Ömer Nasuhi Bilmen and his Dictionary 'Istılâhât-ı Fıkhiyye'
Ömer Nasuhi Bilmen is a Turkish scholar who lived in the late Ottoman period and the founding years of the Republic. He personally witnessed the developments in the country as well as the changes in the legal field. Despite closely following up with the modern developments in the field of law, he also remained completely loyal to the classical tradition in which he was raised. He published in almost all areas of the Islamic sciences; his reputation, however, largely derives from his two works on fiqh entitled Büyük Islâm Ilmihâli and Hukûk-i Islâmiyye ve Istilâhât-i Fikhiyye Kâmûsu. Hukûk-i Islâmiyye ve Istilâhât-i Fikhiyye Kâmûsu was written according to the classical fiqh tradition. Although the Hanafi doctrine is the dominant view in Kâmûs, the Maliki, Shafi'i, Hanbali and Zahiri doctrines of fiqh are also covered. As the first and most voluminous Turkish book of fiqh, Bilmen's magnum opus, Kâmûs has become a reference book in Turkey in terms of Islamic law, comparative law and the history of law.
TALİP TÜRCAN
