Abstract:

Ali Haydar Efendi, a scholar from the last period of the Ottoman Empire, was one of the most prominent jurists of his time. He worked as a judge and taught the Ottoman Code of Civil Law (Majallat al-Ahkam al-Adliyyah) and land law in higher education institutions. His work Durar alhukkâm is one of the most important caveats written for the Ottoman Code of Civil Law, (Majalla). He was involved in the legislation movement as a fatwa official and prepared several draft laws, most notably (Kitab al-Nafakat) during these studies. Ali Haydar Efendi defended that the legislation movement should be based on the islamic law and criticised quotation of the western law. He claims that the fundamental problem of Ottoman Empire was the disconnection from the islamic law. This is because, laws based on religious (sharia) sources are always more equitable, in comparison to the quoted laws.

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