Hasan Kafi Pruščak
Hasan Kafi Pruščak

Summary/Abstract: In the last few years of the 16th century and in early 17th century, Hasan Kāfī b. Tūrhān b. Dāwūd b. Ya‘qūb az-Zībī al-Āqhīsārī al-Bosnawī was the most prominent person in the scientific and literary life of Bosnian Muslims. He acquired this reputation through fruitful and versatile literary and scientific activity. This was contributed by his school and his endowment (waqf) in Akhisar (Prusac, Central Bosnia). Kāfī’s work Usūl al-hikam fi nizām al ‘ālam, which deals with the issues of state and social order, attracted the French Orientalist Garcin de Tassy (Garcin de Tassy, Principes de sagesse touchant l’art de gouverner, par Rizwan-ben abd ‘oul Ac-hisari, Journal Asiatiqe IV, 1824, pp. 213-226, 283-290) who made him accessible to western researchers. Since then, until today, though to a limited extent, Kāfī has been in the focus of interest of both eastern and western researchers. In this paper, the author tried to collect sources and literature on Hasan Kāfī and thus enrich his biography. Hasan Kāfī was born in Prusac in late November or early December 1544 (Ramandan 951 h.). He started using the name Kāfī (mahlas) in 988/1580.Following primary and secondary education, he departed for Istanbul in 1566 for further education, and he stayed there until 983/1575. He then returned home and worked as a teacher, in addition to writing. His first writing was a short philological discussion on the sense and use of the word čelebi (Risāla fī tahqīq lafz Čalabī), then a short paper on logic. The qadi of Sarajevo, Bali effendi, employed him to assist in researching the teaching of Bosnian Hamzawis, in order to combat them. After the death of Bali effendi, (1582/999) he returned to Prusac and lectured there, and in 1583/991 he was appointed qadi. At the same time, he wrote a comment on his earlier writing on logic. In order to be reappointed as qadi, in 1585/994 he wrote a paper on civil proceedings, which was to serve as his habilitation. It is also known that in 996/1588 he wrote his Hadīqat as-salāt, and he spent some time in Istanbul again. He was later appointed qadi in Sirmium, where he served and also lectured, and where he wrote his Introduction to Islamic Law – Samt al-wusūl ilā ‘ilm al-usūl. He went to Mecca to perform his hajj in 1591-2/1000.

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