n.
Islamic legal authority charged with issuing an opinion (fatwa) in answer to an inquiry by a judge or a private individual.
Such a judgment requires extensive knowledge of the Qur 0101; n and the Had 012B; th as well as of legal precedents. During the Ottoman Empire the mufti of Istanbul was Islam's chief legal authority, presiding over the whole judicial and theological hierarchy. The development of modern legal codes in Islamic countries has significantly reduced the authority of mufti, and they now deal only with questions of personal status such as inheritance, marriage, and divorce.