The Textual Evolution of the Ottoman "Şeyhülislams' Fetvas": A Cross-Corpora Computational Analysis
In this article, we use a mix of computational techniques to identify textual shifts in the Ottoman şeyhülislams' fetva s between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. Our analysis, supplemented by a close reading of these texts, indicates that the fetva s underwent multiple forms of transform...
| Published in: | Der Islam |
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| Authors: | ; |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2021
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| In: |
Der Islam
Year: 2021, Volume: 98, Issue: 2, Pages: 516-545 |
| Further subjects: | B
distant reading
B şeyhülislam B Textual B Fetva B computational |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this article, we use a mix of computational techniques to identify textual shifts in the Ottoman şeyhülislams' fetva s between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. Our analysis, supplemented by a close reading of these texts, indicates that the fetva s underwent multiple forms of transformation, a consequence of the institutional evolution of the şeyhülislam's fetva office (fetvahane) that aimed to speed up and streamline the production of the fetvas: over time, the texts appropriated a more uniform character and came to contain shorter responses. In the compositions of the questions, we identified many "trigger terms" that facilitated reflexive responses independent of the fetvas'jurisprudential contexts, a tendency that became stronger after the second half of the seventeenth century. In addition, we propose in the article a methodology that measures the relative strengths of textual and conceptual links among the fetva corpora of various Ottoman şeyhülislams. This analysis informs us about possible paths of long-term evolution of this genre of jurisprudential documents. |
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| ISSN: | 1613-0928 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Der Islam
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/islam-2021-0031 |