Hadith Annotation of Republic Period: Example of Ömer Fevzi Mardin
Authors: Kalaç Rıdvan 
Published: December 2022

Commentary works are of great importance in the effort to understand and interpret the material of hadith and sunnah. Therefore, throughout history, many scholars used great efforts in terms of correct understanding and commenting of hadiths; and as a result, they concentrated on annotating activities, which have targeted to explain every expression in hadiths. These activities each region continued in the Republic period, too, as did in previous centuries; and some scholars became prominent. One of them is Ömer Fevzi Mardin. Ömer Fevzi, as a member of well-known deep-rooted family with the name of Mardin, and who was born in Mardin in 1878, is the son of Mardinizâde Seyyid Arif Pasha. His mother Zarife Khanım in the daughter of Bedirhan Pasha from Bedirhanoğuls family. And his grandfather, Seyyid Yusuf Sıdkî Mardin is one of the sheiks of Nakshibendî or Kadirî tariqat; he served as a qadi‘asker during the reign of II Abdulhamid. This family, which was known as Mardinîzades, have also been mentioned as ağazades (sons of aga) as a tribute to Ağa Çelebi. Ömer Fevzi, who grew up in such a family that was close to mysticism and denomination and acquainted with state affairs, initially had education in military schools being affected from his family and acted as a soldier for years. Ömer Fevzi, who participated in Arûsi Selâmi denomination in Libya during Tripoli war, became the sheikh and pir of this denomination during the Republic period. His closeness as a military origin person brought together itself that some high rank officers of the Republic period and directors joined this denomination. As is the case, Ömer Fevzi, who was criticized due to several views he adopted and some fatwas that he submitted, was exposed to several allegations and accusations like missionary. Ömer Fevzi, who was quite good at in the fields of military and mysticism, was interested in the sciences of hadith; and he wrote a work named as Hadith Sharifs Classified-Annotated According to Subjects. In this study, based on the work called Hadis-i Şerifler (Hadiths Sharifs), which is one of the examples of hadith commentary literature of the Republican period, the author's interpretation technique and commentary method was revealed; and hadith commentary of the period was investigated through this example. In the study, benefitting from documentation method the works of the author were found out, and the necessary hadith inferences were made while some of the narrations mentioned in the work, which are the subject of this study, were discussed. After the investigation, the following results were attained: In this work, the author, moving from several sources especially Sahih Bukhari, compiled nearly 1635 hadiths and annotated them. One of the important properties that attracts attention in the work is that the author did not make use of classical and contemporary hadith annotations. Therefore, the explanations given place in the work consist of the personal comments and assessments of the author. According to this, the hadiths are particularly commented considering the unity of the Qur’an and Sunna; and within these terms, several methods were followed. That some words that were present in the text of hadith and difficult to be understood were explained and that he tried to make the hadiths to be understood in terms of Holy Book by attributing Israeli sources, Torah, Bible or Zabur and that sebeb-i vurûd (the reason that a hadith was uttered) was pointed and that jurisprudential provisions were deducted from hadiths and that interpretations related to kalam, mysticism and wisdom were given place and that the views of scholars were referred and that sociological, psychological analyses were done are some of them. However, when the general structure of the work is examined, it is seen that mystical and philosophical interpretations are more dominant. This seems to have arisen from the fact that the author is of a religious sect and mysticism origin.