News

On Tuesday, November 9, 2021, Dr. Katharina Ivanyi (University of Vienna) spoke about her new book, Virtue, Piety and the Law: A Study of Birgivī Meḥmed Efendī’s (d. 981/1573) al-Ṭarīqa al-muḥammadiyya (Brill, 2020). Ivanyi examined a major work of pietist exhortation and advice composed by the sixteenth-century Ottoman jurist, Ḥadīth scholar, and grammarian, who articulates a style of religiosity that had considerable reformist appeal into modern times. Her talk outlined how Birgivī played a significant role in the negotiation and articulation of early modern Ottoman Ḥanafī piety by linking he cultivation of individual virtue to questions of wider political, social, and economic concern. Professor Yavuz Aykan (Université Paris- Panthéon-Sorbonne) served as discussant. The event was moderated by PIL Research Fellow, Dr. Hedayat Heikal.