SHAYKH AL-ISLĀM. - One of the many Islamic appellations (alqāb) that appear around the middle of the 4th century A.H. (= 10th century A.D.) and that means, roughly, "prince of Islam." At first applied as a simple honorary title to 'ulamā' and to mystics of particular learning, it became increasingly specialized in the field of jurists and was attributed to those muftis whose fatwā enjoyed particular authority. In the Ottoman Empire S. al-I. was the title given to the mufti of Istanbul, who attained a politico-religious importance unknown in other Islamic states.
The importance of the S. al-I. was consolidated especially in the time of the sultans Selim I (d. 1520) and Suleiman I
(d. 1566) when the mufti of Istanbul obtained administrative supremacy over all the 'ulamā' of the Empire. Some Orientalists have attributed this hierarchical organization of the religious jurists with the S. al-I. at its head — which does not correspond to Islamic tradition, which knows no specialized "clergy" — to influences of the Christian episcopal organization present in the Ottoman Empire, under the orders of the ecumenical patriarch. In any case, it was the Sultan who had the power to appoint and dismiss the S. al-I. In the ceremonial he came immediately after the Grand Vizier and, in addition to the aforementioned title, he also bore other pompous honorary appellations such as, for example, "the most learned among the learned", "sea of the sciences", etc. He usually wore a white qaftān and a turban adorned with a golden band. Unlike the other high Ottoman officials, usually former Christians converted, the muftis and consequently the S. al-I. belonged to old Muslim families, and followed, before reaching the high office, regular courses of study in the madrasa (religious schools), passing through, before arriving at the supreme authority, all the grades of the religious magistracy. Gradually an entire organization of schools, academic degrees, canonical tribunals took shape, all under the orders of the S. al-I.
The task of the S. al-I. was above all to issue fatwā on questions of general public interest: there are cited, for example, the historic fatwā authorizing the war against Egypt (1516), the war against Venice (1570), the use of drinking coffee (shortly before considered illicit by fatwā of a previous S. al-I.), the establishment of printing presses (1727), etc. Although the S. al-I. were in general easily obedient to the wishes of their lords, the Sultans, there nevertheless did not lack courageous "non licet" such as the fatwā of Abā 's-Su'ūd (d. 1574) against the idea of forcibly converting all Christians and that of Es'ad Effendi against the massacres of Ottoman princes. The institution of the S. al-I., which in the last times of its existence had served as support for the most reactionary policy of the Ottoman sultans, was abolished in 1922 by the Turkish Republic. Islamic modernists showed themselves clearly opposed to the institution of the S. al-I., which they considered contrary to the principles of genuine islām. At present in the various Islamic States the functions of the S. al-I. are in part exercised by the mufti of the capital or, as in Egypt, by the S. of the Azhar, but without that hierarchical organization, typical of the Ottoman Empire. In the Pa-
SHAḩḩ al-ISLĀM - SHAKESPEARE WILLIAM
kistan (v.), for example, the chief of the muftis still habitually bears the title of S. al-I.
Bibliography3 works
Alessandro Bausani