Abstract

Ahmed Mâhir, who was born in Kastamonu in 1860-70, is one of the last period Ottoman scholars and is known by the penname "Ballıkızâde". He lived in the 19th century, during the Constitutional Monarchy period when the West progressed in many directions and the Ottoman Empire began to lose land alongside its reforms. After taking lessons from the scholar Ahmed Hicâbî, he also gave lectures and educated many students, and taught tafsir and theology for thirteen years at Daru'l-Fünûn Faculty of Theology and Medresetü'l-Vâizîn. In addition to this, the scholar, who has served as a member of the Supreme Court, a judge, and a deputy, also appears as a political personality. Mâhir, who has four published works, is one of the important personalities that Kastamonu raised in religious, political, and literary fields. In this study, the Constitutional Era and the position of the science of tafsir in this period are discussed. Secondly, after transferring information about Ahmed Mâhir's life, his exegesis method on the works of "Mu'cizât-ı Kur'âniyye" and "al-Fâtiha fî Tefsîri'l-Fâtiha" was examined. The qualitative research method and document analysis technique wasused for this study. In addition, the data were analyzed with the help of description, sampling and association techniques. The fact that Ahmed Mâhir has both a political and religious personality and that we have four works about him today makes it important to research him. In this context, the study aims to reveal Ahmed Mâhir's exegesis based on his works. A doctoral thesis on him, in which his mystical aspect was emphasized, and an article by the same person, again, two master's theses were made about the work he wrote in the field of Sufism. Some sources provide concise information about his life and works, and brief information given in some biographical or literature studies. But his works named "Mu'cizât-ı Kur'âniyye" and "al-Fâtiha fî Tefsîri'l-Fâtiha" have not been studied academically. This situation made this study important. In addition, the existence of various interpretations on whether the author's interpretation of Surah Fâtiha is original or not has caused us to consider this issue as a problem. As a result of our analysis, Ahmed Mâhir has conveyed the negative political or religious situations of his period, especially in his work "Mu'cizât-ı Kur'âniyye". Based on the idea that the Qur'an is perfect and contains everything, he used the verses to correct these situations. His work "el-Fâtiha fî Tefsîri'l-Fâtiha" shows us both the traces of the Ottoman tafsir accumulation of that period and that this scholar has a scientific tradition on tafsir, hadith, and literature.