Jiwi-zade, mufti of the Sultanic seat

Mawla Muhyi al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ilyas, known as Jiwi-zade al-Hanafi. In al-Kawakib it is said: he was the best of the judges of the Ottoman state, the most chaste of them, and the most upright in conduct. He rose through the madrasas in the manner of the Rumi clients. ².

He held the judgeship of Damascus and entered it on the fifteenth of Safar 977 AH. At the end of that year he was removed from its judgeship and was given the judgeship of Egypt, and then became judge with the army, and at the end of his career he became mufti at the sultan's court. His conduct in his judgeship was so admirable that it became proverbial. Before his appointment, the fee for a deed in Damascus was fourteen pieces, and he reduced it to ten; the fee for a portrait was eight pieces, and he reduced it to six. He accepted no gift from anyone during his judgeship. When he left Damascus, he ordered a herald to announce in the Umayyad Mosque on Friday that the chief judge had been removed from Damascus, and that whoever had given him anything, or had had anything taken from him by any of his staff, or been wronged by anyone, should bring his complaint so that what had been seized from him could be returned. The people raised their voices in weeping and in prayer for him. ¹.

He read the first books of the six collections with the elder shaykh and obtained his licence, and he took pride in having read with him and in his licence. He was extremely forbearing, except in matters of religion and the interests of Muslims, where he was firm and angry for God's sake, and he was energetic in opposing the political authorities. He died while he was mufti of the sultan's court on the night of Thursday, the sixth of Jumada al-Akhira 995 AH. ³.