He was born in 1878, in Elmalı district of Antalya province, then in the Ottoman Empire, and now in Turkey. He is nicknamed after his birthplace: Elmalılı. Elmalılı means "from Elmalı" or "born in Elmalı" in Turkish. His father, Hoca Numan Efendi, who is also a scholar of Islam, was from the Yazır village of Gölhisar district of Burdur province, then in the Ottoman Empire, and now in Turkey. He is from Yazir sub-branch of Oghuz brunch of Turkish nation. Hoca Numan Efendi, the father of Muhammed Hamdi, went to the Elmalı district of Antalya for education when he was a child and settled there. Hoca Numan Efendi worked as a head clerk of lawsuit of the district. Yazır's mother Fatma Hanım was the daughter of Esad Efendi, who was a scholar of Islam living in Elmalı.
Education
After completing primary and secondary education in Elmalı, to study Islamic sciences, in 1885, Yazır went to İstanbul which was the capital city of the Ottoman Empire at the time. He completed his university education in Bayezid Madrasah. Then he completed his education in Mekteb-i Nuvvab and became a Qadi. He also received Islamic calligraphy courses from Sami Efendi and Bakkal Arif Efendi. He learned Arabic, Persian, and French during his education. He was as fluent in French as in Arabic. He translated some French books to Turkish, one of them being Gabriel Seailles's Histoire de la philosophie.
Career
Muhammed Hamdi Yazır became a Qadi after completing his education in Mekteb-i Nuvvab. He worked as a full-time academic in Bayezid Madrasah from 1905 to 1908. Then, he got in the service of Sheikh ul-Islam of the time and started lecturing in Mekteb-i Mülkiye, Medreset-ul-Vaizin and Süleymaniye Madrasah. He gave "judgement of estates in mortmain" courses in Mekteb-i Mülkiye, logic courses in Süleymaniye Madrasah and fiqh in Medreset-ul-Vaizin. He also served in the Darü'l-Hikmeti'l-İslâmiye. After a while, he became the president of the council.
Political life
When he was working in service of Sheikh ul-Islam, Committee of Union and Progress prepared a coup against the Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Yazir wrote the symbolic fatwa for the termination of the reign of Abdul Hamid II. He became a member of the senate of the Ottoman Parliament for Antalya. He strongly opposed Committee of Union and Progress which held a nationalist and militarist position. Moreover, he served as Foundations Minister in the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI's Damat Ferid PashaCabinet. When the republic was founded, he was giving logic courses in Medrese-t-ül Mütehassisin. When Mustafa Kemal's government abolished the madrasas, he withdrew into solitude. He studied for 20 years in solitude. He died of cardiac deficiency on 27 May 1942 in Erenköy district of Istanbul. He is buried in Sahrayı Cedit Mezarlığı in Kadıköy in İstanbul. i Kur'an Dili. A Qur'anic exegesis and translation in Turkish ordered by Mustafa Kemal.
Works
Muhammed Hamdi Yazır worked on logic, philosophy, Islamic jurisprudence, and Islamic theology. In his philosophical works, he opposed the prevailing Western opinion that the human mind on its own is enough for reaching the absolute truth. He held the position that faith and mind together are capable of comprehending truth. In that case, his thinking is very similar to the 11th centuryPersian scholar al-Ghazali. He worked on Qur'anic exegesis in Maturidi context. He also worked on a dictionary of law. Additionally he translated western papers into Turkish.
