Özet:

One of the organisations that the Ottoman Empire formed in Cyprus was the Mufti organisation in order to distribute justice for islanders. In case of conflicts, the mission of these muftis was to publish a fatwa in order to help solving those conflicts. However, it is also known that, they had some problems with administrators of the island because of the fatwas they published. They were also naturally assisting Muslim judge (kadi-naip), the head of Sharia court (Şer’i Mahkeme), because they belonged to ilmiye class. Kadi, used to get help from muftis in terms of publishing a fatwa and grounding their decisions in accordance with those fatwa. The muftis that were serving their duty in Cyprus were from the island and it is obvious that different members of some families have continued the same duty respectively after each other. According to documents, it is known that mufti had the chance to continue doing their own jobs at the same time with their mufti duty. This condition increased the attraction of the mufti position. Sometimes, this situation created problems between changing old and new mufti, just like other officials and created contention between them. Apart from these, they have also participated in positions like proxy and tutelar because they were accepted as trusted persons. Also we learned to the documents muftis are engaged in trade and farming besides their official jobs. As a result, muftis who served under Ottoman rule in Cyprus, has been one of the most important of the authorities referred to the various disputes.

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