al-Barkawi

Muhammad ibn Pir Ali al-Barkawi (929–981 AH / 1523–1573 CE; born 926 AH according to another report) was an Ottoman Hanafi jurist, grammarian, hadith scholar, and preacher, widely known for his ethical and reformist treatise al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya ("The Muhammadan Way") Hadiyat al-Arifin Asma al…+1.

Lineage and Early Life

His full name was Muhammad ibn Pir Ali ibn Iskandar al-Rumi, and he was known by the honorifics Muhyi al-Din, Taqi al-Din, and Zayn al-Din Dhukhr al-Mutaahhilin wa …+1. He was called al-Barkawi (or al-Birkawi, al-Birkili, and al-Birgilu) after the town of Birgi, where he taught and spent his later years Dhukhr al-Mutaahhilin wa …+1. He was of Turkish origin and was born in the village of Bektashlar in Kepsut, in the district of Balikesir, on Friday, 10 Jumada al-Ula 929 AH (27 March 1523 CE) Dhukhr al-Mutaahhilin wa …+1. Another report dates his birth to 926 AH Hadiyat al-Arifin Asma al…+1.

He was raised in a scholarly household; his father, Pir Ali Efendi, was a teacher and keeper of a Sufi lodge (zawiya) Dhukhr al-Mutaahhilin wa …+1. He studied the foundational Islamic sciences and logic under his father and memorized the Quran, after which he was sent to Istanbul to complete his higher education at the imperial madrasas established by Sultan Mehmed II Dhukhr al-Mutaahhilin wa ….

Education and Career

In Istanbul, he studied under scholars such as Mawla Muhyi al-Din, known as Akhi Zadah, and served as an assistant (mulazim) to Mawla Abd al-Rahman, one of the chief military judges (qadi al-askar) during the reign of Sultan Suleiman al-Shaqaiq al-Numaniyya f…+1. He subsequently turned toward asceticism and entered the spiritual service of Shaykh Abd Allah al-Qaramani of the Bayrami order (al-Bayrami), who instructed him after a period of devotional seclusion to return to teaching the religious sciences, delivering admonitions, and enjoining good and forbidding wrong al-Shaqaiq al-Numaniyya f…+1.

A close relationship formed between him and Mawla Ata Allah, who constructed a madrasa in Birgi and appointed him as its head teacher with a daily stipend of sixty dirhams al-Shaqaiq al-Numaniyya f…+1. He alternated between instructing students in legal and linguistic disciplines and delivering public sermons, attracting visitors and students from distant regions al-Shaqaiq al-Numaniyya f…+1. Toward the end of his life, he traveled to Istanbul and met with the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasha, urging him to suppress official wrongdoing and eliminate injustices Mujam al-Matbuat al-Arabi….

Scholarly Standing

He was recognized across several disciplines, notably Hanafi jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, morphology, Quranic exegesis, hadith, and inheritance law al-Mawsua al-Fiqhiyya al-…+1. In his teaching and public life, he actively opposed innovations and unorthodox practices, authoring al-Tariqa al-Muhammadiyya to direct both commoners and scholars toward strict adherence to the Quran and the Sunnah in religious practice and daily transactions Dhukhr al-Mutaahhilin wa …+1. He also produced specialized legal manuals, such as Dhukhr al-Muta'ahhilin wa-l-Nisa' ("Treasure of the Married and Women"), which organized the Hanafi rulings on ritual purity and bleeding al-Mawsua al-Fiqhiyya al-…+1.

Later Hanafi authorities held his scholarship in high esteem; the nineteenth-century jurist Ibn Abidin described him as "the finest of the later scholars, the practicing, verifying, exacting, and accomplished imam" and as "the devout, scrupulous, and distinguished imam" Risalat Inqadh al-Halikin….

Death

He died in Jumada al-Ula 981 AH (September 1573 CE) at about fifty-two years of age after contracting the plague during a journey to Istanbul Dhukhr al-Mutaahhilin wa …. His body was carried back to Birgi and buried in the cemetery northeast of the town Dhukhr al-Mutaahhilin wa …. According to another biographical account, his death took place in Istanbul Mujam al-Mufassirin "min ….