Şeyhülislâm Mustafa Sabri Efendi

Scholar and writer (b. 1809, Tokat - d. 12 March 1954, Egypt). He attended primary school in his hometown and took private lessons in Kayseri and İstanbul to obtain his diploma. He also worked as a professor at Fatih Mosque. He attended the “Courses on Peace of Mind” (1898-1914). He served as a librarian for Abdülhamid II and then he was elected as the parliamentary deputy for Tokat to the parliament established after the second declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy (1908). He supported the government of the Union and Progress Party in the beginning. In an article published in the first issue of the review Beyanu'l-Hakk (1908-12, 182 issues), the publication of the Association of Islamic Science, he praised the Association for Union and Progress and the army that brought Abdülhamid down. Later on, however, he joined the opposition ranks in the party and participated in the foundation of the Party of Freedom and Conciliation and the Association for the Union of Islam (1912). After the coup at the Sublime Porte, he fled abroad and lived in Egypt and Romania for some time. He returned home at the time of World War I.

He served as a member of the Islamic Knowledge House in 1918, as the vice-Grand Vizier when Damat Ferit went to the Paris Conference in 1919 and 1920, as a member of the Senate when the government resigned, as the chairman of the Association of Professors and as a member of the Council of the Sultanate, which was established by Sultan Vahideddin to negotiate the conditions of the Treaty of Sevr (1920). He resigned from his duty as Grand Mufti on suggestions to take precautions against the opposition of the National Forces (1920). In 1922, he fled abroad again and lived in Romania and Greece. He published the newspaper Yarın (70 issues; with the title Peyami Sabah, 5 issues, 1927-30) in Xanthi (Greece), in which he criticized the government of Ankara, with his son İbrahim Sabri who was on the “150’s list”. Later on he went on pilgrimage to Mecca and to Egypt. Although the amnesty for the “150’s” was declared (1938), he didn’t return home and died in Egypt. His articles were also published in newspapers such as Malûmat, Yeni Gazete, Tesisat, Almedar and İkdam.

WORKS:

Yeni İslâm Müctehidlerinin Kıymet-i İlmiyesi (The Scientific Value of New Interpretations of Islam, a critique to the book with the title Rahmet-i İlahiye Burhanları by Musa Carullah Bigiyef, 1919), Dinî Müceddidler Yahud Türkiye için Necat ve İ'tilâ Yollarında Bir Rehber (Religious Reformists or A Guide to the Path to Salvation and Progress, a reply to the work of Haşim Nahid, 1922; published with the title Dini Müceddidler-Reformcular - Religious Reformists, 1969), Meselet-ü Tercemeti'l-Kur'ân (The Problem of Interpreting the Koran, in Arabic, 1932, Cairo), Mevkıfu'l-Beşer Tahte Sultani'l-Kader (Mankind’s Position Under the Domination of Faith, in Arabic, 1933, Cairo; with the title İnsan ve Kader - Man and Fate, 1989), Mevkıfu'l-Akl (When the Mind Stops, in Arabic, 4 volumes, 1950, Cairo), El-Kavlu'l-Fasl Beynellezine Yu'minûne Bi'lGayb vellezine la Yu'minûn (The Word that Differentiates between the Believer and the Non-Believer in the Other World, in Arabic, Cairo), Kavl Fi'l-Mer'e (About Women, in Arabic, Cairo), En-Nekir Ala Münkiri Nimetin Mine'd-Din ve'l-Hilafe ve'l-Ümme (What the Deniers of Religion, Congregation and the Caliphate do not Know, in Arabic, Beirut), Meseleler Hakkında Cevaplar (Answers to Problems, some of his articles published in Beyanu'l-Hakk with his booklet on fasting in Ramadan, published by O. N. Gürsoy, 1976).

Besides his booklets, İslâm'da İmamet-i Kübra (Sublime Priesthood in Islam), Din ve Milliyet (Religion and Nationality) and Türk'ün Başına Gelen Şapka Meselesi (The Issue of the Hat that was Brought to the Heads of the Turkish) were serialized in the newspaper Yarın-Peyam-ı İslâm (Divine Revelations of Islam) but they were not published in a volume.

REFERENCE: Ebül'ulâ Mardin / Hu­zur Dersleri (Yay. İsmet Sungurbey, 1966), Abdülkadir Altunsu / Osmanlı Şey­hülislâmları (1972), Sadık Al bayrak / Son Devir Osmanlı Uleması (1981), Ahmet Akbulut / “Şeyhülislâm Mustafa Sabri ve Görüş­leri” (İslâmî Araştırmalar, VI/1, 1992), Ali Sankoyuncu / “Şeyhülislam Mustafa Sabri’nin Milli Mücadele ve Atatürk İnkılâplarına Karşı Tutum ve Davranışları” (Atatürk Araştır­ma Merkezi Dergisi, Sayı: 39, 1997), Sina Akşin / İstanbul Hükümetleri ve Milli Müca­dele (1998), Yusuf Şevki Yavuz / TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi (c. 31, s. 350-353), İhsan Işık / Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (2006, gen. 2. bas. 2007) - Ünlü Bilim Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 2, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013).