Grand Mufti

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A Grand Mufti (also called Chief Mufti, State Mufti and Supreme Mufti) is a title for the leading Islamic jurist of a country or grand muftiate, typically Sunni, who may oversee other muftis. Not all countries with large Sunni Muslim populations have Grand Muftis; in those that do, the Grand Mufti is typically appointed by the state or elected by a council of scholars. The office originated in the early modern era in the Ottoman Empire and has been later adopted in a number of countries that were never part of the Ottoman Empire. Muftis are Islamic jurists qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion (fatwa) on a point of Islamic law (sharia). In the 15th century, muftis of the Ottoman Empire, who had acted as independent scholars in earlier times, began to be integrated into a hierarchical bureaucracy of religious institutions and scholars. By the end of the 16th century, the government-appointed mufti of Istanbul came to be recognized under the title Shaykh al-Islam (Turkish: şeyhülislam)...

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