Ak Hisar ('White Castle', a place name and a nisba)

Ak Hisar, "White Castle", is the name of several places and gives the nisba of a number of authors. The best known is the castle in Bosnia, where scholars and judges of the Ottoman period worked.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), article signed K. Süssheim and J. Schacht, describes Ak Hisar as the nisba of several authors who came from one of the places of that name. In Bosnia, the fortress was called the "White Castle". There Muhammad b. Badr al-Din, known as al-Munshi al-Rumi, began his popular Qur'an commentary, Nazil al-tanzil, in 981/1574 and completed it in 999/1590, dedicating it to Sultan Murad III. Hasan Kafi was qadi in his native town for more than twenty years and took part in the Eger campaign of 1595; he wrote a treatise on good government and the Rawdat al-jinan on creed. ¹