A critical edition of Yusuf Efendi Zade's work entitled "Miraciye" within the context of the Miraciye tradition

This research focuses on the critical edition and comprehensive analysis of the Arabic work entitled Miraciye, authored by Yusuf Efendi Zâde Abdullah Hilmi (d. 1167/1754), a professor at the Sârây-i Hümâyûn (Imperial Palace) and one of the prolific and esteemed figures of the Ottoman scholarly tradition. Centering on the miracle of Isra and Mi'raj, this work holds an exceptional place within the Mi'rajiyya tradition, as it reflects the scholarly, cultural, and political mentality of the period in which it was written. The primary objective of this study is to introduce this surviving manuscript—which, to the best of our knowledge, exists in a single copy—to the academic world in accordance with modern critical edition methodologies. Furthermore, it aims to demonstrate how the author synthesized the disciplines of tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), hadith (prophetic traditions), kalam (Islamic theology), and tasawwuf (Sufism) within the context of a single text. To this end, document analysis, a qualitative research method, was employed in this research; the study is based on the 19-folio copy of the work preserved in the Millet Library's Ali Emîrî Efendi collection (registered under number 222). The thesis consists of three main chapters. The first chapter provides a detailed examination of Yusuf Efendi Zâde's life, scholarly persona, his prominent attributes—such as introducing the Egyptian transmission (Mısır Tariki) in the science of qira'at (Qur'anic recitation) to the Ottoman Empire—along with his teachers, students, and his numerous works. In the second chapter, a physical description of the manuscript utilized for the critical edition is presented. Additionally, the author's elevated, ornate, and rhymed prose (saj'), as well as his polyphonic style rooted in the tradition of commentary (sharh) and marginalia (hashiya), are analyzed. Finally, in the third chapter, the critically edited Arabic text of the work is presented for the benefit of researchers, in strict adherence to modern principles of critical edition.