of Risaletu'l-vefa)

The basic purpose of this study is to analyze Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, his contributions into the Islamic Law and his work at the Risâletü'l-vefâ, who was one of the unique personalities in his period, was educated in the late Ottoman period and conducted studies in many areas such as history, law and literature and was among the legalists of the codification period. It is an undeniable fact that Ahmet Cevdet Pasha was the pioneering figure of the codification studies undertaken after the Tanzimat reform period in the Ottoman Empire. In a period when the opinions regarding translating and adopting the French Laws were in full blast, Ahmet Cevdet Pasha stood against those who defended those opinions and argued that "this (adopting the French Law) would mean the complete invasion, surrendering and destruction of a nation through the law," and he was able to convince them otherwise after harsh struggles that he got involved with them and caused making the decision for preparation of the Mecelle (Ottoman Code of Civil Law), which is the codification of the Islamic Law. However, the matter was not over by codifying the Islamic Law, in the process of preparing the Mecelle, Ahmet Cevdet Pasha had to continuously deal with the trickeries and plots of those who were against codification of the Islamic Law in and out. Ahmet Cevdet Pasha finally managed to get the Mecelle-i Ahkâm-ı Adliyye prepared, which is the Turkish (Ottoman) Islamic Civil Law. Keywords: Islamic Law, Cevdet Pasha, Codification, Risâletü'l-vefâ