| Summary: | During the Ottoman period, the tafsir (interpretation) lessons held in the presence of the Sultan in every year during Ramadan were called as "lessons in presence." The lessons, which began in 1172/1759, continued until the end of the Ottoman Empire. The lessons in presence were attended by the Sultan, the shaykh al-islam, the mukarrir (teacher) who would present the lecture, the interlocutors in the position of negotiators and other persons who were in the status of listeners. The mukarrir and interlocutors were chosen by the shaykh al-islam and appointed by the Sultan himself. The verses to be interpreted in the course were notified to mukarrir and the interlocutors two months ago for giving them time to get prepared for the lesson. The duration of each lesson was about two hours, and at the end of the lesson, starting from the high-ranking interlocutor, questions were directed to the mukarrir, and discussions were also held afterwards. After mukarrir made an exegesis of the verse, he would answer the questions and objections posed to him. The lessons in presence were the highest and most prestigious scientific councils in which a scholar could participate. Participating in this assembly also required being one of the Istanbul dersiâms (certified teachers). In the historical process, scholars from Anatolian cities attended these courses, as well as scholars from different regions of the Ottoman geography such as Ahiska, Dagestan and Bosnia. Some of these scholars were also from Crimea.
It is known that the Ottoman ulema were influential in Crimea and the Crimean ulema in the Ottoman geography from the time when Crimea was annexed to the Ottoman Empire. As a matter of fact, the Crimean scholars served in high-level positions such as professorship, mufti, judge, and cadilesker in important centers of the Ottoman Empire such as Istanbul, Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Damascus and Egypt. This situation also continued in the same way after the Russian invasion of Crimea. In this study, some names such as Abdülhalim Efendi (d. 1210/1795), Muhammed (Emin) Efendi (d. 1243/1827), Abdullah Efendi (d. 1242/1827), Abdülhayy Efendi (d. 1339/1920), Ahmed Efendi (d. 1205/1791), Ali Şücâî Efendi (d. 1341/1922), Hasan Rüşdü Efendi (d. 1311/1894), Selim Efendi (d. 1260/1844) and Şerafeddin Şerif Efendi (d. 1331/1913), who attended to the lessons in presence, will be discussed and in this context, a brief information will be given about their life stories, the years they attended lessons in presence, their positions in the assembly and their scientific rank, and then, the work of the lesson in presence that Crimean Muhammed Emin Efendi gave will be analyzed and transcribed.
The only source regarding the content of the lessons in presence is the texts of teaching and negotiations. However, few of these texts survived to the present day, especially those with old dates. One of them belongs to Muhammed Efendi of Crimea. This 13-leaf work is kept at the Turkish Manuscripts in the Section of Istanbul University Library at number 7297 as a manuscript, and its language is Turkish. This work, in which the verses 139-142 of Surah Âl- Imrân discussed in the 3rd assembly of lessons in presence in the year 1238 and were interpreted during the reign of Sultan Mahmud III, gives some ideas about the content of the lessons in presence and the method of interpretation of the verses. Just like Baydâvî's Anvâru't-Tanzîl and Fahruddîn al-Râzî's Mefâtîh which are used as the main sources, in the work the method of interpretation of the narration is used, which only the text of the negotiation is included, but it is seen that the method of discernment is also emphasized. In this context, the verses are interpreted through verses, hadiths, and the views of early scholars, as well as extensive linguistic analyses, theological discussions, the effect of readings on meaning and similar issues were mainly discussed. As far as it is understood, this method, which is also frequently used in the tafsir (interpretation) texts of classical period, was also adopted and applied by the mukarrirs of lessons in presence.
According to our findings in this study, ten scholars from Crimea, two of whom were mukarrirs and eight of whom were interlocutors, attended the lessons in presence, which were a very high-level scientific activities. This data have been obtained from the available records. Information on the total number of people attending classes and the number of assemblies should be approached with caution, since no records of some years have survived. These numbers are likely to change as new documents become available.
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